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Blogs
Toad and Database Commentaries |
Toad World blogs are a mix of insightful how-tos from Quest experts as well as their commentary on experiences with new database technologies. Have some views of your own to share? Post your comments! Note: Comments are restricted to registered Toad World users.
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Location: Blogs
John Pocknell's Blog
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| JohnPocknell |
Thursday, December 17, 2009 |
For those of you who haven’t yet upgraded to Toad 10, or were perhaps waiting until the first minor release, here’s a quick synopsis of what really characterizes Toad 10.
Toad for Oracle v10 offers new features and many enhancements to existing features, all of it designed to augment your workflow and to enable you to get your job done more productively, more accurately and with better visibility of the environment in which you work - whether you are a developer working in an unfamiliar database or a DBA trying to manage multiple databases.
Toad 10 is the beginning of a new generation of Toad releases which will offer significant improvements in productivity to developers, DBAs and analysts moving forward.
The following four statements characterize what this 10.0 release and subsequent releases will offer:
- Usability – discover more of Toad’s features and ensure that the tasks you perform offer maximum productivity and follow a logical workflow
- Automation – provide even more capabilities to maximize your productivity by creating and using automated workflow from regular tasks you perform in Toad
- Education – discover a wide range of services related to Toad which will both extend your current knowledge of Toad and provide expert help when needed, thus helping to get maximum value from your investment in Toad
- Flexibility – extend the use of Toad into regions where different character sets are used and provide a much simpler, coherent licensing mechanism
For more information about the Toad for Oracle 10.0 release, please read this Technical Brief published on Toad World.
So what’s been added in Toad 10.1?
The main purpose of this release was to provide official support for Oracle 11g R2. Oracle went GA with this release after the Toad 10 code was frozen. We’ve now completed our compatibility checks, and Oracle 11g R2 support is included in this release as well as all of the other products included in the Toad for Oracle suites such as SQL Optimizer and Spotlight on Oracle.
In addition, we wanted to make sure we supported Windows 7 (which is becoming a really popular platform) including 64-bit as well as Windows 2008 Server (inc 64-bit).
Well, do you want the good news or the REALLY good news?!
OK – how about both?
Firstly, for this 10.1 release, we are providing Toad Data Modeler, our cross-platform physical and logical data modeling tool for free across ALL editions of Toad for Oracle.
That means, whether you have Toad for Oracle Base Edition or Toad Xpert Edition with DB Admin, you can upgrade to version 10.1 and use Toad Data Modeler for FREE!! (requires a current maintenance contract).
Or, look at it another way. Toad for Oracle now takes you beyond Oracle and provides three tools for the price of one:
- Toad for Oracle
- Toad for Data Analysts (cross-platform querying and reporting tool)
- Toad Data Modeler (cross-platform physical and logical modeling tool)
In addition, if you have a copy of Toad DBA Suite for Oracle (or you are considering upgrading from a lower edition), we now provide you with even greater value.
The Spotlight for Oracle component which provides DBAs with essential real-time performance diagnostics has been upgraded to include the following ADDITIONAL components and features:
- Spotlight on Unix/Linux (formerly a chargeable product)
- Spotlight on Windows (formerly a chargeable product)
- Predictive Diagnostics (previously only available in a higher Spotlight edition)
For more information on Toad Data Modeler, visit www.quest.com/toad-data-modeler or visit the Toad for Oracle Community at http://modeling.inside.quest.com .
Monitoring your Unix/Linux server using Spotlight on Unix
Monitoring your Windows server using Spotlight on Windows
Predictive Diagnostics enables an assessment of what performance problems you might expect in the future based on a user-definable profile of what is happening today in order that DBAs can pro-actively plan an appropriate strategy.
This will enable DBAs to adopt and apply a PREDICT – DIAGNOSE – PREVENT methodology to performance management which will prove effective against future performance degradation.
Using Predictive Diagnostics to determine the future impact of IO growth
Oh, and did I mention the new online Knowledge Xperts?
Originally available as add-in components and then integral components of Toad for Oracle, Knowledge Xpert for PL/SQL Developers and Knowledge Xpert for Oracle Administration have been associated with Toad for many years. Today, both Knowledge Xperts are included with Toad for Oracle from Base Edition and higher.
What makes these Knowledge Xperts unique is that, due to the nature of a community like Toad World, you can contribute by adding comments, rating your favorite topics and more.
Knowledge Xperts support Oracle versions 7.3.4 through to 11g and will continue to be updated with new Oracle releases to ensure you have access to all the very latest information about Oracle whether you are a developer or DBA.
And, don’t forget, this is all searchable from the new Search Bar in Toad 10.
Online Knowledge Xperts hosted by Toad World
It MUST be coming up to Christmas!!
Toad for Oracle Beta Program
The Toad for Oracle beta program enables Toad users who are on the full commercial version to perform a side-by-side install of the beta for testing, and providing the Toad development team with direct feedback. New beta programs follow shortly after a new release.
The Toad Beta community is hosted by the Toad development team themselves so they can provide instant dialogue with beta testers which means any tweaks can literally be performed in minutes.
The very latest Toad for Oracle 10.5 Beta has been posted with exciting new features and enhancements so be sure to give it a try and let us know what you think (you can install and use the Toad Beta side-by-side with your existing Toad provided you have a current commercial license)
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Comments (8)
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By GrahamBall on
Thursday, January 07, 2010 |
Increased usability and productivity ?
The first things I tried to do with tools I use everyday failed!
1. The tool had been removed (select all in right-click menu in editor).
2. The right-click filter builder in a grid is not only different to the main builder (consistency across Toad was much vaunted, I believe), but is overly complicated and doesn't work.
3. Oracle 7 is no longer supported. Some of us still have to support legacy systems!
Back to 9.7 for us. |
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By Pockers on
Thursday, January 07, 2010 |
Hi Graham,
Sorry you appear to having some problems with Toad 10.
As you are already aware, the data grid changes were necessary for consistency across all grids in Toad. If you need information regarding the differences, go to Help | Toad Online and select the "What's New" tab. Scroll down to where is lists the "Data Grids" link and click it.
Now click the link which takes you to a comparison between the Data Grids in 9.7 and 10.x.
Regarding Select All in a data grid in the Editor - simply use <Ctrl> <A>
If you prefer not to use the filter builder, you can still type freehand into the SQL window.
Could you please send me an example or screenshot of how the filter is not working for you?
Although we have stopped supporting Oracle 7, we have not changed anything. That statement simply means we don't include Oracle 7.x in our QA cycle. Toad 10.x should still work fine with Oracle 7.x
Regards,
John |
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By GrahamBall on
Friday, January 08, 2010 |
>Regarding Select All in a data grid in the Editor - simply use <Ctrl> <A>
Good idea. While we're at it, why not just get rid of mice and everyone use the keyboard?
When I said that Oracle 7 isn't supported, it appears that Toad 10 doesn't work with it. After logging in, my colleague gets an error when accessing the schema browser - 'Data type is not supported'.
How do I send you a screenshot of the inconsistent filter builder ?
cheers,
Graham |
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By GrahamBall on
Friday, January 08, 2010 |
Having just re-installed Toad 10.1, I find I can't recreate the problem I was having before Christmas.
Having said that, I still fail to understand how the development of a different, more complicated filter builder improves productivity and consistency within Toad.
With the one in 9.7, I could filter on a field value with a couple of mouse clicks. Now it takes four mouse clicks and I have to enter the field value as well, which I have to read back and forth from the grid.
Or I have to remember to copy the field value (using <Ctrl> <A>, because there isn't a copy on the right-click menu), prior to selecting the filter builder because the filter builder is modal !
It may not sound like much, but when you are checking data all day long, it reduces the amount of work done and adds more tedium and repetition than is necessary.
Life for me is more difficult with 10.1.
I've no objection to adding a feature that someone there may think is a good idea (although it sounds more like a project given to a junior with nothing to do), but it would be nice to let us, the paying customer, have a choice.
I would rather use the easier, more productive version.
Maybe it could be made selectable in a future release?
Maybe select all could come back?
Maybe designers will realise that change for change sake and removing functionality doesn't necessarily improve a product ?
maybe software designers will listen to customers?
Maybe I'll win the lottery!
Cheers,
Graham |
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By Pockers on
Friday, January 08, 2010 |
Hi Graham,
Regarding Select All, the alternative if you wish to use the mouse is Edit menu | Select All.
It's great to get this sort of feedback. I don't know if you are aware, but we have a beta program for Toad (which we've had for the last 12 years) where users like yourselve can preview the next version well ahead of it's release and comment on it.
This provides the perfect opportunity to tell the development team directly whether you like something or not. We are very keen to make sure that we don't degrade users experience with Toad - quite the contrary and the general feedback we've had so far has been very positive with this release.
If you'd like to participate in the beta testing program for the next release and provide your feedback (which is 10.5), here's the link: http://www.toadfororacle.com/index.jspa
You simply download 10.5 from here, it installs into a separate directory, picks up your current licence and you can run it side-by-side with your existing version.
On a sidenote, if you are spending a lot of time working with data, have you tried the Toad for Data Analysts tool which comes for free with Toad for Oracle? I'd be interested to know what you think of it.
Thanks,
John |
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By GrahamBall on
Friday, January 08, 2010 |
Thanks John, I'll have a go when I get some time.
In the meantime, if you'd pass my comments on to the dev team, I'd be grateful.
cheers,
Graham |
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By GrahamBall on
Wednesday, March 03, 2010 |
"Although we have stopped supporting Oracle 7, we have not changed anything. That statement simply means we don't include Oracle 7.x in our QA cycle. Toad 10.x should still work fine with Oracle 7.x"
Sadly, not true, according to the beta forum. |
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By Pockers on
Thursday, March 04, 2010 |
Hi Graham.
John stated on the beta forum that Toad 10 no longer supports Oracle 7 which is true, since we no longer QA it. Therefore we cannot say for sure whether Toad 10 will work with Oracle 7. The only real way to really know would be to try it out. If you have an Oracle 7 (7.3.4) database, I would be interested to know (as would others) whether this is the case.
Thanks,
John |
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