[dba-SQLServer] Exporting to Excel when Excel is not installed

Hello All,

I have a server running a DotNetNuke application.

I want to export data to Excel format from a sql source.  I can write a DLL
to do that, but I suspect that if Excel is not installed on the box, it will
not work.  Is that so?

If I uploaded some of my Excel DLL's would it work then?

The db is SQL Express so I suspect I cannot use SSIS - which is a pity.

It is running in a shared hosting environment and I have what I think is
named "Medium Trust" privillages.  AFAIK, this means that I would not be
able to run an Exe on the box.

I can schedule a DLL to be executed however through the in built scheduling
too.

any thoughts on how to achieve this?

Currently I am learning towards writing to a text file and naming is
data.xls  which will trick excel into opening a text tab delimited file.

Any better ideas?

Thanks

Mark