RE: FN-FORUM: PHP generate xls

date posted 30th October 2007 20:37

Adam Reynolds wrote:
> Installing excel on a server allows you to get at the COM
> object and do stuff directly using api calls. This can be
> used quite successfully.

One of my previous roles was as an Excel specialist, and I've seen exactly
why MS don't support it. When you create the COM object, it fires up an
instance of Excel.exe, so just doesn't show the UI, it's still loaded and
it's still Excel.

You could include script on your page to automate excel on the client
machine if it's present, but don't try to create the workbook server-side.
I know more about why as well but I'm not able to discuss it it among many
other things I know about Microsoft is covered by an NDA.