Automation of Word from .net 2

[Mark Rae]

I do listen,

You obviously don't...

I'll have a hardtime persuading the client to switch the strategy
right now.

And what will you say to your client when your application doesn't work...?
You'll have a much harder time then, won't you...!

Your original post asked for help implementing server-side Office
automation.

You were advised my several people, some much more experienced and
well-respected than me, that this strategy will almost certainly not work
because it's simply not designed to work this way.

I provided you with a link to a Microsoft article explaining this in much
greater detail, why they do not recommend this approach, and how they will
not support any application which uses it...

You didn't like this... No doubt it will be very embarrassing at this late
stage for you to go to your client and tell them that your lack of
experience has led you to designing a solution which will almost certainly
never work. If you're lucky, maybe all they will do is terminate your
contract and not pay you - if you're very unlucky, maybe they will sue you
for professional negligence - there's not much anybody here can do about
that...

You're the only person who can fix this...

Several alternative solutions have been offered to you, some of them
COMPLETELY FREE.

You don't have to choose any of them.

There's an expression in English which says: "There's none so blind as those
who will not see."

Best of luck to you - you're really going to need it...

 

[John Timney \(MVP\)]

The concept is quite simple really. Your document uploads, data capture
(email) etc etc. are done using asp.net and the role of asp.net pretty much
ends there. Its job is to accept work and stick it in a queue.

Another machine processes the queue sequentially and returns the processed
work to the initiator. On a busy site there is a wait period, so the
replies are normally by email. As the jobs are sequential, your single
instance of office should easily cope. To scale out the solution, add more
job servers.

As people have pointed out, word is not best suited for automation on web
servers - so think outside the box and remove that specific element of the
problem.

--
Regards

John Timney (MVP)
http://www.johntimney.com
http://www.johntimney.com/blog

 

[Russell]

This queueing strategy seems like the best advice anyone came up with
for this question. Of course, her client isn't going to like it
because the emails will be delayed a few minutes. I wish her the best
of luck explaining why it has to be that way.

As for the rest of you... have you never had a client insist on using
a product or an implementation strategy that really wasn't the best
way to go? You give them the best advice you can, then you do what
they want to the best of their ability and if it works at all you take
their money. Particularly when integrating legacy software or
documents, you may not get much choice about formats.