How run excel on Azure? - asp.net-mvc

I'm implementing a new application in ASP.NET with MVC4. I'd like to use Azure to host my project.
I've already created a cloud, but I have a problem with my datasheet. I'm using a excel file whom calculates some prices. I tryed to use openXML, but it can't recalculate my sheet, so i can't use it.
Then, I was thinking to install Microsoft Excel on my cloud to run my excel file.
Do you have any different ideas? Could my solution work?

Advice against running Office on a server apply doubly to Azure. The short answer is consistently "Don't do it". I replied to a similar question a couple of years ago, and the answer still applies. (Use a native .NET library)

Personally I would avoid this like the plague.
Unless you're doing a crazy amount of calculations in the Excel sheet, it's likely going to be easier to translate the calculation to an asp list or local sql instance than try to get manipulating Excel via Azure asp working.
If you can give details on what happens in the sheet we can probably help to find a way around the problem.
Edit:
It seems like you may be forced to use Excel, if so the following Microsoft KB article has a long list of problems and possible workarounds for manipulating Excel files server side:
Considerations for server-side Automation of Office

Related

I wanna fetch my blogposts from my website, to my iOS app. What knowledge is required to do this?

My website is up and running with support from Wix.com, I used the drag and drop builder to set it up and I didn't need to do any Client side/Server side programming for it to work.
What should I do if I want to keep the app updated with the website as soon as I upload any article/post on the website.
Consider taking a different approach and migrate to a platform/architecture that better suits your specific case.
My suggestion would be Microweber - it's a pretty advanced platform for websites with CMS and e-commerce features. It's been around for quite some time (3 years or so) and I'm using it for about 12 live active projects.
It's very neat if you plan to write custom code as it's based on Laravel and everything is easily extendable.
However, I'm using it mainly because of the support. Although it's free and open-source the team is online most of the time and have replied to my every request so far.
This is critical for me as many website solutions come and go and none is
perfect. What makes this one better is the reaction time and adequacy.
This is my personal opinion with regard to the fact that it's very hard to pick one solution among so many given that you didn't state more specific requirements.
It cannot be done without any server side scripting and backend database for the mobile app. you need to develop database for it.and then you will need to develop web service for the passing the data between mobile and backend.
A dirty way to do this would be through an HTTP request that reads HTML. However the best way would be through Wix's REST API.
Edit: I'm regards to keeping the app updated, you're going to need a backend service that is consistently checking for updates.

MVC application inside sharepoint drawbacks

We're doing an application which takes feeds and items in that feed to entities on our own site. This is supposed to be an open site which anybody can sign up to. All of this is done with MVC + knockoutjs. We are thinking about managing the entities from that site using Sharepoint 2013, essentially replacing our SQL tables of those entities, and putting them into lists on in our Sharepoint instance. We're also thinking of doing the same thing for users and passwords and such. Then we might have a setup for a single sign on for any other sites my company makes. Currently we're using NHibernate and SQL server.
Are we are naive to think that Sharepoint could handle the amount of traffic, with outside users using our site, along with customers. I've heard that it's doable, I'm just wondering if it's a smart thing to do, and if there are hickups, limitations that any of you have run into trying to do this.
We went pretty far down the Sharepoint-as-a-development-platform path and ultimately ended up scrapping what we had done and rewriting it in other technologies. That doesn't necessarily mean it is not the right choice for your situation, but there a few things to consider:
"Why do it this way?". What are the benefits to adding the Sharepoint layer to your technology stack? If not Sharepoint, what do the alternatives look like?
Do you already have a solid Sharepoint admin team in place? Sharepoint definately requires a dedicated admin or team of admins that really understand the product to keep it performant and to help you troubleshoot when things are not working correctly.
Do you have Sharepoint development talent already in house? Good Sharepoint developers are harder to find and are typically more expensive than your regular .NET developer. Also, some existing .NET developers may not be interested in learning Sharepoint.
What is your expected traffic, and can Sharepoint handle it out of the box? At least in previous versions of Sharepoint there were internal limits on the amounts of data that could be stored in each list. On top of that, there were practical limits before the performance of the app becomes totally unacceptable. Understanding what those limits are should be a part of your initial due diligence so you can plan for those eventualities.
Will you be extracting operational data for external reporting or warehousing purposes? Is your data team already familiar with getting data out of Sharepoint?
Ultimately, the reason we failed was we ran down the path after the promise of "easy" development without really committing to the product. When we started running into problems, we struggled with basics like troubleshooting because we had lost a couple key people and our regular devs and admins struggled to figure out what was going on. If we had had the right people in place, our experience might have been different. We didn't, however, and we eventually chose to move away from Sharepoint and rebuild on our standard MVC/SQL platform.
SharePoint has come a long way in a short time to allow external applications to interact with it in the way you describe. I wouldn't try it with anything but SharePoint 2013 mostly because the licensing allows for this without additional cost per user and partly because what I mention next isn't available in 2010 or earlier.
You can use a MVC/knockout frontend but, the MVC app for SharePoint template isn't exactly what you want unless you will provision every user as a SharePoint user account. That template is still an SP app which means it's run by an SP user. I would look at SharePoint as just an OData service that your app writes back to. You can either use the client object model (SCOM) and write back directly (each user exists as a SharePoint user), or you can proxy the data access from your MVC controller and use a 'service' SP user to connect to SharePoint using SCOM. SCOM is just REST and OData so you can use any web-capable language you choose. I know there are examples for C# and JavaScript (node.js). There may be others.
If you are expecting a lot of volume, I would suggest you host this application on SharePoint Online (Office 365), if possible, and configure it to federate with the rest of your environment. That way you only need to add more space as your data grows (rather than more and more servers as load grows).
Here's a nice overview of the APIs available to you:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/jj164060.aspx
SharePoint 2013 Developer Center:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/jj162979.aspx
5 minute video on SharePoint 2013 SCOM:
http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview?videoid=1e859ac8-58ca-46d0-a8e0-00f4189761a8&from=sharepermalink-link
Timely blog on anonymous access to SCOM:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/kaevans/archive/2013/10/24/what-every-developer-needs-to-know-about-sharepoint-apps-csom-and-anonymous-publishing-sites.aspx
There is no point to redesign you application only for replacing your database tables with sharepoint lists. Performance is one issue. Sharepoint list limitation is another issue, you will lose flexibility from relational database design and give your life to a black box design called sharepoint list.

Development of Sharepoint Data Entry Site

I am in the process of developing several data entry forms that the client has asked to be accessible through the SharePoint interface (2007 WSS version).
The forms will, among other requirements, consist of multiple drop downs that have to be loaded from tables in SQL Server. These lists of data are updated frequently through a process that sucks data in from Great Plains.
My inclination is to create a Web Part Page with a Page Viewer Web Part and go full screen like this: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/malag/archive/2008/09/15/story-of-a-mischievous-page-viewer-web-part.aspx
...and then to do the pages in ASP.NET MVC3. Is there a better story than this? The integrated SP development paradigm seems like waaaay more overhead.
This sounds like a common issue with developers new the SharePoint paradigm, especially for 2007. The short answer is that your solution will be the quickest way to get to where you want to go but isn't the "cleanest".
The other option is to create a SharePoint Solution and publish an application page to the _layouts directory. A quintessential "hello world" example can be found at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb418732(office.12).aspx.
New SP developers will find the hardest transition with deployment. The WSPBuilder codeplex project http://wspbuilder.codeplex.com/ has become the industries default solution for doing this. An example of using this can be found at http://www.greggalipeau.com/category/sharepoint/wspbuilder/.
For you I would say the key words are Application Pages and WSPBuilder.

Database back up from mvc.net application

I am using VS2010 and working on mvc application. I want to get Database backup from c# code and then want to restore database.
If some one has solution then please reply.
You can perform database backups using T-SQL script see this MSDN help page:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186865.aspx
Then you could wrap it as a Stored Procedure and execute it from your C# code.
You should think about your question as with two parts. First - Transact SQL script on how to backup and restore database, and second - how to run this script from ASP.Net, simply .NET for general purposes. Both are independent of each other. Answer of 1st question is as Sam adviced, look at MSDN Documentation. For the second sample, you could take a look at SqlCommand, using the first answer with it. For more general purposes, you could take a look at .NET Data Access, but i don't think you will need this one for now

developing a system like google directory in sharepoint 2007

i want develop a system in sharepoint 2007 that work similar google directory.
but i don't know how to achieve that. please help me.
Sharepoint 2007 comes with it's own search and indexing functions, are you trying to avoid using those for some reason, or are you trying to simply change the UI to look more like Google, or what?
Actually trying to scratch build a search feature for SharePoint would be a pretty non-trivial task.

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