The Visio XML file format describes Visio-specific entities in an XML way.
It's not a description of the *meaning* of the diagram.
It would be possible to write transforms of a network XML file to a Visio
XML file, but this transform would still need to write a Visio File at the
end of the day. That means shapes, vectors, positions, connectors. Not
simply instructions to put such and such a router on the page and connect it
to a pc.
Luckily, you can get the xml for the shapes, just by saving a stencil full
of shapes as a .vsx file. That makes one part easy.
Writing custom properties to theses shapes is just a matter of adding
appropriate XML tags to the shapes.
The layout is the tricky part....especially doing it in XML. You'd basically
have to logically build the wholed document "in-memory", so to speak, and
figure out where the shapes should be placed.
Usually, we use automation. We read any sort of file - .csv, xml, etc. and
interpret it via code. We then tell Visio to drop appropriate shapes on the
page, and connect them to other shapes. Often, we can use Visio's built-in
Layout feature to arrange the shapes automatically.
You are probably better off investigating the manipulation of Visio via
code.
If this is something you have budget for, I can suggest a number of partners
who do this sort of thing. You can contact me: greenlakechris - at -
hotmail.
--
Hope this helps,
Chris Roth
Visio MVP
