Opening Outlook with a Java Web App from a Linux Server with Apache Tomcat 8.x

Question

I'm trying to make a web app on an apache tomcat 8.0.22 server that will allow the user to send out pre-defined boilerplate emails to groups. It works perfectly on my local machine, but now that I've deployed it on the apache tomcat on our linux server it fails to work saying that no X11 DISPLAY variable has been set. I was wondering how I could go about fixing this. I haven't been able to find any information regarding using an app on a linux server to open Outlook on the user's computer.

Answer 1

I can't imagine how and where you automate Outlook, but Microsoft does not currently recommend, and does not support, Automation of Microsoft Office applications from any unattended, non-interactive client application or component (including ASP, ASP.NET, DCOM, and NT Services), because Office may exhibit unstable behavior and/or deadlock when Office is run in this environment. You can read more about that in the Considerations for server-side Automation of Office article.

If you deal with an Exchange server profile consider using the EWS (Exchange Web Services). See EWS Managed API, EWS, and web services in Exchange for more information.