How can I find all shapes of a certain type in a page using visio xml?

Thank you.

Ruby

I had assumed that since you were looking for groups, then there were groups on the page. I think you are talking about people placing shapes near each other, perhaps with borders around them so that there is a visual grouping, but no real Visio group.

If that’s the case, then you’d have to analyze size and positions of shapes to see if they are contained within one another.

Visio’s object model has methods for this, but in xml you are “on your own”. The problem with doing too much in xml (without Visio) is that you eventually start to re-create everything that the Visio application does for you.

I realize what the confusion is.

If a user has selected some elements and ‘Group’ed using the context menu ‘Group’, then there is a Shape of type Group under the page and this Groups has shapes which are it’s children.

But, when a user does not group them explicitly, all these shapes are under the page and I am not sure how I can find the parent child relationship. The example I gave above makes a shape look as if it belong to a parent which is a group. But in the xml, how can I find that?

Thank you.

Is there anyway I can attach a file here? Sorry for the garbage numbers.

I am not sure how to determine a child’s parent just by looking at the xml? If you have an xml with a child and a parent, can you please point me to the part that indicates parent and child?

I can determine based on the location pinX and pinY of a shape, say shape A and checking if this location intersects with another shape, say, shape B and then deduce that shape A is a child of shape B. But, I do not that this is the right way.

All I see is a bunch of numbers, (which I have deleted from your comment). It’s just a matter of finding parent and child elements. I don’t really understand where you are confused.

Maybe my question is not clear.

I realize how to find a group. But, once I find a group, how can I determine what shapes are contained in that group? OR when I find a shape, how can I determine what group it belongs to? In the example below:

admin: bunch of numbers removed from comment

I have two shapes with ids “1″(pool) and “2″(task). The task is in the pool shape. When parsing the above xml, how can I determine what group shape the task belongs to?

Ruby

You look in the element for elements. These are shapes on the page.

If a has a element (that isn’t empty) then you’ve found a group. ]]> http://www.visguy.com/2006/11/30/visio-and-xml-conference-resources/comment-page-1/#comment-24882 Ruby Mon, 11 Oct 2010 16:09:10 +0000 http://www.visguy.com/2006/11/30/visio-and-xml-conference-resources/#comment-24882 Thank you! When I am parsing visio xml, if I encounter a shape of type Group, how can I determine what elements are in that group? The Group has shapes, but how can I relate these shapes to the actual shapes which are always on the page? Ruby Thank you!

When I am parsing visio xml, if I encounter a shape of type Group, how can I determine what elements are in that group? The Group has shapes, but how can I relate these shapes to the actual shapes which are always on the page?

Ruby

If a shape has child elements, then it is a group. The top-level elements under , are, of course, shapes on the page!

Thank you.

- PowerPoint presentation
- Sample code for the presentation’s demos
- Live audio + slides for the presentation

Chris

I want to download the files you provided in the post .. but these are not working anymore ? whats the problem ?

please I need them .. how to create XML from code ..

No idea what’s wrong. I’ve asked Microsoft if they know what the problem is. I don’t know if I have the audio, and I certainly don’t want to host a 144MB file on my account!

I might be able to dig up the PowerPoint presentation, though…