Page 98 - MSDN Magazine, August 2017

Adding File Conversion and Manipulation to Business Systems
How often do people in your organization complain that they can’t get information in the file format and layout they want? Converting documents from one format to another without losing layout and formatting should be simple, but it can be frustrating for both users and developers.
EXTRACTING DATA FROM A DATABASE AND DELIVERING
IT TO THE SALES TEAM AS A REPORT, complete with charts and corporate branding, is fine. Until the sales team says that they want it as a Microsoft Excel file,
and could you add a dashboard?
Using information from online forms in letters that can are printed and posted
is easy. But what if you also want to add tracking barcodes and archive a digital copy as a PDF?
Ensuring that your business system supports all the different Microsoft Office file formats your users want can be difficult. Sometimes the native file format support of your system lets you down. When that is the case, use tools that extend that capability. A good tool can save you time and effort.
Document Conversion Options
Building your own solution: Time- consuming and costly, this option is only sensible if the solution you develop is central to your business.
Using Microsoft Office Automation: Microsoft Office
Automation lets you use Microsoft Office programs server-side. It is not how the Office products were designed to be used. It can work well but you might notice issues with the stability, security and
speed of the system, as well as cost.
Using an API: The API market has lots of free and commercial solutions, some
very focused, some feature-rich. An API integrates with your code and gives you access to a range of new features.
Look to Aspose
Aspose are API experts. We create APIs, components and extensions that work independently of Microsoft Automation to extend a platform’s native file format manipulation capabilities.
Aspose have developed APIs for .NET, Java, Cloud and Android that lets developers convert, create and manipulate Microsoft Office files – Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio and Project – and other popular business formats, from PDFs and images to emails. We also have APIs for working with images,
barcodes and OCR. The APIs are optimised for stability, speed and ease of use. Our APIs save users weeks, sometimes months, of effort.
Aspose creates APIs that work independently of Microsoft Office Automation.
Finding the Right Tool
To find the product that’s right for you, take a systematic approach:
• List must-have and nice-to- have features.
• Research the market.
• Ask for recommendations.
• Select a few candidates .
• Run trials.
• Evaluate
• ease of use,
• support and
documentation,
• performance, and
• current and future
needs.
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