Jacek said:
Hi Eric!
I would appreciate if You would be more specific on explaining term
"~possible~, but not supported".
Does it mean that Office provides server-side automation services but MSFT
does not release any API info on that, or rather that it is not accessible
at all?
You can see more details in this KB article
INFO: Considerations for Server-Side Automation of Office
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=257757
In brief the issues are
- Office always runs under a user accountm even when started through
automation from a system process
- There is no way to stop the UI getting generated
- Office is big and often doesn't appreciate multiple instances being
started
- Some errors & problem result in message boxes being displayed, stopping
the app until the user clears it
- Security for Office hasn't been designed with server-side applications in
mind
- The EULA doesn't permit server-side usage unless the clients being served
all have their own copy of Office.
Apart from that, you'll have no problems.
Although I haven't attempted server-side automation of Office, I have
written some long-running document processing macros in Word, and it is
seriously hard work sometimes to ensure that for those wrning dialogs that
can't be suppressed, the code is written to ensure that they are never
triggered. It can be done, but it is tricky.