How to create Visio diagrams from Facebook Data

Automate the process of entering data into Visio diagrams and keeping your diagrams up to date with the CData ODBC Driver for Facebook. The driver surfaces Facebook data as an ODBC data source that can be accessed by applications with built-in ODBC support like Microsoft Office. This article shows how to create a simple diagram to start brainstorming about Visio projects linked to Facebook data.

Connect to Facebook as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Most tables require user authentication as well as application authentication. Facebook uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate to Facebook, you can use the embedded OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL or you can obtain your own by registering an app with Facebook.

See the Getting Started chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

Connect Facebook Data to Diagrams

Follow the steps below to use the Data Selector Wizard to import data into your diagram.

1. Open Visio and click File -> New. Open the Brainstorming template.
2. On the Data tab, click Custom Import and select Other OLEDB or ODBC data source.
3. Select the ODBC option and select ODBC DSN.
4. Select the DSN for Facebook, select the table you want to import, and finish the wizard. This article uses Posts as an example.

Link Facebook Entities to Shapes

Follow the steps below to create a simple diagram that shows how to create shapes from your data, one of the ways to link Facebook entities to shapes:

1. Click Brainstorming Shapes and drag a main topic onto the drawing page. Enter Posts as the text of the main topic.
2. Click Topic.
3. Select a row in the External Data window and drag it onto the drawing page.
4. Right-click the Topic shape and click Data -> Edit Data Graphic.
5. Click New Item.
6. In the Data Field menu, select a column. In the Displayed As menu, select how to display them.
7. Drag a few other Facebook entities onto the drawing page and add association lines back to the main topic, Posts. New topics have the same configuration: Numeric columns displayed in data bars stand out in contrast to other Posts entities.

You can refresh your diagram from the Data tab, synchronizing your shapes with the external Facebook data.