Deployment–At last, a GUI for PDT!!!

When I introduced the PowerShell Deployment Toolkit at both the Microsoft Management Summit and TechEd in 2013, I asked “Who’s afraid of XML?”  A lot of hands went up.  At the end of my breakout, I asked the question again… and again, a lot of hands went up, although I believe it was slightly less than at the beginning (and not just because of the people who had left before the end).  But then I suggested that someone might want to write a user interface – at least something to allow easier editing of the Variable.xml file that defines a deployment.

Well, I am delighted to say that someone has done just that.  Benedict Berger and Kamil Kosek from Elanity Network Partner have produced something they call “PDT GUI”.  It will load and edit Variable.xml files using a very nicely designed simple GUI.  It doesn’t yet allow for all PDT possibilities – some of the advanced scenarios such as clustering are not included (yet) – but it really is an excellent way to get started with PDT without the fear of XML.

Benedict joined me on stage today at TechEd 2014 to demo PDT GUI, and has posted it to the TechNet Gallery here.

Great job, Benedict and Kamil!