Summary

Well, that's all folks!

You have learnt a lot about how Visio works, both for the ShapeSheet and for automation. In particular, you have done the following:

• Written VBA code to examine the Visio objects and properties

• Written a VSTO add-in in C# to enable you to edit or export rule sets

• Analyzed how the built-in rule sets in Visio 2010 Premium edition are implemented

• Learned how to write validation rules that can enforce standards within your organization

• Learnt how to create a professional installation for a custom template, so that your rules can be easily used by others

Validation ensures that structured diagrams, such as business process flows, are well constructed. These validated diagrams could then be used to generate data for other systems now that you can be content that they have been correctly drawn, connected, labeled, or assigned data values.

I think that there are many other structured diagramming types that could benefit from having validation rules. These do not have to be...