Installing Microsoft Office on a windows server?

Question

I could not google a straight simple answer to this, so i'm trying my luck here.

is there a problem installing Microsoft office 2007\2010\2013 on a network windows-based server, to be able to do some server-side conversions and simple automatic operations using its inter ops libraries on user generated documents?

If it is, is there anything i need to know prior to installing it ? any licenses needed ? cost of these ? is it the same as installing office on a client pc ?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Developers can use Automation in Microsoft Office to build custom solutions that use the capabilities and the features that are built into the Office product. Although such programmatic development can be implemented on a client system with relative ease, a number of complications can occur if Automation takes place from server-side code such as Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP), ASP.NET, DCOM, or a Windows NT service.

Answer 2

Microsoft Office supports Windows Server OS - feel free to install it on your server. But it doesn't support automation on the Server server side. The Considerations for server-side Automation of Office page states the following:

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, ASP.NET, DCOM, and NT Services), because Office may exhibit unstable behavior and/or deadlock when Office is run in this environment.

If you are building a solution that runs in a server-side context, you should try to use components that have been made safe for unattended execution. Or, you should try to find alternatives that allow at least part of the code to run client-side. If you use an Office application from a server-side solution, the application will lack many of the necessary capabilities to run successfully. Additionally, you will be taking risks with the stability of your overall solution.