Is there a way to access the Excel Object Model on my ultima website using asp.net?   On my local devel machine I installed the office PIA's and it worked great?  Are the office PIA's installed on ultima?  Is this possible?

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-Ben

Hi blarggstar,

    I'm sorry, but we do not support this on the servers and it is highly unlikely that we ever will.  There are a few problems with accessing the full Excel object model from a web server environment (shared or not).  Some of these are:

• Licensing ... must have the full Office license on the server.  Not a big deal, really.
• Supportability ... Microsoft doesn't support this configuration or recommend this configuration.  We figure they know best on that. 
  Quote:
  Microsoft does not currently recommend, and does not support, Automation of Microsoft Office applications from any unattended, non-interactive client application or component (including ASP, DCOM, and NT Services), because Office may exhibit unstable behavior and/or deadlock when run in this environment.
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257757/en-us. 
• Security ... some of the issues detailed in that environment represent major security risks, especially in an Internet-facing, shared hosting environment. 
• Reliability ... again, in that document, there are numerous reliability issues with automating Office in that type of environment.  This is something that we cannnot risk in a shared hosting environment. 

Sorry ... I know it's not the answer you wanted.  But ...

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James Sawyer
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Dev Lead
Ultima Support Team

It was the answer I exptected though, I researched this and concluded the same thing.

 

Thanks for your time.

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-Ben

So ... doing Excel is a shared environment is a no-go.  I'm glad that you understand this. 

We do, however, offer Virtual Private Servers starting at $49/month.  Since this would be your own little virtual server, you could do some crazy things ... like manipulating Excel (assuming, of course, you have the license for Excel ... we don't provide that and we'd have to verify).  Of course, keep in mind that you'd be on your own with any issues relating to Excel as well ...

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James Sawyer
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Dev Lead
Ultima Support Team