How does one add labels to connector ends in visio?

I'm doing some network documentation in visio 2306 and want to add port numbers to the ends of the connectors. Seeing the UML class arrows, this is obviously possible to do, but I have no luck in replicating that.

Steps so far:

• Make a new connector
• Convert connector to group
• Make text fields
• Add the text fields to the group

This almost works: the connector still functions nicely and the text boxes seem to attach to the ends.

In practice this still has 2 problems:

• The size scales relatively to the size of the connector
  • Even when that has been turned off in the shape behaviour
• The position scales relative to the center of the connector
  • Even though the text label does stay nicely attached to the connector end.

Maybe some VBA is required? I haven't looked into VBA much yet, maybe that's why I havent found a solution yet.

I have looked in the shape sheet as well, but editing the PinX and PinY value doesn't seem persist after dragging the attached shapes around.

Also you can try solution by y4cine which you can find in VisioGuy forum's thread Insert shape data values in sub-shape text

Video description

UPDATE you cant download file from VisioGuy's forum without registration. I asked the author for permission to publish the code here, he kindly allowed it.

Option Explicit
' This code originally published http://visguy.com/vgforum/index.php?topic=6318.msg25957;topicseen#msg25957
Private Sub cmRun_Click()
Dim shp As Shape, shp2 As Shape
Dim i As Integer
Select Case ActiveWindow.Selection.Count
Case 0:
MsgBox "You need to select a shape to perform the operation"
Exit Sub
Case 1:
Set shp = ActiveWindow.Selection(1)
ActiveWindow.DeselectAll
ActiveWindow.Select shp, visSelect
ActiveWindow.Selection.Copy
On Error Resume Next
shp.ConvertToGroup
On Error GoTo 0
If shp.OneD = False Then
shp.OpenDrawWindow.Activate
ActiveWindow.Shape.Paste
ActiveWindow.SelectAll
Set shp2 = ActiveWindow.Selection(ActiveWindow.Selection.Count)
shp2.Cells("PinX").Formula = shp.NameU & "!width*0.5"
shp2.Cells("PinY").Formula = shp.NameU & "!height*0.5"
shp2.DeleteSection visSectionProp
shp2.SendToBack
ActiveWindow.Close
shp.DeleteSection visSectionFirstComponent
End If
If shp.SectionExists(visSectionProp, False) Then
listProps.Clear
For i = 0 To shp.Section(visSectionProp).Count - 1
listProps.AddItem shp.Section(visSectionProp).Row(i).Name
Next i
Else
MsgBox "Your shape does not have shape data"
Exit Sub
End If
Case Else:
MsgBox "please select only one shape"
Exit Sub
End Select
End Sub
Private Sub cmInsert_Click()
Dim shp As Shape, shp2 As Shape
Dim i As Integer
Select Case ActiveWindow.Selection.Count
Case 0:
MsgBox "You need to select a shape to perform the operation"
Exit Sub
Case 1:
Set shp = ActiveWindow.Selection(1)
If shp.SectionExists(visSectionProp, False) Then
For i = 0 To listProps.ListCount - 1
If listProps.Selected(i) Then
insertField shp, listProps.List(i)
End If
Next i
Else
MsgBox "Your shape does not have shape data"
Exit Sub
End If
Case Else:
MsgBox "please select only one shape"
Exit Sub
End Select
End Sub
Sub insertField(shp As Shape, field As String)
Dim shp2 As Shape
Dim shpChars As Visio.Characters
If Not shp.SectionExists(visSectionControls, False) Then
shp.AddSection visSectionControls
End If
shp.AddRow visSectionControls, visRowLast, visTagDefault
Set shp2 = shp.DrawRectangle(0, 0, 1, 1)
shp2.TextStyle = "Normal"
shp2.LineStyle = "Text Only"
shp2.FillStyle = "Text Only"
Set shpChars = shp2.Characters
shpChars.Begin = 0
shpChars.End = 0
shpChars.AddCustomFieldU "sheet." & shp.ID & "!prop." & field, visFmtNumGenNoUnits
shp2.Cells("PinX").Formula = "sheet." & shp.ID & "!controls.row_" & shp.RowCount(visSectionControls)
shp2.Cells("PinY").Formula = "sheet." & shp.ID & "!controls.row_" & shp.RowCount(visSectionControls) & ".Y"
shp2.Cells("Width").FormulaU = "textwidth(thetext)"
shp2.Cells("Height").FormulaU = "textheight(thetext, textwidth(thetext))"
End Sub

Download DisplayProps.vss

In the end I got it working like this:

• Make a new connector
• Convert connector to group
• Make text fields
• Add the text fields to the group
• Add connection points to the connector (they stay at a fixed distance from the end, it's the way the UML arrows work around the issue)
• Use the shapesheet to bind the textfields to the connection points.