What is required server-side to run Office Interops?

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 (T

Answer 1

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.

Answer 2

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... ???.