Table of Contents

Making shapes selectable

It is possible to tag a shape as "Selectable", so that instead of displaying the default hyperlink behavior, it will adopt a specially defined selection style when clicked.

Tip

For an example, see Ziine > Visual Overview Design Examples view > [misc > SELECTABLE] page.

Tagging a shape as selectable

To tag a shape as "Selectable", add a shape data field to it of type Options, and set its value to "Selectable".

Selectable

Defining a selection style

To define the selection style:

  1. Create a shape.

  2. Change its style in Visio.

  3. Add a shape data field to it of type Options and set its value to "SelectionStyle".

    When a "Selectable" shape is clicked, it will adopt the style of this shape.

    SelectionStyle

Making a selectable shape get copied to a session variable

If you want the text in a "Selectable" shape to be copied to a session variable when clicked, do the following:

  1. Add a shape data field of type Options to the page.

  2. Set the value of the shape data field to "SelectionVar=VariableName".

    SelectionVar=VariableName

  3. By default the values of the selected shapes will be separated by a pipe character ("|"). However, you can optionally specify that a different separator character should be used, for example in case the values need to be used in an Automation script.

    To do so, after the "SelectionVar=VariableName" option, add "|MultipleValueSep=", followed by the separator of your choice. For example, if you specify the following, a semicolon will be used as the separator symbol:

    SelectionVar=VariableName|MultipleValueSep=;
Note

When shapes are automatically generated, you can define a SelectionVar on group level, i.e. on the shape (or the shape group) where you specified a shape data field of type Children.

Having the Selectable shape copied to multiple session variables

It is possible to have the text of a "Selectable" shape copied to multiple session variables when a shape is clicked.

To do so, instead of specifying one variable name, as described above, specify a comma-separated list of session variables. The text displayed in the selectable shape will be copied to each of the listed variables when the shape is clicked.

Shape data field Value
Options SelectionVar=Var01,Var02,Var03

Having specific information copied to particular session variables

When a Selectable shape is clicked, you can have information about the item to which the shape is linked get copied to the session variables listed in a "SelectionVar=" clause.

To do so, after you specify the variable, also specify the information to be set, using the same keywords as when making a shape display information about an item it is linked to.

Shape data field Value
Options SelectionVar=Var01=Keyword,Var02=Keyword,Var03=Keyword
Note

For an overview of the keywords that can be used, see Making a shape display information about the item it is linked to.

Example:

  • In the following example, Var01 will be set to the name of the object to which the shape is linked, and Var02 will be set to the ID of the object to which the shape is linked.

    Shape data field Value
    Options SelectionVar=Var01=Name,Var02=ID

  • In the following example, the shape is linked to an alarm. Var01 will be set to the alarm ID, and Var02 will be set to the alarm property called "Priority".

    Shape data field Value
    Options SelectionVar=Var01=Alarm ID,Var02=AlarmProperty:Priority
Propose changes