Shape to XML and Back

[Russ McKenna]

Is there a way to take a shape and convert it to XML, save this text in a
cell on the document page. Delete the shape, then be able to recreate the
shape from the saved XML data in the cell?

 

[Mai-lan [MS]]

Hi, Russ: If you are trying to preserve the geometry as well as shape properties (like text) for your shape in XML, I would use the Visio XML file format which is specifically targeted at full fidelity rendering of Visio objects through XML.

If you are interested in just saving custom information about the shape (like text or any other customer-defined information) in XML, I would recommend looking at SolutionXML. You can set SolutionXML on a shape or document level in Visio using the ShapeSheet or the Visio object model. This is really useful for saving specific information about your diagram (such as shape properties) into the Visio XML file format so that you can easily find it and use it for some other application

The Visio Developer Reference has information about SolutionXML and code samples will be provided in the forthcoming Visio 2003 SDK.

Thanks
Mai-la

 

[RC]

Hi Mai,

Does this mean that i can take a custom shape (in XML format) and re-create
it on a drawing which exists on a completely different machine which doesn't
have any of the master information?

Thx

Hi, Russ: If you are trying to preserve the geometry as well as shape

properties (like text) for your shape in XML, I would use the Visio XML file
format which is specifically targeted at full fidelity rendering of Visio
objects through XML.

If you are interested in just saving custom information about the shape

(like text or any other customer-defined information) in XML, I would
recommend looking at SolutionXML. You can set SolutionXML on a shape or
document level in Visio using the ShapeSheet or the Visio object model. This
is really useful for saving specific information about your diagram (such as
shape properties) into the Visio XML file format so that you can easily find
it and use it for some other application.

The Visio Developer Reference has information about SolutionXML and code

samples will be provided in the forthcoming Visio 2003 SDK.