Beginning February 10, 2023, Visio Web Access and its Web Part for SharePoint in Microsoft 365 will be discontinued.

Visio Web Access (aka Visio Services) allows online viewing of Visio diagrams stored on SharePoint in Microsoft 365.

  • Visio Services render Visio documents in a Web browser without having Visio or Visio Viewer installed on a local computer

  • It supports embedding of the Visio Web Access web part in SharePoint to let you add diagrams to a SharePoint page.

    • Embedded Web Parts can be linked to data sources so that when data changes, the visuals (shapes, text, etc.) change, too.

    • Web Parts can also be driven programmatically using the JS API.

Recommended steps for using Visio Web Services on SharePoint in Microsoft 365

Microsoft recommends that you upgrade to Visio for the web. Visio for the web enables high fidelity viewing, sharing, and collaboration on the web browser full page without installing the client for all Microsoft 365 licenses. It also supports embedding Visio diagrams in SharePoint in Microsoft 365 by using the File Viewer Web Part and iFrames along with JS API programmability.

In addition, Visio for the web supports richer scenarios such as find, pan/zoom, and Power BI–integrated dashboards, among other things. Moving to Visio for the web allows you to take advantage of the latest product innovations and ensure latest performance and reliability improvements that come from the Visio product team.

Migration assistance

As Visio Services is being retired, Microsoft recommends that you migrate to Visio for the web. Once Visio Web Access is retired:

  1. Visio files from SharePoint will continue to open in Visio for the web, but you won't be able to switch to Visio Services.

  2. If you were using the Visio Services Web Access for web-page viewing, you'll need to resave your .VDW files into the new file format: .VSD/.VSDX.

  3. If you were using Visio Web Access Web Part, you'll have to migrate them to the Visio Online File Viewer Web Part to embed Visio documents in SharePoint.

  4. If you were using Visio Services Web Access Web Parts with JS APIs, you will have to migrate them to iFrame with new JS APIs in Visio for the web to stop them from working.

* Also known as Visio Services in SharePoint Online.

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