Maintaing Shape Data

[ub3rFrank]

I'm running Visio Professional 2007 and have a somewhat extensive diagram of
works System. On this Diagram we've linked data from an Access database to
the shapes. Now my work would like to create a stencil or save the shapes in
such a way that when they were placed on a different diagram they would still
be linked to the database. Is there anyway to do this? So far the stencils
I've created from the shapes on the current diagram save the data fields and
the data the was currently in them, but they are no longer linked to the
original database so that if I updated the DB and refreshed a new diagram
with the saved shapes on it they will not be updated along with it. How can I
fix this without having to explicitly reunite the shapes with the DB?

 

[Al Edlund]

AFAIK the mechanics of the operation are a shape is linked to a specific
index of a specific recordset within the document, and the recordset then
links to the database. Shapes don't link directly to the extenal data. The
short answer is you must link shapes when dropped on the page, this can be
either manually or via code. One scenario might be to add custom code to the
stencil to handle it.
al

 

[ub3rFrank]

Thanks Al, that helps to verify alot. Could you possibly point me in the
direction perhaps on how to go about the coding option. Is there a specific
language and can it be done in Visio itself?

 

[Al Edlund]

Visio was one of the first products to include native visual basic for
applications (VBA). The visio sdk has examples in support of vb that can be
used to get you started.
al