.NET Efficient way to generate WORD Doc - Server S

Question

.NET 4.0

I am looking for the easiest way to generate a Word document on our server.

Limitations :

• Server side
• I don't want to install word on the server
• Data source is XML

I tried to generate a DOCX with XSLT which is fast and easy but the only way I could find to validate the generated document is to open it with Word and the only error I get when the document is not valid is "Error while opening document". Not very useful.

Any ideas?

Thanks, Alex

Answer 1

I have used the Word interops, but I hated it. Stick processes, etc!

I found that generating HTML and saving as file with .DOC extension worked better than anything.

Answer 2

Keeping far from office automation at server side is really a good idea (since even Microsoft does not support this scenario).

I have never used, but this lib looks promising. Have you tried it?

Answer 3

A few years back, I worked on a project which used Aspose Word (http://www.aspose.com/categories/.net-components/aspose.words-for-.net/default.aspx) to generate Word documents. The tool does not require Word to be installed. However, it is not a cheap tool. IT tool was relatively easy to use and has a robust .net interface.

Answer 4

You have two options given your setup.

1. Use a third party library, something like the stuff available from SyncFusion
2. Use the XML route, the initial setup isn't fun, but once you get it the process is easy.

A third, much more crude way would be to write an HTML file and save as .doc, but that is going to cause warnings on the user side with 2007 and later.