Gent Hito and the superstars at /n software has just announced a new product division, PowerShellToys.  This division is focused exclusively in PowerShell technologies.  PowerShellToys products bridge other Microsoft technologies to PowerShell making it easily accessible to other developers: Web Developers, Desktop Application Developers, Database Developers, etc..  

Gent told me that they are called "Toys" because the folks at /n software believe that once developers see the sheer power of bringing PowerShell into their environment, they will look at these tools with a wide grin, bringing back those childhood memories of wonder and amazement when touching a cool new toy.  That sounds right to me.  I remember that after a couple months of developing PowerShell someone would say, “check this out” and we’d all file into someone’s office and get wildly excited  seeing what they did with a simple script or one liner.  I recall thinking, “wow – this makes computers fun again”.

Here is the current list of their "toys":

PowerShellASP (http://powershelltoys.com/powershellasp.aspx)

Builds Dynamic Web Content with Windows PowerShell! PowerShellASP is an ASP-like template language for Web applications. PowerShellASP templates consist of markup (HTML, XML, etc.) and inline PowerShell code. At runtime, templates/pages are translated to PowerShell code, executed as a single unit, and sent to the client browser.  I expect a TON of people will want this including ADMINS.

PowerShellWebPart (http://powershelltoys.com/powershellwebpart.aspx)

Generates Dynamic SharePoint Content with Windows PowerShell! The PowerShellWebPart brings PowerShellASP to SharePoint Pages through a standard SharePoint Web Part.

PowerShellRSS (http://powershelltoys.com/powershellrss.aspx)

Serves Dynamic RSS Feeds with Windows PowerShell! PowerShellRSS executes PowerShell scripts and easily formats the pipeline object result as an RSS feed.

PowerShellADO (http://powershelltoys.com/powershellado.aspx)

Windows PowerShell as a Database! PowerShellADO allows you to treat any PowerShell script as an ADO.NET data source, opening up entirely new possibilities for .NET developers!  I can’t wait to give this one a try.  This approach was used with great success by the Exchange team (they wrote a layer on top of PS to do this).

PowerShellPanel (http://powershelltoys.com/powershellpanel.aspx)

A PowerShell-Powered ASP.NET Panel Control! PowerShellPanel is an ASP.NET Control that enables any developer to include dynamic PowerShellASP in any ASP.NET web page, bringing live PowerShell content to ASP.NET.

Give those a try and share what you produce!

Experiment!  Enjoy!  Engage!

Jeffrey Snover [MSFT]
Distinguished Engineer
Visit the Windows PowerShell Team blog at:    http://blogs.msdn.com/PowerShell
Visit the Windows PowerShell ScriptCenter at:  http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/hubs/msh.mspx