Link Database items to individual pictures

[Mark]

Hello. I have searched for this answer all over the place, but couldn't find
a specific answer. I do apologize if it's here and I overlooked it though.

I am trying to make a new space and link it to my database (I'm using a test
Excel sheet, but eventually it will be a SQL DB) and have it put each
employee in their office based on what's in the DB. I can do that without a
problem. What I am having difficulty doing is linking each employee's record
to their personal picture, and having that picture move when I update the
database and do a refresh in Visio. What happens when I do a refresh after
making a change is that Visio will ignore the already present pictures that
are linked and just create new records ontop of them, with the same picture
linked to every record. I cant figure this out. Please help! Thanks.

 

[David Parker]

How are you creating this link to your employee's records?
What version of Visio?

 

[Mark]

Visio 2003 Pro.

I've tried a number of ways. Off the top of my head I've used the Database
wizard, Link to database, and Import Data. I can get the individual's
pictures linked by using either the DB wizard of Link to DB, and I assign the
Category 'Person' to each person's pic, and place it in the appropriate
Office space, but when I change someone's room number and do a refresh, it
redraws everyone with a single picture and does not delete the old records
off of the Space. Like it's not keeping the relationship between the record
and the picture I assign it.

 

[Mark]

So is there no way to give each individual database entry a different master
image and have it keep that image when you do a database refresh? Thanks.

 

[John Goldsmith]

Hello Mark,

Once you've added an image to a Visio shape you can't change it. It's a
once only operation. So the way to approach it is to have a group shape
master, which contains your data and a child / sub shape with the image.
You could then refresh the DB wizard with the right file path and then run
some code to update the image (ie delete the old image sub-shape and replace
it with a new one). This way you retain your db link with the original
group shape and just swap out the image shape as required.

Hope that helps.

Best regards

John


John Goldsmith
www.visualSignals.typepad.co.uk
www.visualSignals.co.uk