Excel 2003 in a WEB SERVICE - would like some input :)
 

please help as I am an extreme newbie to reports and web stuff!

I need to create a web service that
A - takes data in (lots of text in a tab deleimeted format)
B - Populate a "pre" determined spreadsheet
C - Save it
D Email it

Is this concept OK or even possible for use on a server that is only used as
a ftp site currently? (worried about the COM aspects and running excel in
"?hidden mode? - no GUI" )
--
Thanks ahead of time for any insight/input at all!!!!
BillyD

Excel 2003 in a WEB SERVICE - would like some input :)
 

It is specifically "not recommended" by Microsoft to run Excel in a server
environment (ie. as part of a web application or service) - it's not
designed for this purpose.

There are a number of third-party "Excel writers" which can be used on a
server to create Excel files - you could look into one of these.
Eg: http://excelwriter.softartisans.com/


What server-side programming environment are you planning to use ?

Tim



"BillyD" wrote in message
...
please help as I am an extreme newbie to reports and web stuff!

I need to create a web service that
A - takes data in (lots of text in a tab deleimeted format)
B - Populate a "pre" determined spreadsheet
C - Save it
D Email it

Is this concept OK or even possible for use on a server that is only used
as
a ftp site currently? (worried about the COM aspects and running excel in
"?hidden mode? - no GUI" )
--
Thanks ahead of time for any insight/input at all!!!!
BillyD

Excel 2003 in a WEB SERVICE - would like some input :)
 

Tim,
Thanks for the response, I am in a managment sort of way being told to use
the COM shtuff on the server.

as a server-side programming enviornment:
C# .NET 2.0

Specifically the web service will consume a string (PKID for a row in a temp
db table (sql2000))
This will start the process to create the spreadsheet from that row and ship
it via email.
Simple enough yeah? Well that is what I thought till I tried to
programmatically create the excel :) Grrrr!

Thanks
BillyD
--
What are we talking about?


"Tim Williams" wrote:

It is specifically "not recommended" by Microsoft to run Excel in a server
environment (ie. as part of a web application or service) - it's not
designed for this purpose.

There are a number of third-party "Excel writers" which can be used on a
server to create Excel files - you could look into one of these.
Eg: http://excelwriter.softartisans.com/


What server-side programming environment are you planning to use ?

Tim



"BillyD" wrote in message
...
please help as I am an extreme newbie to reports and web stuff!

I need to create a web service that
A - takes data in (lots of text in a tab deleimeted format)
B - Populate a "pre" determined spreadsheet
C - Save it
D Email it

Is this concept OK or even possible for use on a server that is only used
as
a ftp site currently? (worried about the COM aspects and running excel in
"?hidden mode? - no GUI" )
--
Thanks ahead of time for any insight/input at all!!!!
BillyD