Updated: 2009-11-12
[This article is pre-release documentation and is subject to change in future releases.]
Visio Services in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 is a service application that allows users to share and view Microsoft Visio diagrams. The service also enables data-connected Microsoft Visio 2010 diagrams to be refreshed and updated from a variety of data sources.
Use and benefits of Visio Services
Visio diagrams can be rendered by Visio Services and viewed in a Web browser. This allows users to view Visio documents without having Visio installed on their local computer. Basic diagram exploration and navigation of these rendered diagrams are supported within a SharePoint Server 2010 Web Part. Page designers can configure the look and functionality of the Web Part.
Visio Services can also refresh the data and visuals of a Visio diagram hosted on a SharePoint Server 2010 site. This enables published diagrams to refresh connections to Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint Server 2010 lists and other targeted OLEDB/ODBC data sources and to re-render affected data graphics and text fields.
Visio Services features include the following:
- Published Visio files (*.vdw files) are viewable in a browser without having Microsoft Visio 2010 or the Visio viewer installed.
- Published Visio diagrams can be embedded in SharePoint Server 2010 pages using the Visio Web Access Web Part.
- Data-connected diagrams using supported data sources can be refreshed and updated by the service.
- Visio files can be published to SharePoint Server 2010 by using Visio 2010.
Data sources supported by Visio Services
Connections to the data sources listed below may be refreshed using Visio Services if they were created using Microsoft Office Visio 2007 or Visio 2010 data-link technology and published using Visio 2010 publishing functionality. Refresh of data imported through any other mechanism into a Visio diagram will not be supported.
- SQL Server 7.0
- SQL Server 2000
- SQL Server 2005 (32- & 64-bit)
- SQL Server 2008 (32- & 64-bit)
- Sheet information stored in Excel workbooks published from Microsoft Office Excel 2007 or Microsoft Excel 2010 hosted on the same SharePoint Server 2010 farm
- SharePoint Server lists
- OLEDB or ODBC connections
- Custom Data Providers implemented as .NET Framework assemblies
Published Visio drawings
Visio Web diagrams (.vdw) may be saved and published to SharePoint Server 2010 and shared with other users who do not have Visio 2010 or the Visio viewer installed on their computers, as Visio Services will render a .vdw format file natively in SharePoint Server 2010 as a Web page. .Vdw diagrams can only be created by Visio 2010.
Standard Visio drawings (.vsd files) are not rendered by Visio Services and require Microsoft Visio to be viewed.