The MP Visio Generator allows you to generate a class inheritance diagram and a class relationship diagram for the management pack you have opened, and also includes related classes and relationships from other management packs that are related to the management pack you have opened.
The MP Visio Generator supports Visio 2007. At this time, Visio 2010 Beta is not supported, but it does not block the generation of the Visio diagram. There may be problems with the diagram in future versions if the Visio Programmability interfaces change or if the diagram properties and layouts change.
Running MP Visio Generator
After you open a management pack in the Authoring console, you can run MP Visio Generator on the Tools menu. A single-page wizard opens that allows you to select additional management packs to include in the diagram. The wizard lists all the management packs that are needed to open your management pack in the Authoring console.
After you select the management packs to include in the diagram, click Finish and the wizard will generate a Visio diagram. Depending on the complexity and number of related MPs you choose, it may take some time; during this time, a progress bar keeps you updated on what is currently being generated.
After the Visio diagram is complete, Visio will open so you can view the diagram.
Viewing the Visio Diagram
The Visio diagram has two tabs: Inheritance and Relationship. Each tab has a legend to help you understand the various notations on the boxes and the fonts for the class names. The notation is based on Unified Modeling Language (UML) notation. The shapes themselves look like the UML notations, but this is not a UML diagram and therefore does not have all the features a UML Visio diagram may have.
Inheritance Tab
The Inheritance tab displays all your classes. If you did not choose any MPs in the wizard, it will also include the immediate base class your classes inherited from. If you include other MPs, all the classes in those selected MPs are put on the diagram. Similarly, if the MPs you choose ultimately inherit from another MP that you did not select, the immediate base class is also added to the diagram, but no other MPs.
For example, if you inherit from Microsoft.Windows.ApplicationComponent, the Microsoft.Windows.Library will be shown in the wizard as an option.
- If you do not select the
Microsoft.Windows.Library (the default), your diagram will still
have the Microsoft.Windows.ApplicationComponent class, but no other
classes from the Microsoft.Windows.Library (unless other classes
are inheriting or you have relationships referencing classes in the
Microsoft.Windows.Library).
- If you do select the
Microsoft.Windows.Library, all classes in that MP are added to your
diagram as well as the immediate base class that are not in the
Microsoft.Windows.Library.
Relationship Tab
The Relationship tab displays a diagram of the relationships in your MP. A legend this tab explains how reference, containment, and hosting relationships are differentiated in the diagram.
Editing Classes
You can edit the diagrams on both the Inheritance and Relationship tabs.
Although this is not a UML diagram, you can still add the UML stencils and edit the diagram. Note that this diagram is a representation of your MP at that time and no changes to this diagram are synchronized with the MP. The wizard does not maintain state so if you generate the diagram again from the same MP, you will get similar looking diagram, but you will still need to save it locally.
Editing the classes is similar to editing any Visio shape. Since the diagram is a group of shapes, you may have to click once to select the whole class, and then click again in the box where the properties are to select that area. Pressing F2 will allow you edit that field (for example adding new properties).
Additionally, you can add new classes from the document stencils. If this tool pane is not showing in Visio, see Knowledge Base article 285869, How to view the document stencil in Visio.