Word Automation using ASP .NET and VB .NET

[srinivas RV]

I would like to implement word automation in my porject. I
am using ASP .NET and VB .NET. The user will select some
template documents from the web site and click on a
button. The button will perform all the merging of the
selceted documents into a single document. Has anyone come
across this kind of requirement. If yes, please suggest me
the way, how can I go ahead and design the system. I am
aware of that Microsoft will not recommand the office
automation on the web server. But I don't have another
choice, Please help me in this.

Thanks and Regards,
Srini

 

[Vitalik]

Srini,

Before you embark on the technical implementation, let me tell you that
there are pretty strict licensing requirements. In addition to a web server
computer requiring an Office (or just Word) license, each of the connected
users must have an Office license too. For intranet applications it may not
be so bad, since your organization may already posses enough number of
licenses. It is totally different story if you design an internet
application. Since it is impossible to verify that every connected device
has a valid license, Microsoft does not recommend using Word in such
configuration. I know for a fact that these requirements apply to using of
Office Web Components as part of web applications, so I don't think that
actual Office applications will have less strict requirements.

Hope this helps.

Vitaliy