Today’s Tip:

Back from my holiday today and have this tip for you to try out:

I came across a really nifty way to graphically represent my SharePoint lists today. Now some of you may have come across the “Create in Visio” option under “Actions” menu option of a Task list. It’s a pretty cool way to graphically represent data from SharePoint lists in a neat click and drop mode.

So what happens if your list is not a task list but a custom list or library and would like to generate the same graphical data flows. In other words, get to list data from Visio.

Quite simple – try these steps:

a)      Open up Visio 2007

b)      Create a New Blank Drawing

c)       Click “Data” menu option and “Insert PivotDiagram”

d)      Then select “Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services list”

e)      Insert the URL to your site (i.e. http:// portalsite /hr)

f)       Then select the List you want and finish

Now you have a pivot link back to a list! Pretty Cool.

Use the PivotDiagram window to start structuring you data. You could also apply filters or total columns and start manipulating just about any type of information in pivot form.

Visio

Pretty neat! But what if you needed it to load on in a web part on a page?

Well, try using something like this (it’s really quite simple)

a)      Save your Visio diagram back to a library in SharePoint.

b)      Grab the URL of the Visio document. (You can right click the title and select the Internet Explorer property)

c)       Edit your SharePoint page to add a web part – Add the web part to the zone you wish to have the graphical display of data.

d)      Add the “Content Editor Web Part”

e)      Click the “Open the tool pane” and then click the “Source Editor...” button on the tool pane

f)       Insert your object reference and change the parameter value SRC to your own URL in step b above. You can also adjust your height and width if you prefer and some other object parameters.

 

<OBJECT classid="CLSID:279D6C9A-652E-4833-BEFC-312CA8887857" 
codebase="http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/5/2/452f8090-413f-408f-83c0-edd66db786ee/vviewer.exe" 
id="viewer1" width="100%" height="500"> 
<param name="BackColor" value="16777120">
<param name="AlertsEnabled" value="1">
<param name="ContextMenuEnabled" value="1">
<param name="GridVisible" value="0">
<param name="HighQualityRender" value="1">
<param name="PageColor" value="16777215">
<param name="PageVisible" value="1">
<param name="PropertyDialogEnabled" value="1">
<param name="ScrollbarsVisible" value="1">
<param name="ToolbarVisible" value="1">
<param name="SRC" value="http://server:8001/VisioTasks/TasksVisio.vsd">
<param name="CurrentPageIndex" value="0">
<param name="Zoom" value="-1">
</object>

 

 

 

 Anyone viewing this web part page will be required to have the Visio active x install for Internet Explorer. It can be found here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3FB3BD5C-FED1-46CF-BD53-DA23635AB2DF&displaylang=en

 

h)      You won’t be required to download the viewer if you already have Visio client installed on your client machine.        

 

Visio Diagram

 

 

The downside of this is that you will require to open the VSD file and refresh data to make the change visible on this web part.

Note: you are most welcome to try this out in for your calendars and project lists. It’s a miniature BPM J Visualize SharePoint lists graphically using Visio in a couple of very steps!

Over n Out

MarcL

Further References and credits:

http://blogs.msdn.com/elton/archive/2005/10/21/483452.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb229690.aspx