Using Visio and Visio Services - Business Intelligence in Microsoft SharePoint 2013 - page 296

Note This example uses SharePoint Online, which is part of Office 365; however, it will
work in essentially the same way using your organization's SharePoint servers. It's also use-
ful to know that this example was created without writing any code. You can provide an
even richer feature set by utilizing the Visio Services JavaScript Application Programming
Interface (API), but as this example illustrates, it isn't necessary to do any programming to
add significant value to your organization's data.
Organizing the data
You probably already have the data for your BI application in hand, and there's a very high probability
that it's in a form that Visio can use directly. In addition to workbooks stored in Excel Services, you
can create refreshable links to data in SharePoint lists, external SharePoint lists accessible via Micro-
soft BCS, SQL Server databases, and almost any ODBC or OLE DB data source. For this example, the
data resides in SharePoint lists.
Creating the Visio diagram
After organizing the data, the next step in building this scenario is to create the Visio diagram for
the store chain. You will add the map shapes, place the store shapes onto the map, build the indi-
vidual store pages, and then add hyperlinks from the store icons to the individual pages. This part of
the process should be familiar to anyone who has created any type of hierarchical diagram in Visio,
whether it was a network diagram with servers on a topology map linked to the server locations in
photo-realistic rack diagrams, a building occupancy plan with a stacking diagram linked to individual
floor plans, or a process map with one or more subprocess pages.
The diagram in Figure 9-32 includes a map of the western part of the United States (state map
shapes courtesy of www.visguy.com ) and displays the locations of the six stores in the chain.
FIGURE 9-32 A regional map of six stores in the Fashion Station chain.