Share via

SharePoint 2016 Visio Service Application, Step By Step Guide

  • Article

This article will walk through the all the steps to create and configure of Visio services application in SharePoint 2016.

Introduction

Vision Service is not new to SharePoint 2016 as we experienced it in 2013. There is no change in it from previous version. This service lets the user to render their Visio diagram in a browser without having the Visio client installed on their machine. Visio service also allows the rendering of diagram on the Mobile devices.

Users can publish Visio diagrams directly from their Visio client program into SharePoint 2016. Also, Visio service supports the multiple data sources, i.e in your diagram you can connect it to Excel sheets or SharePoint list and publish it SharePoint. If there is a data refresh Visio service can handle it.

Compatible Visio Versions

As per TechTechNet below mentioned Visio versions are compatible with SharePoint 2016.

  • Visio 2010 Professional
  • Visio 2010 Premium
  • Visio 2013 Professional
  • Visio 2013 Premium
  • Visio 2016 Professional
  • Visio Pro for Office 365

Note: Visio diagrams created in Visio 2010 must be published to a SharePoint site as a Visio Web drawing (*.vdw) file. Standard Visio 2010 diagrams (.vsd files) are not rendered by Visio Services and require Visio 2010 to be viewed.

Support DataSources:

As per TechNet the following data connections are supported.

  • SQL Server 7.0
  • SQL Server 2000
  • SQL Server 2005 (32- & 64-bit)
  • SQL Server 2008 (32- & 64-bit)
  • SQL Server 2008 R2 (32- & 64-bit)
  • SQL Server 2012 (32- & 64-bit)
  • Sheet information that is stored in Excel workbooks (.xlsx files) published from Office Excel 2007, Excel 2010, Excel 2013, or Excel 2016 hosted on the same SharePoint Server 2016 farm
  • SharePoint Server lists that are hosted on the same farm
  • External lists exposed in SharePoint Server through Microsoft Business Connectivity Services.
  • OLE DB or ODBC
  • Custom Data Providers implemented as .NET Framework assemblies

Note: the original data connection must be configured using Visio. Refresh of data through any other mechanism into a Visio diagram is not supported.

Before Start

  • You need an account which is part of Farm Administrator group with local admin rights on server
  • Service Account which will run the App pool of Visio Service
  • Unattend Service Account
  • Secure Store Service is created

Tasks

In this article, we will do the following tasks.

  • Secure Store Service (Please follow the link to Create Secure Store Service)
  • Create Target Application in Secure Store service
  • Create Visio Service Application
  • Add target Application ID
  • Test
  • Troubleshooting

Create Target Application in SSS

This is important step, we have to create the target application in the Secure Store Service Application.

  1. Please login on the Central admin site with Farm administrator account with local admin.
  2. Click on Application Management
  3. Click on Manager Service Applications under Service Applicationshttp://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-31_02h26_40.jpg
  4. Click Secure Store Service (KF-SSService).http://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-31_02h23_13.jpg
  5. In the Secure Store Service Page, click the New Button from Ribbonhttp://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_22h38_19.jpg
  6. On this page, please enter the following information.
    1. Name of Application ID: VisioSvc
    2. Display Name: VisioSvc
    3. Email Address: Sharept@krossfarm.com
    4. Target Application Type: Group
    5. Target Application Page Url: Use Default page
    6. Click OKhttp://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-31_01h34_31.jpg
  7. On New SS Target Application, use the Default Values and click Next.http://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_22h52_56.jpg
  8. On Next Page, please enter the following information:
    1. Target Application Administrators: Farm Admin
    2. Members: EveryOne
    3. Click OKhttp://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_22h45_25.jpg
    4. You will see the New Target Application ID is successfully created.http://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_22h46_08.jpg

Now, Target Application Created and Last But most Important Step is to Set the Credentials.

  1. Right-click on the VisioSvc and DropDown click on Set Credentials.http://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_22h46_38.jpg
  2. On this page enter the User Name and Password and click OK.http://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_22h52_56.jpg

This will complete the task.

Create Visio Service

Now, we will create the Vision Service  via Central admin.

  1. Please login on the Central admin site with Farm administrator account with local admin.
  2. Click on Application Management
  3. Click on Manager Service Applications under Service Applicationshttp://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-31_02h26_40.jpg
  4. Click on New (top left) and drop down select Visio Graphic Service.http://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_23h10_40.jpg
  5. On “New Visio Graphics Service Application” page, please provide the following information
    1. Visio Graphics Service Application Name: VisioSvc
    2. Create New Application Pool: KF-VS-AppPool
    3. Select Security Account: Krossfarm\KFSvcApp
    4. Create a Visio Graphics Service Application Proxy: Check the Boxhttp://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_23h11_31.jpg
    5. Click OK
  6. Wait a couple of minutes “This shouldn’t take long”.http://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_23h11_44.jpg
  7. You will see the Visio Servicehttp://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_23h12_53.jpg

Visio Service successfully Created, next we will make sure that Visio Service Instance is running.

Visio Service Instance

Please make sure the Visio service instance is started on the Server. To check, please follow the below steps.

  1. Click on System Settings then Manager on Services on Server under the Servershttp://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-23_00h38_30.jpg
  2. On Service on Server Page.
  3. Select the Server on which this service Should run (As a recommendation, it should run to Application server).
  4. Now make sure the Visio Service status is started.http://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_23h13_59.jpg

Configure the Global Settings

Now, we need to add the Target Application ID in the Visio Services (which we created in the Secure Store service). For this please follow the below steps.

  1. Click on Application Management
  2. Click on Manager Service Applications Under Service Applications
  3. Click on the Visio Servicehttp://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_23h12_53.jpg
  4. On this page click Global Settingshttp://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_23h15_04.jpg
  5. On this page enter the Application ID and click OK.http://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-30_23h16_08.jpg

This will complete the Creation and Configuration of the Visio Service Application. Next step, we will test it, if we able to open the Visio files in SharePoint.

Test

Lastly, we have to test the VisioGraphic Service. 

Troubleshooting

Found a couple of issues during this exercise.

Issue # 1

You are trying to open Visio diagram in the browser but it only gives you the option to Save or Open in local Visio Client program. Like this.

http://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-31_22h19_43.jpg

If you notice to the image and you will see that you uploaded the VSD file not VDW. In order to open the Visio diagram in the browser using the Visio Graphic Service, we have to use the vdw (Visio Web Drawing).

Issue # 2

Once you open a Visio diagram and click on the Refresh, following Error occurred.

http://krossfarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/2016-07-31_22h16_42.jpg

One of the Reason is Visio Graphic Service instance is stopped. Please login on the Central admin > System Settings > Manager Service on Server. On this page please make sure, Visio Graphic Service is started.

Summary

In this article, we explained the steps, how to create Visio Graphic Service, Configure Visio Service, How to add target application ID in Secure Store service, How to test the Visio Service. We also learned about some perquisites as well as shed some light on the couple of common issues.

Reference

See Also