Support for Azure Functions

[nes-jisc]

Would you expect this module to work correctly in an Azure function? In my function I can successfully Open new Word documents and Save them to the function local storage but they do populate with any content I send to them so I just end up with 5KB empty files.

[PrzemyslawKlys]

Not until Xceed releases version 1.6, and even that it depends on whether they decide to give us NET Standard binaries. Here are the release notes for 1.6 (https://xceed.com/release-notes/#words-net-1.6.19076.19550) but I don't know if everything will be available as part of the community edition. The most important part:

• Xceed PDF Creator for .NET is now available on .NET Standard 2.0 for .NET Core 2.0 Applications.

I expect 1.6 released sometime next year.

There's also a problem that 1.5 version changed the license from MS-PL to Xceed Community (non-commercial use), that's why I 've not updated my version from 1.4 to 1.5.

More information about license here: xceedsoftware/DocX#345

[PrzemyslawKlys]

If you're willing to pay up it would be possible to use the pay version with this module. I tested this some time ago with a free trial.

[nes-jisc]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. That's a real shame - it looks like I'll have to run my script on an Azure VM for now.

[PrzemyslawKlys]

Depending on what you really need from PSWriteWord you could try using PSWritePDF. I still have some fixes to do before releasing it to the public with docs and all but it's working cross-platform. https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWritePDF

[PrzemyslawKlys]

Alternatively https://github.com/EvotecIT/PSWriteHTML - but of course - different use cases.

[nes-jisc]

I'm creating monthly reports for customers by querying the Azure Advisor API and then outputting these to tables in Word. However my customer service team needs to be able to edit them to add notes and context before we send them to customers so we would have to invest in Acrobat to use PDF and HTML is obviously not suitable. However thanks for the suggestion. I'll use a VM with managed identity and start/stop solution for now. It'd be great as well if at some point the module could be made to output to blob storage as well as local disk.

[PrzemyslawKlys]

I guess we will see after 1.6 gets released. I'm more than happy to have new features, just maybe not enough to do it myself.

[PrzemyslawKlys]

#36 - 1.6 is released. Tough spot on licensing tho.

[PrzemyslawKlys]

Sorry, I'm wrong. They released 1.6 without Net Standard part.

[nes-jisc]

So does that mean we are going to have to wait for 1.7?

[PrzemyslawKlys]

It basically means DocX Free version may never get that support. I can see in sources that they mention Net Standard yet, they cut that out. It seems their business model is to drive people to pay version. I guess sooner or later they will have to release Net Standard or people will find a product that can do that.

[nes-jisc]

That would be short-sighted of them. For now I am just having to run the script on a VM which is a shame as it stops the solution being completely PaaS. Fingers crossed for the future. And thanks for such a great module.