Visio 2002 Developer's Survival Pack Additional Notes

	Visio 2002^® Developer's Survival Pack Additional Notes
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Additional Notes, Errata etc Organized by Table of Contents

Please also see below this table for additional general notes.

Part/Chapter/Page	Notes, Errata etc
Part 1: Overview Of The Visio Development Environment 17
Chapter 1: Introduction 19 Programmable Diagramming: Enter Visio 20 The Development Challenges 20 Who This Book Is For 21 What This Book Covers 22 What This Book Does Not Cover 22 Caveat: This Book Is Probably Wrong! 22 Companion Website for Tools, Samples, Updates 23 Visio Version Information 23 Acknowledgements 23
Chapter 2: Overview of Visio Territory 25 The User's View 25 The Developer's View 26 Generic Solution Structure 26 At the Heart 26 Automation 26 Added Functionality 27 Connections To Data 29 Example Scenarios 30 First Look At Visio Structure 30 "Model + View + Controller" Structure 32 Document Types and Roles 33 Where The ShapeSheet Environment Fits In 33 ShapeSheet Heavily Used In Automation Too 34 The Automation Environment 34 Visio Model vs. Solution Model 35 From Here 36	p32: Fig 2-3 "features of interest"
Chapter 3: A Plan For Coping 37 Planning Your Course Of Study 37 Preparation 39 Developing Visio Solutions Book ("DVS") 39 Multiple Monitors 39 Get Comfortable With VBA 39 Visio 2002 Developer's Survival Pack Browser Tools 40 Events Browser 40 UIObjects Browser 40 CommandBars Browser 40 Inheritance Browser 40 XML Browser 40 Bulk VS?-to-XML Converter 40 Visio.bin Browser 40 Download and Installation 41 Visio 2002 Developer's Survival Pack Utilities 41 VB-to-VSL Adapter Component 41 Registration Tools 41 Other References and Support 41 Books 41 Newsgroups 41 Websites 41 More Visio Tools 42 Preliminary Visio and VBA Skillset 42 Preliminary User-level Visio Activities 42 Some ShapeSheet Activities 43 Preliminary Developer-Level Activities 43 From Here 44
Part 2: Visio Structural Breakdowns 45
Chapter 4: Visio Object Model 47 Expanded Object Model 47 Objects with Cells 49 Collections Versus Individual Objects 49 User Interface Objects Shown Abbreviated 49 Layer Objects 49 Relationship To DVS and Poster Object Models 49 Browsable Object-Property-Method Tables 49 Tools for Object Model Browsing 50 Visimation Xpose 50 VBA Object Browser 51 VBA Locals Window 51 XML Browser 52 Additional Tools 52 From Here 52
Chapter 5: ShapeSheet Structure and Functions Introduction 53 Orientation 53 Complete Automation Understanding Must Include Cells ! 53 ShapeSheet-Environment Covers "Content" Branch of Object Model 54 ShapeSheet Organized as Sections, Rows and Columns 54 ShapeSheet Section-Row-Cell Reference Tables 56 ShapeSheet Orientation Continued 56 "All ShapeSheets Behave the Same" 56 How the ShapeSheet Applies to Diagram Shapes 56 Objects Which Contain Cells Via Dummy Shapes 57 Objects Which Contain Cells Directly 57 ShapeSheet Sections and Rows 58 Varying Section-Row Structures 58 Sections and Rows vs. Objects 60 ShapeSheet Formulas and Functions 60 From Here 62
Part 3: Visio Functional Areas In Depth 63
Chapter 6: Visio Files: Drawings, Stencils, Templates 65 Top Concepts 65 Organizing Our Overview 66 Use XML Browser 67 File Relationships 67 Drawing File Point-of-View 67 Drawing File With Stencil 68 Template file 69 Summary of Roles of Document Components 71 Silly Visio File Tricks 71 File Architecture Implications 71 Developing Masters and Styles 72 Where To Put VBA Code? 72 From Here 72	p70: Resources such as Styles [...] In other situations you may decide that a template should define particular styles.
Chapter 7: Shapes 73 Comfort First 73 Shapes and Masters 73 "Hello World" via Automation and VBA 74 Single Shape Type, Distinguishing Attributes 74 Shape Features Overview 74 Identity and Name 76 Some Subtleties 78 Coordinate Space and Alignment Box 78 Coordinate Space 79 One-Dimensional Shapes (Connectors) 80 Alignment Box 80 Selectively Enabling/Disabling Various Geometry-Controlling Features 82 Geometry and Geometry Attributes 82 Geometry Row Types. 82 Geometry Attributes 83 Geometry-Related Formatting 83 Adjusting Feature Positions: Controls 83 Text 84 Text Position 84 Text Appearance 84 Useful Text Idioms 85 Fields: ShapeSheet Values to Text 86 Text To ShapeSheet: SHAPETEXT( ) 86 Text To ShapeSheet Value: EVALTEXT() 86 Setting the Text from the ShapeSheet 87 Selectively Enabling/Disabling Text Behaviors 87 Character Section: Controlling Text Format 87 Studying Visio's Supplied Stencils and Templates 88 From Here 89 Shapes With Member "Sub-Shapes" (Group Shapes) 89 Connectors, 1-D Shapes 89 Glue, Connections and Connection Points 89 Solution-Specific "Data" 89 Styles and Masters 89 Layers 89 Right-Click Context Menu: Actions 89 Events 90 Foreign Objects 90 Hyperlinks 90
Chapter 8: Masters and Shapes 91 "Master" versus "Shape Instance" 91 Master-To-Shape and Shape-To-Master 92 Starting From the New Master Command 92 Starting From Drawing Page 92 Stencil File versus Document Stencil 93 Instances Are Always Created From Local Stencil 94 Master Matching Alternatives 94 Development Implications 94 Other Wrinkles 95 From Here 95	Fancy Feature: Master Adds Cells To Page 2002-08-08
Chapter 9: Some ShapeSheet Practicalities 97 ShapeSheet Cell Reference Syntax 97 Finding Out Cell Names 98 Universal and Local Row and Cell Names 98 Which Names Are Which? 99 ShapeSheet Calculation Dependencies 100 Cells Set Multiple Ways 100 Monitoring Recalc Loops 102 Keys To Solution 102 Trickier Example 102 To REALLY Break A Loop 103 Twin Peaks Example 103 Flaky Recalculation Problems 104 The DEPENDSON( ) Function 105 Guard( ) Function Revisited 107 ShapeSheet Cell Types and Units 107 Internal Numeric Value versus Output Appearance 107 "Magic" X, Y Extraction 108 Assumed Units 108 Formula Change Tracking 108 XML Files Handy for Studying 109 From Here 109
Chapter 10: Composite Shapes Using Groups 111 Group Structure 111 Group As Holder Only 111 Group As Shape With Sub-Shapes 112 Member Coordinate Space 113 Group Behavior Variants 114 Resize Behavior 114 Add On Drop, a Very Promising Feature 115 Controlling The Alignment Box 116 Controlling Formatting 116 A Composite Shape Example 117 Structure 117 Behavior 118 ShapeSheet 118 Editing The Structure With VBA Functions 120 Embellishments 123 Protection/Enablement Issues 124 Composite Shapes: Ready To Deploy? 124 Form-Style Text Behavior 125 Navigation 125 Text Clipping 126 From Here 126
Chapter 11: Connectors, Routing and Layout 127 Plan of Attack 127 Connectors Using Ordinary ShapeSheet Features 128 1-D Coordinate Space 128 Straight Connector 129 Curve Connector 130 Right Angle Connector 130 Shortcomings 131 Universal Connector 131 Further Caveats 134 Summary of Simple Connectors Implementation 134 Dynamic Layout Services 135 Overview of Dynamic Layout Services 135 Basic DLS Participation Eligibility: ObjType 136 Dynamic Layout Services Details 137 Routing 138 Connector "Appearance" 139 Line Jumps 139 Plowing 139 Layout 140 Dynamic "Walking" Glue 141 Page-level DLS Disable: DynamicsOff 141 Dynamic Connectors 141 Dynamic Connector Geometry 142 Implications For Geometry Dependents 142 Text Pin 143 Connection Points 143 Control Points 144 Enable/Disable Dynamic Connector Functionality 144 Some Dynamic Connector Developer Issues 144 Alternative Solutions to Fancy Routing 147 Comments 149 Dynamic Layout Performance Hints 149 Comparison of Connector Strategies 150 From Here 151
Chapter 12: Glue and Connects 153 Orientation 153 What Glues to What 155 Glue In Action 155 Initialization 155 How Gluer Depends on Gluee 157 Control Point to Connection Point 157 Connector Endpoint to Connection Point 157 Connector to "Shape": Dynamic or "Walking" Glue 157 Various Parts to Guide Lines 158 Visio's Gendered, Directional Connection Points 158 Factors Affecting User Operation of Glue 161 Enhanced Snap and Glue Control in Visio 2002 161 Lock/Guard Glue Formulas 162 Connections To/From Group Member Shapes 163 Some Glue Issues 163 Dynamic Glue (_WALKGLUE) Issues 163 Connects Objects: Reporting On Connections 163 Connects Just Reports on Cells 164 Some Connections Report As Two Connect Objects 164 Other Notes 164 Temporary Connection Points 164 From Here 165
Chapter 13: Formatting Via Masters and Styles 167 Mastering Master Concepts 168 Copying versus Inheritance 168 The Initial Master-Instance Relationship 168 Verifying Inheritance/Local Behavior 169 Creating and Removing Local Override Formulas 170 Severing Master-Shape Inheritance 170 Master Identity and Names 170 Styles-The Basics 170 Style "Attribute Sets": Three Sets of Cells 171 Style-to-Style Inheritance 172 Master and Style Inheritance, Together At Last 172 Inheritance Browser 174 Three "Sub-Style" Attribute-Sets Versus Overall "Style" 174 Applying a Style 174 Applying a Style Switches Inheritance For Entire Attribute-Set 175 Applying a Local Formula or Value to a Cell 175 Does "Apply Style" Beat Guard() and LockFormat? 175 Reverting a Section or Cell to Inheritance 176 Un-Applying a Style (Revert to Inheritance-from-Master) 176 Style Collisions 176 Style Philosophy and Application 177 Styles as Named Sets of Attribute-Values 177 Styles for Conveying Semantics 177 The Evil "Color Scheme" Add-On 177 Rethinking the Motivation 178 Bottom Line 179 Style Miscellany 179 Seemingly Superfluous Sections? 179 Some Development Implications 179 Incomplete Inheritance Visibility 179 The Need for Tools 180 From Here 180	p174: Inheritance Browser [...] and where these inherit from.
Chapter 14: Line and Fill Patterns and Line Ends 181 Relationship Between Pattern Masters and Instances 181 Parameters 182 Line Pattern and Line End Miscellany 183 Creating Unscaled Line-Ends 183 Line End Sizing Ratios 184 Line Pattern and Line End Positioning 185 Other Wrinkles 186 From Here 186
Chapter 15: Layers 187 Orientation 187 Layer Structure And Behavior 188 A Page's Layers Versus the Layers Object 188 A Shape's Layer Membership 188 Adding/Deleting Layers 188 Assigning Shapes to Layers 188 Using Layers 189 Layers For Shape Data Attributes and Querying 189 Querying Made Feasible 190 Layer Control Tricks 191 From Here 191
Part 4: Building Visio Solutions 193
Chapter 16: Building Solutions: Introduction 195 Overview 195 Alternative Solution Forms 196 Implications 198 Angle of Upcoming Solution Topics 199 Different Visio Roles, Different Forms of Solution 199 Visio for Rendering/Output 199 Visio for Information Capture 200 "Discipline-Specific Drawing Environment" 200 Discrete Operations on Drawing 201 Adding Intelligence to Shapes: "Shape Services" 201 Adding Intelligence to Drawings: Drawing-wide Semantics 201 Drawings as Views of Models 202 Visio as Control Panel 202 From Here 203	p196: Alternative Solution Forms [...] each solution form in detail.
Chapter 17: The "User Interface" Functionality 205 Orientation 205 Two User Interface Models to Choose From! 206 Study Sequence 206 Overview of UIObject-Based Object Model 207 Items 207 "Groups" of Items 207 "Sets" Handle "Context" 207 Extent of User Interface Data 209 Three "Levels" Of UI Customization 209 UIObjects: Messy Details 210 UIObject Browser: Completing the Picture 211 Overview of CommandBars-Based UI Object Model 211 Visio's Use of CommandBars 212 CommandBarControl Events 213 CommandBar Browser 214 Document-Specific CommandBars? 214 UIObjects and CommandBars, Together At Last 215 UIObject-Based Model to CommandBars 215 CommandBars to UIObject-Based Model 217 Implications for CommandBarControl Events 218 Usability of CommandBar Model 218 General UI Strategy Using the UIObject-Based Model 219 Constructing a Custom UI 219 Working With The Active UI 220 Persisting and Instating a Custom UI 221 Don't Forget ShapeSheet Actions Section! 223 Wrinkles 223 Potentially Confusing UIObject Names 223 Persistent Events on Most Visio Templates Causes UI Confusion 223 Disappearing Toolbar Items 224 Example UI Exercises 224 Adding UI Elements 224 Minimal UI 226 From Here 227	Additional note on "temporary" CommandBars. The book notes that altering the Visio UI via the CommandBars model results in changes to Application's Custom UI, which are in turn persisted to custom.vsu (p209). Not mentioned is the fact that the CommandBar.Add method has a parameter called "Temporary", which prevents the CommandBar changes from persisting from session to session. (This does little to change my conclusion that the CommandBar model is not very usable with Visio.)
Chapter 18: Events and Other Notifications 229 Overview 229 Several Different Event Mechanisms 229 Where To Put The Code? 231 Event Persistence 231 Notifications from ShapeSheet Activities 231 CALLTHIS 232 RUNADDON 233 RUNADDONWARGS 235 Dedicated Event Cells 235 Automation Events Overview 235 Spectrum of Events Exposed 236 Event Filters 236 Document Events 236 WithEvents Event Handling 237 WithEvents Overview 237 Code for WithEvents: Simple Case 238 "Forgetful" VBA? 239 Example With Model 239 Code for WithEvents: More Realistic Case, Using Class Module 239 Further Issues 242 Events Via EventList.Add and AddAdvise 243 Events Browser 244 EventList.Add 244 EventList.AddAdvise 246 Simple Event Sink Example 247 Event Sink with Forwarding 248 Persistence 249 AddAdvise Compared To WithEvents 249 EventList Interacts With WithEvents 249 Filters 250 Miscellaneous Issues 252 NoEventsPending versus VisioIsIdle 252 BeforeXXX Events 253 VB/VBA Issue With Signed Two-Byte EventCode Values 253 Event Support That Visio Lacks 254 From Here 254	p231: Table 18.2 [...] RUNADDON: Runs an addon program (or calls addon code in a VSL) or calls VBA code. (The part about RUNADDON executing arbitrary VBA code supplied in its argument string accidentally didn't get deleted -- RUNADDON no longer has this feature as of Visio 2002). Added Note: Grouping Interacts With Shape and Cell References and Events
Chapter 19: VBA-Based Solutions 255 Overview 255 The Modules of a VBA Project 256 Cross-Project and ShapeSheet-to-Project References 259 Project Names 261 Be Aware of VBA Project Behavior Options! 261 Getting Rid of a VBA Project 262 Where To Put Solution Code 262 Put VBA Code In Stencil 263 Solution-In-Stencil Gotchas 264 Benefits and Drawbacks of VBA-Based Solutions 266 From Here 266	Frank K's Notes on VBA Window Handles and Code Location 2002-08-08
Chapter 20: Visio Solution Library Solutions: VSLs and Addons 267 Overview of VSL Features 268 The VSL API 268 The Visio-to-VSL Conversation 269 Introducing the VBVSL_Adapter 270 Overview of VBVSL and Adapter 270 Minimal "VBVSL_Min" Example 271 IVBVSL Interface Details 271 Fulfilling the Needs of VBVSL.cls 274 Structure For More Complex VSLs 278 Breaking Down Functionality By Addon Or "Command"? 279 Installation, Registration and Uninstallation 280 VSL/Addon Registration With Visio 280 Visio.bin Utilities 281 VSL Unregistration 281 Additional VSL Installation Considerations 282 Summary of Benefits and Drawbacks to VSLs 282 Benefits 282 Drawbacks 283 From Here 283	p274: How Visio and Adapter [...] fill in the needs of VBVSL.cls.
Chapter 21: Exe and Out-of-Process Solutions 285 Out-Of-Process Concerns 286 Integration With Visio 286 ReflectArgs Exe Example 287 Conclusions 289 From Here 289
Chapter 22: COM Addin Solutions 291 COM Addins Overview 291 COM Addins In Visio 292 Conclusion 293 From Here 293
Chapter 23: Solution Window Management 295 Out-of-Process vs. In-Process Windows 295 Default Visual Basic Form Behavior 296 Modal Form 296 Modeless Form 296 Coordinating modeless windows with Visio 296 Plain Desktop window 297 Plain MDI Child window 299 Anchor window 300 Stencil window 304 From Here 305
Chapter 24: ShapeSheet Service Addons 307 Event Lifetimes and "ShapeSheet Services" 307 ShapeSheet Services Pattern 308 Demo ShapeSheet Services Sample 308 Main ShapeSheet Services Concepts 309 "Demo ShapeSheet Services" Sample 309 I-Am-Selected Service 310 Supporting Utility Functions 313 Connect Count Service 314 Navigation Keys Service 315 Further Notes on Demo ShapeSheet Services Sample 316 Conclusions 317 From Here 317
Chapter 25: Visio and XML 319 Visio 2002's XML Features 319 Making Sense of XML 320 What XML Looks Like 320 It's A Document, No Wait, It's A Database, No Wait... 321 MSXML 321 XSL and XSLT 322 Schemas 322 Namespaces 323 Hands-On "XML for Visio" 324 Studying VDXs To Learn Visio Structure 324 "XML for Visio" for Hard-to-Fix Fixups 325 SolutionXML Examples 325 Processing "XML for Visio" Files 328 Ideas 328 Using MSXML to Iterate Through All Nodes 329 View 329 Change: Re-Mastering Shapes 331 Let MSXML Do The Walking: XSL Patterns and XPath 331 Visio XML Straight To HTML, in Code 332 Visio XML Straight To HTML, in Browser 333 Wrinkles 334 Generating XML for Visio 335 From Here 338
Chapter 26: Visio and ActiveX 339 Using Ordinary ActiveX Controls in a Visio Document 339 Dynamically Adding ActiveX Controls to Drawing 340 Documents Linked/Embedded In Visio 341 Visio ActiveX Control? Not Quite: Visio Embedded 342 WebBrowser-Based Demo 342 Accessing Visio from Within an "ActiveX Shape" 344 AXShape Sample 345 From Here 347	p340: Design Mode vs Run Mode [... end of section...] To enable smoother debugging, you may want to establish an Init routine that centralizes the code for initializing global variables, hooking events etc, to be called from DocumentOpen as usual, and also from RunModeEntered. p346: User Control [...] Ambient [...] you can look up this object in Chapter 30. Actually, in Visio's type library this is called "IVAmbients" and is in Chapter 30 in the "Util" branch. Visio Embedded (via WebBrowser): Followup (courtesy Jakub S) 2002-08-08
Chapter 27: Common Solution Techniques 349 Drag And Drop to/from Solution Windows 349 Drag And Drop Demo 350 Persisting Solution Data 355 Text In Cell 355 XML 355 VisXData and IStorage 355 When to Persist 357 Undo 357 Undo Sample VBA 358 Bitmap Import and Export with Visio 359 Internationalization: Universal versus Local Names 360 Document Protection 361 Paths and Curves 361 Registry 362 Version Info 362 From Here 364	A Collection of Bitmap Notes 2002-08-08
Part 5: Browsable Reference to Visio Structure 365
Chapter 28: ShapeSheet Section-Row-Cell Structure 367 Reading The Tables 367 Constants 367 Finding The Section Of Interest 368
Chapter 29: ShapeSheet Functions 387	Table 29-2. caption should read "Visio 2002". It's not actually wrong (there are the same set of functions in Visio 2002 as in Visio 2000) but it looks silly!
Chapter 30: Visio Objects, Properties and Methods 395 Object/Property/Method Table Organization 395 Object Summary Table 398 COM-Related Columns 398 Event DispInterfaces 398	p422: Evidently due to obscure cosmic ray activity, the object "Page" appears in its correct alphabetical order, but is labeled IVPage. In fact, for most Visio objects you can use the SomeObjectName or IVSomeObjectName forms interchangeably. I prefer to use the non-IV form. (In actual use, I try to always qualify it with the library name, like this: "Visio.Page" to avoid confusion with same-named objects from other libraries.)
Chapter 31: Events Table 459
Index 463

Performance Notes

A few additional notes for faster performance:

For faster construction or editing of complex drawings with large numbers of shapes:
- Use in-process rather than out-of-process Automation client -- so use VSL or COM Addin.
- Temporarily disable time-consuming activities like:
  - Application.ShowChanges off
  - (Application.ScreenUpdating is unneeded if you use ShowChanges)
  - Application.DeferRecalc on
  - Application.LiveDynamics off
  - Application.Autolayout off
  - Application.UndoEnabled off
- Drop multi shapes at once using Page.DropMany and related methods
- Write multi cells at once using Shape.SetFormulas and related methods
For more responsive UI
- If possible structure complex shapes using multi geometry sections rather than groups.

Article Created: 2001-07-01 Last edit: Last edit: 02-08-21 Graham Wideman Go to: DiagramAntics.com

Additional Notes, Errata etc Organized by Table of Contents

Part 1: Overview Of The Visio Development Environment 17

Part 2: Visio Structural Breakdowns 45

Part 3: Visio Functional Areas In Depth 63

Part 4: Building Visio Solutions 193

Part 5: Browsable Reference to Visio Structure 365

Index 463

Performance Notes