7h0m

Hi!

I have a multitude of VB .NET programs that generate reports in Excel that I populate from an SQL Database locally. My boss wants me to port all these to ASP.net so that users could then access these reports with dynamicly generated results on a browser page.

Before jumping onto imbeding Excel objects using ASP.NET from the code I have in VB .NET I was wondering on what kind of approach to use. What could be the most effective way to convert/display these reports in real time to the user via a Browser?

Hail to the helpers.

7h0m

wayneph

If you are using SQL Server, I would personally ditch ASP.NET and create all of the reports using Reporting Services. (That's assuming there is little additional logic needed in the application.)

Personally, I never automate Office apps from a web server. The 2 times I've tried (admittedly back in '02 or '03) I ended up with threads running over each other because Office is intended to be a single user desktop application. I hear the newer versions of Office have some features that address these issues, but I haven't tested them. (And I don't have Office 2007 at work yet. )

If the user needs to manipulate the Excel File, then there really isn't a good web solution. A spreadsheet is a pretty powerful application that hasn't found a good implementation in a browser. (I think Google has one that I haven't played with...) If you're just displaying data the GridView control has the most powerful out-of-the box power for sorting, paging, etc.... You can also look at some of the powerful 3rd Party (not free) Ajax enabled controls to spice up the GUI that much more.