Use Visio Services with SharePoint lists (SharePoint Server 2010)

 

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

Summary: You can connect a Visio drawing to the data in a SharePoint list and maintain that connection when you publish the drawing to SharePoint Server.

To connect to the SharePoint list from Visio, you must have at least Read access to the SharePoint list. Likewise, once the drawing has been published to a SharePoint document library, viewers must have Read access to the list in order to refresh the data from the list.

Note

This scenario requires you to have Visio Services in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 deployed. For information about how to deploy Visio Services, see Plan for Visio Services (SharePoint Server 2010). Additionally, you must be using Microsoft Office Visio Professional 2007, Microsoft Visio Professional 2010, or Microsoft Visio Premium 2010 to publish the Web drawing.

Publishing a Web drawing connected to a SharePoint list

Publishing a data-connected Web drawing that is connected to a SharePoint list consists of two steps:

  • Create the drawing in Visio and connect shapes in the drawing to the data in the SharePoint list

  • Publish the drawing to a SharePoint document library

To connect a Visio drawing to a SharePoint list

  1. In Visio, open the diagram that you want to connect to the SharePoint list, or create a new diagram.

  2. On the Data tab, click Link Data to Shapes.

  3. On the Data selector page, select the Microsoft SharePoint Foundation List option, and then click Next.

  4. On the Select a site page, in the Site box, type the URL for the SharePoint site where the SharePoint list is located, and then click Next.

  5. On the Select a list page, in the Lists list, select the list to which you want to connect, and then click Next.

  6. Click Finish.

Once you have connected to the SharePoint list, you can drag the data rows onto the page to link data to your existing shapes, or add new shapes. When you have completed the diagram, you can save it to a SharePoint document library and render it with Visio Services.

To publish a diagram to a SharePoint document library

  1. In Visio, click File.

  2. Click Save and Send.

  3. Click Save to SharePoint.

  4. Under File Types, choose Web Drawing, and then click Save As.

  5. In the Save As dialog box, navigate to the SharePoint document library where you want to save the file, type a file name in the File name box, and then click Save.

Once the Web drawing has been saved to the SharePoint document library, you can view the drawing by clicking it directly or by configuring it to appear in a Visio Web Access Web Part. The drawing remains connected to the data in the SharePoint list, and the data refreshes based on the refresh settings that you have configured for Visio Services and for the Visio Web Access Web Part, if applicable.

See Also

Concepts

Plan Visio Services deployment (SharePoint Server 2010)

Other Resources

View a Visio Web drawing in a Web Part (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkID=242694)