In SharePoint 2007, Microsoft introduced Excel Web Services, allowing a SharePoint Server to serve up an Excel spreadsheet that could be viewed in a browser. Visio Web Services provide similar capability for Visio diagrams.
Visio Web Services allow users to view a Visio diagram in a web browser. Viewers do not need Visio installed on their computers.
The Visio Web Service is part of SharePoint Server 2010, and the shared diagram is a .vdw
file that is created in Visio 2010. Authors of the files need the full Visio 2010 client installed on their computers. The file must be stored on a SharePoint 2010 site with the Visio Web Service running.
To share a Visio 2010 diagram using the Visio Web service, follow these steps:
The file will be converted to *.vdw
format and saved on the SharePoint site selected. When a viewer opens the file, it will be viewable in a browser:
When a diagram is connected to data sources, online users can see your real-time information in the diagram using their browsers. They can drill down into the data, even if they do not have Visio installed on their computers. They can pan and zoom in the diagram, follow hyperlinks in objects, and refresh data using the Ribbon tools.