Chapter 9. A Worked Example for Data Flow Model Diagrams – Part 1
In the preceding chapters, we have learned about the Visio object model, the new Validation API, how to write validation rules, and how to publish these rules for others to use.
In this chapter, we are going to present a complete cycle for writing validation rules for the Data Flow Model Diagram methodology. I chose this template because there used to be an add-on associated with it in Visio; this add-on is unfortunately no longer provided, and there are no rules for it either.
Since we are going to produce a new template, we can then take the opportunity to enhance the master shapes too. This will provide some extra functionality, such as identifiers for each process, which could be used to detail the diagrams, and to make them suitable for export into other applications. I know that some of these enhancements are usually done by a ShapeSheet developer rather than a rules developer, but I have included fairly...