Visio 2003 Developer's Survival Pack Tools and Samples

Chapter 23: Exe Solutions (VS.NET C#)
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Files

Filename Description Installation
ch23_Exes.sln Main Solution file which contains the one project CSReflectArgs  
CSReflectArgs.exe Simple Exe displays arguments passed to it by Visio, and also shows how to write to the drawing page. Place CSReflectArgs.exe in a directory where Visio will look for Addons:

Visio 2002 and before: in a subdirectory of the Solutions in the Visio installation directory.
Visio 2003: Same as V2002, or below My Documents\My Shapes.

Coordinate with Tools > Options > Advanced > File Paths > Addons

CSReflectArgs.vdx Sample document to demo calling the CSReflectArgs Addon.  
Remaining CSReflectArgs.* C# project to build CSReflectArgs.exe  

Operation

Suggestions on how to operate are found on the drawing..

Code Notes

The main tricks on this sample are:

Concept Note
Include Visio namespace In the Project Explorer, add a Reference to the COM library :
    "Microsoft Visio 11.0 Type Library".
For ease of use, add:
    using Visio = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Visio;
Command line arguments Modify the signature of the Main procedure to accept an array of strings (see the Args[] argument). 

You will likely want to save these for later use by the rest of the app.  In this sample I show hw to write these strings to a variable in the Form (actually into one of the form's controls) and also in a static variable. (Note that Main is a static procedure.)

Connecting to running Visio instance. using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
[..]
VisApp = (Visio.Application) Marshal.GetActiveObject("visio.application");
   

 


Article Created: 2003-09-01  Last edit: Last edit: 03-10-15 Graham Wideman
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