What is required server-side to run Office Interop

Question

I am currently working on a MVC4 website and would like to add interoperability with MS Office for the following:

Communicator 2007 (Presence status's only). Outlook (To send template emails from the end-user's Outlook). Excel (To create data in an excel sheet and save.)

Is it possible to do these with the Office Interop APIs without installing office on the hosting server?

Are there alternatives to the Interop that will provide same/similar functionality?

I understand the security risks involved and Microsoft's discouragement against server-side automation.

Answer 1

There are many third-party libraries that will create and read Excel files. GemBox and EEPlus are two that come to mind.

Redemption is an API for Exchange/Outlook that doesn't require Office itself be installed (you only have to install the MAPI COM dlls). It's COM though, so be prepared for COM interop for this one.

As for Communicator... ???.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, the interops themselves don't actually implement any of the office functionality, you still need the required Office applications installed.

I'd look at using SMTP for sending emails, and NPOI for your Excel needs. This will avoid the need for Outlook and Excel on the server. I'm not sure about communicator.