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Releasing a new version of my VisioAutomation library (version 2.0.0)

Today I’m releasing the latest version of the VisioAutomation library on CodePlex: http://visioautomation.codeplex.com/

This was a very large update and took about 6 months of effort.

CHANGES SINCE 1.X

  • The library itself has been reorganized into several distinct pieces (each in a distinct namespace)
    • VisioAutomation – the core low-level library – I don’t expect people to spend much time using this directly
    • VisioAutomation.Scripting – if you are writing interactive tools that work with Visio then this is the part of the library that will make using controlling Visio much easier
    • VisioAutomation.DOM – This one is a document-oriented API to control Visio – consider it low-level, you generally don’t need to interact with it
  • The tools have been reorganized
    • Visio Power Tools – this provides some extra features to Visio (such as Exporting to XAML) and the ability to create really nice gradients
    • VisioInteractive - (Experimental) A library meant for use by an interactive IronPython 2.0 session
    • VisioPS - (Experimental) an Module for IronPython 2.0 that lets you control Visio from the command line

 

FUTURE PLANS

  • VisioPS will be pulled into its related project I am working on – I haven’t finished with the concept but essentially think of it is a “simple business intelligence & analytics from the command-line” – the idea is to make it easy to play and render human-scale data
  • VisioAutomation – evolutionary changes
  • VisioAutomation.XML – A library to create Visio .VDX files directly from C# without having Visio installed (yes, it’s possible and it’s not even that hard)

PARTING THOUGHTS

  • Even if you aren’t interested in using the code for the library, check out the Visio Power Tools add-in – it add some nice end-user features.
Published Friday, September 11, 2009 8:46 AM by saveenr

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# re: Releasing a new version of my VisioAutomation library (version 2.0.0)

Saveen,

Thanks for all the hard work.  Your stuff looks like just what I need.  I'm in the process of starting a Script/Visio Automation that takes system generated configuration files and makes site specific Visio diagrams.

I would like to do the work in Powershell and your VisioPS looks really useful.  I understand from the video, how to use VisioPS.

I wonder if your Visio.Automation.Scripting would be more appropriate.  Where do I find instructions on how to use your scripting tools.

I don't compile, I don't know C# and I'm hoping to avoid the entire learning curve.  

Thanks again.

Bob Strachan

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 4:08 PM by Bob Strachan

# re: Releasing a new version of my VisioAutomation library (version 2.0.0)

@Bob - If you want to avoid writing C# code, using VisioPS is the best answer. VisioPS has a cmdlet called Draw-FlowChart. It accepts an XML file describing a flowchart as input. In the VisioPS project you'll see a folder full of sample flowchart XML files. Just create an XML file in this format and the Draw-FlowChart cmdlet can render it.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 9:14 PM by saveenr

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