Is it possible to automate Visio with ASP.NET?

My clients are trying to revive an ASP.NET 1.0 ap开发者_如何学Cplication (yes, you read that right) that generated data-driven Visio Gantt diagrams. I have access to the code (VB.NET), but there are no notes, comments, or documentation, and no employees from 2003 still around. Compounding the issue, I'm pretty new on the scene (ASP.NET 3.5+ only), so the project structure looks very foreign to me (.resx files?).

I've tried including Visio Interop libs with little success. I tried following this article , but when adding the MS Visio 12.0 type library reference to the project solution in VWD Express 2010, I get an error that reads, "A reference to "Microsoft Visio Viewer 12.0 Type Library" could not be added. Converting the type library to a .NET assembly failed. No process is associated with this object." I don't know what that means but I sense it'll be a huge headache to resolve.

At this point I'm stuck and considering porting this feature to more a current platform. Can anybody suggest anything?

Visio has an xml format (.vdx)

If you don't need Visio to help you with layout or connections, you might be able generate the xml files, then have your ASP app serve them up as consumable Visio files.

If you need Visio's Gantt-chart add-in features, or Visio's export to web or image features, then this might not be the way to go. But if you only need to place shapes on a page, set text and other data fields, and have a fairly simple layout and simple connecting lines, you should be able to go this route.

The last download link in this article is for a presentation on Visio and XML that I gave a while back:

http://www.visguy.com/2006/11/30/visio-and-xml-conference-resources/

You should not access the automation API of any Office program from ASP.NET or any other server environment. It is unsupported, will fail at random, and may cause you to violate the terms of your license with Microsoft.

Tell them "no". You'll be much happier.

Well, you may download and use Aspose.Diagram library. It works with Microsoft Visio files without the installation of Microsoft Office Visio. Developers can create, open and manipulate the elements of diagrams and export to many other supported file formats. Based on your scenario, you may get details from a database backend and then create Visio diagrams. It is achievable using Aspose.Diagram API. Please refer to the technical resources of Aspose.Diagram for .NET API.

I work as a Developer Evangelist at Aspose.