Developing with Visio where to start

[Paul K]

Hi all,

I am wanting to do some coding with Visio, reading shapes from a page, read
their attributes, modify attributes, etc. I have experience with doing VB
scripts in excel but I would prefer to not do this with Visio (too many
frustrations with VB). I am hoping that I can possibly do this with C# and
the Visual Studio Express Edition of C#. But I am not sure where to begin.
Anyone have a good way for me to understand how to learn about how to access
the libraries and documentation for Visio outside of VB. Or am I stuck with
VB. I would like to be able to develop the diagrams in Visio and run code to
analyze and process the diagrams.

 

[John]

Hello Paul,

Take a look at John Marshalls MVPS site:
http://visio.mvps.org/Information_Sites.htm

also Chris Roth's reading list + blogs: http://www.visguy.com/visio-links/

and the basic start is "Developing Microsoft Visio Solutions" (also online
at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa245244(office.10).aspx)

plus, of course the SDKs (2007 version -
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...b8-5ef7-4e6e-a582-c8d6b5ee4e33&displaylang=en)

Best regards

John

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

Good post. The only change would be to put DVS first and add these
newsgroups as second.

One other thing, you should embellish your sigline so that I do not get
credit for your excellent posts.

John... Visio MVP

 

[Paul K]

How easy/hard will it be to use C# to modify and read Visio Objects? Is
there a library I can add in Visual Studio to read a Visio file and read data
in objects?

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

It should be relatively easy. VSTO (Visual Studio Tools for Office) is being
extended so that it will handle Visio.

There are also examples of using VB or C# in the Visio SDK.

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://visio.mvps.org/3rdparty.htm
Need VBA examples? http://visio.mvps.org/VBA.htm
Visio Wishlist http://visio.mvps.org/wish_list.htm

 

[Paul K]

So I would have to purchase Visual Studio Tools for Office. I am guessing
that there is no way to extend the functionality of office with one of the
express editions.

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

No, you can just use the SDK. VSTO is supposed to make it easier and I
believe it is free.

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://visio.mvps.org/3rdparty.htm
Need VBA examples? http://visio.mvps.org/VBA.htm
Visio Wishlist http://visio.mvps.org/wish_list.htm

 

[John]

Thanks John. I'll craft a new signature asap.

Best regards

John

 

[David Parker]

And you didn't mention my book!

 

[John Marshall, MVP]

You wrote a book? ;-)

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://visio.mvps.org/3rdparty.htm
Need VBA examples? http://visio.mvps.org/VBA.htm
Visio Wishlist http://visio.mvps.org/wish_list.htm