Question about connecting to a SQL Database from Visio 2003

[Dan W]

Hi there. I am new to Visio development and hoping that someone here
will be able to get me going in the right direction. We have a SQL
Server 2000 database that holds all of the information about our
network infrastructure (machine names, IP addresses, MAC addresses,
etc...). We have recently created a network diagram using Visio 2003.
That diagram includes text associated with each icon displaying the
machine name, IP address, and MAC address. Now we would like to link
the text in that diagram to the SQL Server database so that whenever a
change is made to the database it will automatically show up in the
Visio diagram the next time it's opened. Ideally this link would work
in both directions so that if someone changed data in the Visio
diagram it would write that back to the database.

I'm not sure if this is even possible or where to begin on this
project. Any hints, tips, code, websites, books, etc... that you
could provide would be greatly appreciated. I am most comfortable
working in VB.Net but could also work in C# if that is preferable for
something like this.

Thanks in advance for any responses!

Dan

 

[David Parker [Visio MVP]]

You can use the Database Wizard in Visio to link shapes to a database
record. This can refresh the shape custom properties (and thus the text),
or update the database (but that sounds dangerous), however it cannot be
used to create/delete connections between shapes. To do this, then you
would need to use custom code.