ShapeSheet: Inserting a Custom Property & displaying it via Automation -- Visio 2002

[matthew_shomphe]

(I posted this in microsoft.public.visio, but got no response. Sorry in
advance if this is cross-posting [I didn't know about this group...])

I've been customizing some of the existing Visio shapes for use at
work. Through the ShapeSheet, I've added the necessary custom
properties and figured out a (ham-fisted, in my opinion) approach to
displaying the custom properties in the shape.


I'd like to find a better way of doing this, preferably through a macro

that will allow me to, for any given shape, add a custom property (with

associated attributes) and display that new text appended to the
existing displayed text.


I can do this by hand, but I'd rather have core shapes that can be
easily extended.


Right now, using the "Divided Process" shape, I've added a custom
property like:
Custom Properties Label Prompt.....
Prop.State "State" "Enter the name...."....


And then in the User-defined Cells I have an entery named
"User.visCustomLabel" with an extensive value:


Prop.PromptName&":
"&CHAR(34)&Prop.PromptText&CHAR(34)&CHAR(10)&Prop.Grammar.La­bel&":
"&Prop.Grammar&IF(StrSame(Prop.R1,""),Prop.R1,CHAR(10)&"R1")­&IF(StrSame(Prop.R2,""),Prop.R2,"

R2")


Then the Text Fields entry contains a row with Fields.Format =
FieldPicture(0) and Fields.Value = User.visCustomLabel


[As an aside, this works, but it seems clunky. Any suggestions as to
make a cleaner implementation of this would be most welcome.]


I've looked in to automating the addition of new fields, but have come
up empty. First, I've Googled for Characters.AddCustomField, but
haven't come up with anything useful. (see:
http://www.google.com/search?source...D,GGLD:2004-49,GGLD:en&q=visio+addcustomfield
[even Microsoft's page is out of date]). I've been able to add a row
to the Custom Properties section, but have not been able to add a row
to the Text Fields section that shows up in the shape.


Here's the VBA code I've done so far:
Public Sub insert_field()
Dim shpObj As Visio.Shape
Dim Chars As Visio.Characters
Dim retVal As Integer
Set shpObj = ActivePage.Shapes(1)
If Not shpObj.CellExists("Prop.NewRow", 0) Then
retVal = shpObj.AddNamedRow(Visio.visSectionProp, "NewRow", 0)
End If
If Not shpObj.RowExists(Visio.visSectionTextField, 2, 0) Then
retVal = shpObj.AddRow(Visio.visSectionTextField, 2, 0)
End If
shpObj.Cells("Prop.NewRow.Prompt").Formula = "=""New_Row_Prompt"""


shpObj.Section(Visio.visSectionTextField).row(2).Cell("Forma­t").Formula

= "=FieldPicture(1)"


shpObj.Section(Visio.visSectionTextField).row(2).Cell("Value­").Formula

= "=Prop.NewRow"


This code does NOT work -- there's some EOF error popping up, but it
gives you a flavor of what I'm trying to do.


So, to restate the problem, I'd like pointers to a solution that would
add & display a custom property to a shape.


Thanks in advance!


M@

 

[junethesecond]

Comments are too long to catch what you want.
Anyway,
shpObj.Section(Visio.visSectionTextField).row(2).Cell("Forma=ADt")=..
might be
..Cell(visFieldFormat).Formula = ... ,
and
shpObj.Section(Visio.visSectionTextField).row(2).Cell("Value=AD").Formula=...
might be
....Cell(visFieldCell).Formula =....

 

[Matt]

Comments are too long to catch what you want.
Anyway,
shpObj.Section(Visio.visSectionTextField).row(2).Cell("Forma=ADt")=..
might be
.Cell(visFieldFormat).Formula = ... ,
and
shpObj.Section(Visio.visSectionTextField).row(2).Cell("Value=AD").Formula=...
might be
...Cell(visFieldCell).Formula =....

Sorry about being overly verbose. Here's a more succinct question:
How do I create a macro that will, for the selected Shape, add a
name/value pair to the Shape and display that text in the Shape? There
is a pre-requisite: The text has to be added to the User.visCustomLabel
value cell.

Thanks in advance!