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Not to be out done by PrimalScript 2011’s change tracking, PrimalForms 2011 will now incorporate line modification tracking as well. For more details on change tracking please read the Feature Peek 2011: Track Changes blog article. Similar to PrimalScript 2011, users will be able to navigate between blocks of changed lines by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Down or Ctrl+Shift+Up keys. Users will also have the option to disable the change tracking feature. Now if you ask me, PrimalForms 2011’s change tracking looks much nicer, but don’t tell Alex I said that.…   More »

Users of Microsoft's Visual Studio have known this feature for a few versions: Anytime you edit a line in your code an indicator in the left border of the window marks the line as changed. Once you save the file, the indicator turns green, signaling that the changes to this line have been saved. Obviously the above screenshots are not from Microsoft's Visual Studio, but from PrimalScript 2011. But to take things a step further than just copying Visual Studio's feature like so many "canned" edit controls, we have added a little twist we think you will like. These change…   More »

One of the most important things for any type of development is quick and efficient access to help information. No matter whether you are a seasoned developer or just started to write scripts longer than five lines, at some point you will need help.Maybe you just need a reminder about what the parameters of a function are for or you need a detailed sample of how to use this newfangled cmdlet to produce meaningful output. PrimalScript had built-in context sensitive help for generations and PrimalForms equally had its built-in access to PowerShell help, but these took screen real estate away…   More »

PrimalScript had a visual file comparison feature since 4.0. With the release of PrimalScript 2009 Studio we also added PrimalMerge, a tool to compare and merge not only files but also folders. While evaluating the feature line-up for our 2011 releases, we realized that comparing files in PrimalScript just so you have to then launch PrimalMerge, compare again and make the merge is a few steps too many. So without further ado, here is PrimalMerge 2011: PrimalMerge 2011 will be part of PrimalScript 2011, PrimalForms 2011, PrimalXML 2011 and PrimalSQL 2011. It will no longer be available as a stand-alone…   More »

This month, we are looking at PrimalForms 2011 and how to add event handlers to form controls. After evaluating PrimalForms 2009 and user feedback, we decided to improve the process of adding event handlers in PrimalForms 2011. In PrimalForms 2009, you can create the default event by double clicking on the control or by using the “Edit Default Event” context menu option. But if you want to create a handler for a different event, you have to go to the Property Pane then click on the events button and then search for the event you wish to add. PrimalForms 2011 streamlines…   More »

A new feature in PrimalForms 2011 is the Database Browser which makes creating queries in PowerShell GUIs as easy as 1, 2, 3: Click here to view a video of the Database Browser!  1. Create a Database Connection or open an existing connection Fig 1: Create New Database Connection button 2. Use the Database Browser to drag a table you wish to query onto the Form Designer. It will automatically create a grid and the necessary code to fill the grid. Fig 2: Drag the Table or View in the Designer to create the grid with query script. 3. Call…   More »

Feature Peek 2011 will consist of a series of blogs that will provide a sneak peek of new features which will appear in the 2011 edition of PrimalScript Studio products. 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…   More »