Visio JavaScript APIs generally available

Office Add-ins team

March 1st, 2017 0

We’re very excited to announce the release of the Visio JavaScript APIs. You can use the Visio JavaScript APIs to extend Visio Online and build rich mashup scenarios. These APIs are now released and you can start using them today in your production environment. For more information, see Visio Online: anytime, anywhere access to your diagrams

Visio Online is the new way to view and share Visio diagrams on the web. Part of the Office Online ecosystem, Visio Online includes a modern UI and introduces performance improvements and rich consumption capabilities that aren’t available in Visio Web Access.

The Visio JavaScript APIs enables programmatic access to the embedded Visio Online diagrams in a SharePoint page. An embedded Visio diagram is a diagram that is stored in a SharePoint document library and displayed inside a SharePoint web page using an iframe.

Benefits of using the Visio JavaScript APIs

Visio Web Access currently supports viewing Visio diagrams in only part of the SharePoint page and building interactive mashup solutions.

The new Visio JavaScript APIs fill some gaps in Visio Web Access, are more aligned with Office Extensibility and provide solution-building capabilities on par with existing APIs, and more.

Visio Web Access only supports viewing of diagrams and therefore the APIs can only perform read-only operations. Visio Online will support editing capabilities and the creation of diagrams on the web in the future. You will be able to use the Visio JavaScript APIs to programmatically create and edit diagrams in Visio Online.
Visio Web Access is limited to SharePoint and the interactive mashup solutions only work with the Visio Web Access web part. Visio Online will support embedding of Visio diagrams in any web page. Custom solutions that you implement via the Visio JavaScript APIs will work against embedded Visio diagrams in SharePoint Online or any external web page.
Solutions that are built using Visio JavaScript APIs will work across platforms in future.