Custom Property from Database Clickable?

[Phil]

Is one of the following (or both) possible?

- I have a shape linked to a database. The database holds info on my
shape, so when I control-click on the web page, we get the panel on
the left side with the details from the database on it.

Can I make one of the details on the left side a clickable link?

- I have a shape in Visio with a link to another internet page. The
shape also has custom properties coming from a database. One of the
custom properties is a complete url. I want the link that I click on
in the web page to be the link from the database.

----------

The end result is the same. What I want is a way to be able to go
into my database and make a change to a url in a database, and have
the web version of visio reflect the change I make - so if I click the
link before the database change it goes to www.xxx.com/a, and after I
make the database change it can go to www.xxx.com/b.

Thanks for any help!

 

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Unfortunately, Visio does not have a hyperlink data type for custom
properties. Your hyperlink would be treated as plain text.

 

[Steven]

Is there any possibility of this being supported in the near future ? I too
would like this ability - I'm trying to create a high-level systems
body-of-knowledge for our IT department and would like to be able to link
HTML-published diagrams with other published content.

The reason for wanting the URL in a custom property is we're creating an
ODBC-based index of documents which has the URL - and I don't want to
hard-code the link in the object directly because documents have a habit of
moving ...

Alternatively, is there a programmatic way for one of our developers to
tweak the publishing template Visio uses or any other means you can think of ?

Thanks,
Steven.

 

[David Parker]

You can create hyperlinks on your (master) shape and have the address filled
from a custom property.
For example, in the ShapeSheet, create a Hyperlink called MyLink, a property
called MyProp, and a User-Defined Cell called LinkTrigger.
Give the property a label so that you can see it, and leave it as type 0.
Make the formula of LinkTrigger
=DEPENDSON(Prop.MyProp)+SETF(GetRef(Hyperlink.MyLink.Address),"="""&Prop.MyProp&"""")

and thus any URL typed into the custom property will become a hyperlink.
QED.