All VSON documents are built from a single root Shape. Every VSON document begins with this shape, which sits at the center of your diagram.
This document is the beginning of any VSON drawing. It defines a single shape of default size with default appearance and the label "Hello World" centered on the canvas.
{
"Version": "1.0",
"Template": "OrgChart",
"McpGenerated": true,
"KeepDocument": true,
"Shape": {
"ID": 1,
"Label": "Hello World"
}
}
Read the VSON Markup Reference to see a complete list of properties you can set on a Shape and the other objects you can add to it.
Clearly most documents don't consist of a single shape. You can make a document with virtually any arrangement of multiple shapes by adding either a ShapeContainer, a ShapeConnector, or a Table to the root shape and then recursively add more shapes to it.
Here's how you'd add a ShapeConnector to the root shape and then add two shapes to the connector:
{
"Version": "1.0",
"Template": "OrgChart",
"McpGenerated": true,
"KeepDocument": true,
"Shape": {
"ID": 1,
"ShapeConnector": [
{
"ShapeConnectorType": "OrgChart",
"Shapes": [
{ "ID": 2 },
{ "ID": 3 }
]
}
]
}
}
Adding a ShapeContainer will produce this visual with the following document:
{
"Version": "1.0",
"Template": "Flowchart",
"McpGenerated": true,
"KeepDocument": true,
"Shape": {
"ID": 1,
"ShapeContainer": {
"Arrangement": "Row",
"Shapes": [
{ "ID": 2 },
{ "ID": 3 }
]
}
}
}
Adding a Table to the root shape will give you a nested grid-like arrangement:
{
"Version": "1.0",
"Template": "Flowchart",
"McpGenerated": true,
"KeepDocument": true,
"Shape": {
"ID": 1,
"FillColor": "#FFFFFF",
"Table": {
"Rows": 3,
"Columns": 3,
"Cell": [
{ "Row": 1, "Column": 1, "Label": "Cell 1" },
{
"Row": 2, "Column": 2,
"Shape": {
"ID": 2,
"FillColor": "#93B0CD",
"ShapeContainer": {
"Arrangement": "Row",
"Shapes": [
{ "ID": 3, "Label": "Choice A", "FillColor": "#FFFFFF" },
{ "ID": 4, "Label": "Choice B", "FillColor": "#FFFFFF" }
]
}
}
}
]
}
}
}
In the recipes that follow, we will use these building blocks to build lots of different types of diagrams.