Product Decision

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AMoeller
Posts: 3
Last visit: Thu Feb 27, 2020 9:30 am

Product Decision

Post by AMoeller »

Product, version and build: PrimalScript 2019 \ PowerShell Studio 2019
64 bit version
Operating system: Windows 7 / 10
64 bit OS

*** Please add details and screenshots as needed below. ***

Our company is trying to decide on the best tool we should move forward with Primal Script 2019 \ PowerShell Studio 2019. We are trying to move all old scripts and deployment packages form our Modern management product to PowerShell packages. We would like to build reboot GUI or nice message popups for the end users if the script catches something. Have a syntax and debugger built in to help finding errors in the code. Also, a library of code snips and library of information to help new people to PowerShell to find their way. We are looking at making scripts into self-contain EXE and MSI, so it be deployed via MDM or modern management solution too. Can these EXE or MSI package have dependence files with in them, along with the script? Also, to be able to sign the package to make sure it was an approved package. Does your product have revision tracking on the code your working on, so if you made a change that broken it you can go back to the old version and not save 20 different copies. We have good amount of scripts in BAT / VBS / JAVA right now that we want to convert to a standard PowerShell template.

I think that is about everything we are looking for in a new program to help bring us to a standard for package deployment.

Thank you

Alec Moeller
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davidc
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Last visit: Mon Jul 08, 2019 8:55 am
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Re: Product Decision

Post by davidc »

Hello Alec,

You will need to consider the following, when deciding on which product:

1. Do you plan to work most in PowerShell or will you need to work with multiple scripting languages at once?
PrimalScript supports multiple scripting languages in IDE. Whereas PowerShell Studio is focused exclusively on PowerShell. Although PowerShell Studio does offer syntax coloring for other file formats.
2. If you plan on creating custom GUIs then I would recommend PowerShell Studio over PrimalScript.
3. We also have a the SAPIEN DevOps Suite, which includes all our products for about the same price as PrimalScript and PowerShell Studio combined.

I highly recommend installing each product and trying them out for yourself before deciding. I also recommend watching this video, which gives a quick overview of the two products:

https://youtu.be/iGD7cuGvbSA


- Both products allow you to create custom snippets as well as custom file templates that you can share your company.

- The packager doesn’t merge external dependences (other than dot sourced files). For external dependencies, it is recommended to use MSI installers. Within the MSI settings you can add additional files or specify a staging folder.

- Both products can integrate with MS SCCI source control providers and Git source control. We also offer VersionRecall, which is a hands-off version control system, but also gives you more granular control, by allowing you to submit files manually. VersionRecall is include as part of the suite.

Please let me know if you have any further questions, I will be happy to help.
David
SAPIEN Technologies, Inc.
AMoeller
Posts: 3
Last visit: Thu Feb 27, 2020 9:30 am

Re: Product Decision

Post by AMoeller »

Thank you for getting back to me.

We are looking at moving forward and doing almost everything in PowerShell scripting as much as we can. There may be other languages like Python or .Net that we may run into down road if things do not work using PowerShell. I do not see that being a problem as we are moving all our device right now to Windows 10 1803 min, which has PowerShell v6 on them. The only reason we may need .net is for GUIs, but i sound like from the video we will be about to make nice GUI in the PowerShell studio too, just like you could do in Dreamweaver when making sites. Like i stated before we are trying to convert and Batch or VBS files to PowerShell scripts.

With that GUI can it run as system and pop up messages on current user desktop or run as current user then execute the commands it calls as a specify admin or system account?

For the warping of packages, basically it will take a script that you have made (sign or not signed). Make into an EXEs or MSIs to run as specify user \ have a password to run it \ or etc. If we would want to wrap a PowerShell form (GUI) with a couple other PS1 files that it calls, will it do that? I know you stated we cannot have it compile the script with other MSIs, EXEs, or DLLs that we want that script to use, as we would need an MSI package builder for that.

You stated Both products allow you to create custom snippets as well as custom file templates that you can share your company. Do we need to just have a file share to point to store all the snippets or does another service need to be set up like GitHub? We do have Office 365 with department SharePoint sites, so I am hoping we can host the snippets there.

Last on version history that I was talking about, the tool Version Recall is part of the PowerShell Studio package? Sounds like it will all the user who are writing the code to track the changes they made to the script file while modify it. Just want to make sure I am correct about that, as I can see you can Version Recall 2019 from you guys, we not trying to buy a full another product just to track changes while building a script.


Thank you again for help us pick the right product for our company, I think i am leaning to Powershell studio. As the other languages we can use Notepad ++ to read, to be able to convert to Powershell.
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davidc
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Last visit: Mon Jul 08, 2019 8:55 am
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Re: Product Decision

Post by davidc »

If you plan to work primarily in PowerShell, then I recommend PowerShell Studio.
Quick Note: PowerShell V6 runs on .NET core which does not support GUIs. For that you will need to use Windows PowerShell V5 (with comes installed on Windows 10).

If you package the script into an executable, you can have it use alternative credentials in order to execute the script. If you talking about a service, normally the GUI will not be displayed to the user, unless you configure the services to allow interaction with the desktop.

As for multiple files, you have a few options:

1. Distribute the dependent files with the executable.
2. Create a project and it can merge the scripts into a single script file that is packaged.
3. Use the packager's Resolve and include external scripts option:
Packager - Resolve external scripts.png
Packager - Resolve external scripts.png (30.98 KiB) Viewed 15823 times

This does not include external dlls. For that I recommend creating an installer to distribute, but you can easily distribute a zip file if you prefer.


For snippet sharing, all you need to do is step up a network shared or use a cloud share service such as DropBox. Then set the Options->Panels->Snippets->Custom Snippet Directory to point at the desired folder:
Custom Snippet Directory.png
Custom Snippet Directory.png (31.79 KiB) Viewed 15823 times

VersionRecall is part of the DevOp Software Suite, but you can also purchase an individual license. Note: It is not included with PowerShell Studio.
VersionRecall integrates with PowerShell Studio, but it is designed to work with any file type without requiring user interaction (unless of course the user configured it that way). There is no requirement to use this software and you can still use whatever alternative you have in place.
David
SAPIEN Technologies, Inc.
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