Link SharePoint 2013 List and Visio 2013: Part 1

This article shows how to link a SharePoint 2013 List to Visio 2013. Let's assume a scenario such that we want to visualize how many students have not appeared for an exam today.

Step 1

We need to create a basic class structure in Visio 2013. Open Visio 2013 and choose a blank template. Choose the Office Furniture template and drop the shape "Desk". Create 3 pages with structure as follows:



Step 2

In your team site in SharePoint 2013, create a list with Student Details as follows:



Step 3

Populate the Student Details list with data.



Step 4

Now this is interesting. You need to go to Visio and click on the "Data" Tab then click "Link Data to Shapes" you will then see the following Data Selector Pop-up:

   

Step 5

Choose SharePoint options and click "Next" and mention the SharePoint Site that has the Student list. Let the Link Option be "Link to a list" and click "Finish".



Step 6

You will see the screen as in the following:



You can drag individual rows to the individual data shapes (Desks in our case) or you can click "Automatically Link".



Since we have a serial number column Visio automatically maps the Serial number column from the SharePoint List to the Serial Number field of the data type. We will map each row to each Data Shape.

Step 7

After Mapping choose "Data Graphics" -> "Edit Data Graphic" and we will create a graphic item as in the following. If a student is Present then the the desk is shown green else red.



You will see all the boxes updated with color as in the following:



Step 8

Once this is ready, you can publish the visio file to SharePoint 2013, change the value of Present to Yes and see that the color of the Shape changes.



Step 9

You can add another Data Graphic as in the following. Here for example we add the Student Name.



Step 10

You can click the Refresh and check the updates. In this step it is important to note the Refresh Interval setting in Visio. Shape colors are updated after refresh based on the underlying data.



By this example, we see how Visio can be connected to data in SharePoint and used as a visualization tool. This example can be done for airline seats occupancy or theatre seat occupancy and many more such examples.