13.2.1.1. Excel database Preparation - Manual

• Requirement is to have an Excel database in appropriate format.

• Two tabs as per given below names are mandatory.

  1. Devices tab defines all images/icons, its position indexes, and icon informations; which are to be placed on the visio page(s).

  2. Cablings tab defines all cabling/connectivity related informations for above devices.

There is a simple sample Excel given at end of this page. Download and modify it as your requirement.

Read Below to understand it.

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13.2.1.1.1. Devices Tab - Mandatory Columns

1. hostname hostname or identity of device. ( No Exception and column name modification not allowed )

2. x-axis horizontal position of device. ( column name can be changed by defining var argument `x` in input)

3. y-axis vertical position of device. ( column name can be changed by defining var argument `y` in input)

13.2.1.1.2. Cablings Tab - Mandatory Columns

1. a_device a-end device hostname for connectivity. (column name can be changed by defining var argument `dev_a` in input)

2. b_device b-end device hostname for connectivity. (column name can be changed by defining var argument `dev_b` in input)

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13.2.1.1.3. Devices Tab - Optional Columns

1. stencil stencil file for individual device icon ( column name modification not allowed )

2. item stencil name or number id from stencil ( column name modification not allowed )

3. iconHeight resizing of icon vertically ( column name modification not allowed )

4. iconWidth resizing of icon horizontaly ( column name modification not allowed )

5. There can be N number of columns for additional device information ( column-names choose as per your desire )

   • Example: (device_model, serial_number, ip_address, rack_details, … and many more ).

   • Add those into device information using cols_to_merge argument list.

   • Re-arrange those in list as desired in output.

13.2.1.1.4. Cablings Tab - Optional Columns

1. aport port number for a-end device. It will appear at middle. ( column name modification not allowed )

2. connector_type line connector type. (default: straight, other options: angled, curved). ( column name modification not allowed )

3. color line connector color. (default: blue). ( column name modification not allowed )

4. weight line connector weigth/thickness. (default: 3). ( column name modification not allowed )

5. pattern line connector pattern. (default: 1). ( column name modification not allowed )

6. include displays only selected.

   • Non blank values will be selected and appeared in output.

   • It will get override by other sheet filters if defined.

   • Use this quick feature, if want to to have just one filter applied on data

   • A single Page drawing will appear

   • It uses filter_on_include_col argument to enable.

     filter_on_include_col=True
     

7. There can be many other filter columns with any arbitrary names as per choice.

   • Column name with each matching row values will be considered as a filter, so multiple filters can be defined in a single column. ( see column: draw_type in given example data )

   • Each filtered data will create its own page in visio drawing.

   • Multiple columns with multiple matching row values can be combined together to generate more granular drawings.

   • Output will be multipage output.

   • It Uses sheet_filters argument in a form of dictionary for providing information

     sheet_filters = {
       ## key = column header:
       ## value(s) = can be either single string or tuple of multiple strings.
       'draw_type': ('core', 'access',),
       # Add more as desired ....
     }
     

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• Default, any device with no connectivity on Cablings tab, will be excluded.

• Change this behaviour by setting False to input var argument filter_on_cable.

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13.2.1.1.5. sample excel database

Sample. Sample Excel file with Devices and Cablings tabs prefilled.