All of this stuff is available individually for download on our various sites. But because you have asked for it, we have made available the ISO image that we use to burn all of this cool stuff onto CD. So with one (rather large) download, you can get the full CD’s worth of scripting tools. Just look for the Community Scripting Toolkit CD ISO here.

Technorati Tags: PrimalScript, PrimalSQL, PrimalTools, PrimalXML, SAPIEN Press, scripting, scripts, training, Windows PowerShell

If you need to edit CSV files most people use Microsoft Excel, which registers as the default editor for the .CSV extension. This is fine on your desktop or laptop computer, but when was the last time you found a Windows 2008 R2 server with Microsoft Office installed?

At that point, your friendly neighborhood administrator recommends using Notepad or some other general purpose text editor you may happen to have on your server or on your toolkit flash drive.

While editing a CSV file in Notepad works, since it is a text file after all, it is far from ideal.

So let me introduce PrimalCSV Community Edition:

PrimalCSV is a dedicated, single file CSV editor you can just place on your flash drive and carry around with you. Since it is a single executable file with as few dependencies as we could manage, this tool requires no installation. It is available in 32 and 64 bit versions.

PrimalCSV is free for personal and non-profit use (please read the End-User-License-Agreement on first startup) and can be downloaded here: Community Tools. Registration is required to access the Community Tools downloads.

We know that there are a lot of features and tons of functionality that can be added to this. So please don’t hesitate to head over to our free tools support forum at http://support.sapien.com/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=10 and let us know what you think.

Technorati Tags: Community Tools, csv, powershell, PrimalCSV, PrimalTools

In this blog we will provide you with a sneak peek at the new Snippet Editor tool for PrimalScript 2011 and Visual PowerShell 2011.

(Fig 1: The Snippet Editor Application)

For those of you who are not familiar with snippets, they are small pieces of reusable code that can be quickly inserted in your script while editing. This piece or snippet of code can come in a various forms, such as, a full fledged function or a simple single line statement.  Snippets can also come in various languages such VBScript, PowerShell, C#, etc.

The Snippet Editor tool allows users to quickly create or edit snippets. These snippets are Microsoft Visual Studio compatible; therefore, you can painlessly import your existing snippets into PrimalScript 2011 and Visual PowerShell 2011.

The example below demonstrates how to create and edit a snippet that consists of a simple header using Visual PowerShell 2011. Simply start by selecting the part of the script you wish to convert into a snippet and use the “Create Snippet…” context menu option.

(Fig 2: Context menu option “Create Snippet…”)

The Snippet Editor will open preloaded with the selected script and appropriate language setting. Next add a description and edit the snippet’s title to fit your needs.

(Fig 3: Snippet Editor with prefilled script)

The header in this example is ready but the snippet will not be useful to others if it contains the same user and company name. This problem is resolved by creating substitute variables that allow users to quickly change the user name  and company name when they insert the snippet.

(Fig 4: Context Menu option “Add Variable”)

In the editor simply select the section of text you want to convert into a variable and click on the “Add Variable” option in the context menu. The new variable will then appear on the Variables Panel. Then you have the option to rename new variable.

(Fig 5: Variables Panel)

In the Variable Details Panel you can add a default value to these variables and provide Tooltip text.

(Fig 6: Variable Details Panel)

Now save the snippet and it is ready to use:

(Fig 7: Inserted Snippet with highlighted variables and tooltip)

As you can see the new Snippet Editor makes it fast and easy to create your own custom snippets.

Technorati Tags: 2011, features, PrimalForms, PrimalScript, PrimalScript Studio, SnippetEditor, snippets, Visual PowerShell

The short answer to that is: YES.

All current versions of any of our products have been tested under Windows 7 and are fully compatible with it.

Of course you don’t have to take our word for it. As always you can download a fully functional (unless otherwise noted) 45-day trial of everything.

Just head on over to www.primaltools.com and take your pick.

Technorati Tags: PrimalScript, SAPIEN, windows 7

The CHM file Microsoft released is a pretty nice graphical way of getting help for the built-in cmdlets but it’s a closed file and information for third party or even other Microsoft snapins is not available and cannot be added.

Cmdlets organized by popular verbs

This new version of our popular Powershell help tool allows importing any xml help file and about files from other vendors and puts all this combined information on your desktop or notebook. Powershell doesn’t even need to be installed in order to use this.

We have a more detailed QuickGuide available here:
PowerShell Help Quick Guide

You can download this version from here in 32 and 64 bit versions: SAPIEN Community Tools

And yes, it is a Community Tool, so it is free with registration.

Here are some more screenshots:

Showing About files

Hyperlinked “Related Links”

Online Links shown in integrated browser

Search cmdlet help and About articles

Show search results and easily navigate between hits.

Import other help xml files or about articles.

Take notes and keep them associated with each individual help topic.

Technorati Tags: community edition, Help, powershell

It is fairly simple to connect PrimalSQL to your MySQL 5.1 database. Follow the outlined steps below and you will be connected in no time!

1) Presumably you have a MySQL 5.1 database installed either locally or on a server somewhere. If you want to test this on a new installation, you can download MwSQL 5.1 from http://www.mysql.com. Select the OS that you will be installing under and download the MSI. Its a fairly straight forward install which walks you through creation of an account, etc. Be sure to download the ODBC connector and install that as well. Optionally, you may want to download and install the MySQL Gui tools, but, hey, what we really want to do is use PrimalSQL, right?

2) Once you have MySQL installed, create an ODBC connection using the Data Sources Control Panel applet. Once you have ODBC Data Source Administrator window open, create a User DSN or system DSN by adding a new data source. Select “MySQL ODBC 5.1 Driver as the driver and press Finish.

This will pop up the MySQL Connector/ODBC Data Source Configuration window. Fill in a name for your DSN, description, server location (in this case localhost). The port defaults to 3306. You also need to fill in your MySQL credentials. Optionally, you can select the default database as well from the dropdown. Test the connection. If all is well, press OK to create the data source.

3) Open PrimalSQL. Click the Connection button on the ribbon and select New.

4) In the Provider Pane of the Data Link Properties window, select Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers and press Next.

5) On the Connection pane, select the MySQL DSN that you created in step 2 under Use Data Source Name. Enter your credentials and select an initial catalog. Test the connection. If all goes well, press OK.

6) A new Connection will show up in the PrimalSQL Database Browser panel. Rename it to something that makes sense to you.

7) Double click the connection to connect it. Right click on the connection and select Set As Active Connection.

You should be able to see your Stored procedures, views and tables listed under the connection. PrimalSQL will allow you to query your tables using the Visual Query Builder or by writing SQL code. At this time, PrimalSQL does not support the editing of Stored Procedures in MySQL.

PrimalSQL is available as a free 45 day trial at http://www.primaltools.com. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Technorati Tags: PrimalSQL, sql

What’s new in v1.0.4:

- Resolved issue with fonts and international settings
- Resolved the DataGridView crash issue
- Columns can now be added to the DataGridView via the designer
- Other minor fixes and changes

A quick guide is available to assist new users with PrimalForms Community Edition at: http://www.primaltools.com/downloads/quickguides/

In other news, PrimalForms 2009 will be released very soon!

If you’re not familiar with this application, we recently announced the all inclusive PrimalForms 2009, which incorporates a fully functional script editor with PrimalSense, built in Powershell help, and a Script Packager. For more information please read our announcement post: It slices, it dices, and it makes forms!

Technorati Tags: powershell, PrimalForms, PrimalTools, Software

New users and even experienced users of software may not be fully aware of all of the capabilities of the tools they use. At SAPIEN, it is not unusual to receive support requests asking whether the latest version of PrimalScript supports a specific functionality, which the user is unaware has been in the product for several generations. Feature lists on web sites help somewhat with these issues, but sometimes what the user needs is a tutorial on a process, rather than a feature.

To this end, SAPIEN is introducing SAPIEN QuickGuides, downloadable PDFs that focus on using SAPIEN software such as PrimalScript, PrimalXML, etc. Some of these QuickGuides may focus on how to use certain product features, while others will focus on how to accomplish certain tasks. We expect to deliver a QuickGuide at least once a month starting May 2009. QuickGuides will be available for download here. We also have created a forum for users to post QuickGuide requests. That forum is located here.

We look forward to creating useful guides for you and with your suggestions, we hope to create the most useful and useable materials possible.

Technorati Tags: ChangeVue, PrimalMerge, PrimalScript 2009, PrimalSQL, PrimalXML

This compilation of all SAPIEN products will contain PrimalScript 2009 Studio, all disk based training products SAPIEN offers as well as an ever increasing number of ebooks.

Special pricing for existing Universal customers as well as upgrade pricing for PrimalScript 2009 and PrimalScript 2009 Studio owners will be announced at the time of the actual release.

Please keep your eye on this blog and on www.scriptingoutpost.com for news on this topic.

Technorati Tags: ebook, PrimalScript, studio, training, universal