Mar
19
Written by:
John Pocknell
Friday, March 19, 2010
The very latest generation of Toad for Oracle is about to hit the streets (mid April) so I thought I’d give you a quick preview now so you’ll be up to speed when it’s released.
Quest introduced the beginning of the next generation of Toad with the release of Toad 10.0, offering significant improvements in productivity to developers, DBAs and analysts moving forward.
These four statements characterize the nature of the 10.0 release and subsequent releases:
Usability - Automation - Education - Flexibility
Quick Catch-Up!
Toad for Oracle 10.1 (released in December last year), introduced an upgraded version of the Spotlight on Oracle component for Toad DBA Suite users and also enabled FREE use of our cross-platform data modeling tool (Toad Data Modeler) for all users.
We released the new Toad DBA Suite for Oracle – RAC Edition, in January 2010, specifically targeted toward DBAs who manage Oracle RAC environments. This edition includes Spotlight on RAC.
So let’s get into some of what’s coming in Toad 10.5!
Because there are so many great enhancements to Toad for Oracle 10.5, I’ve decided to split-out the blog into two parts. Part 1 will looks at features associated with code development and Part 2 will focus on features associated with database administration and general enhancements.
Enhanced Predictive Editing (All Toad Editions)
The Toad Editor is perhaps one of the most popular windows, especially amongst developers. It's vitally important that high productivity is realized in this window. To that end, we've enhanced Toad Insight - the feature which provides suggestions as to what to type next based on context.
Code Insight has been expanded to show code tokens (and or) variables/parameters. The tokens, variables and parameters are automatically invoked or can be manually invoked using [CTRL] [T] or [CTRL] [.].
In the main Toad Options window, located under Editor | Code Assist | Toad Insight Objects, checking the Expected Tokens or/and Available Variables/Parameters box will enable the automatic display of a list.
As you start to type, Toad presents a list of the most logical entries from which you can select one. This way, you can productively compose your code even if you are unfamiliar with the environment.
Keyword and object name auto-lookup
Where this feature comes into its own is in writing and maintaining PL/SQL code. Within the scope of a block of code, Code Insight will offer a list of parameters and variables from which you can make your selection.
Auto-lookup of parameters and variables in code
There are also some additional keystrokes related to using the new Toad Insight. These include:
- Spacebar - adds the selected item from the list with a space after the character
- ’.’ (Period) - will add a period with the chosen selection e.g. “SCOTT.”
- ‘(‘ (Open Parenthesis) will add a ‘(‘ with the chosen selection e.g. “ Var_5(“
- Tab - Will fill search values containing names which start with the same characters e.g. "QUEST_"
- Shift+Ctrl+T -Picklist dropdown no alias.
When making a call to an unfamiliar program, you can invoke its arguments from the open parentheses "(".
List of arguments is automatically displayed
New Code Road Map (All Toad Editions)
Developers need a simple way to graphically visualize information and report on it to minimize coding and other errors, which are typically associated with an incomplete understanding of PL/SQL inter-dependencies as well as relationships to other objects in the schema.
The new Code Road Map provides far more capabilities than its predecessor, particularly when it comes to graphical manipulation and reporting. It offers similar features to those now available in the ER Diagram (introduced in Toad 10.0).
New Code Road Map showing PL/SQL code and other dependent schema objects
There are a number of ways to include or add schema objects into the Code Road Map:
- Toad Toolbar menu
- Menu: Database| Report | CRM
- Schema Browser drag & drop *Note Packages, Types, Functions, Procedures, Tables, Views, Materialized Views, Triggers and Synonyms
- Object Palette drag & drop * Note only Tables Views, Materialized Views and Synonyms
- SB right click * Note opens in new CRM instance.
Object shapes displayed in the Code Road Map diagram have special significance.
Zoom, Pan, Loupe and Fit-to-View are all available for maximum flexibility when working with large schemas. In addition, a grid can be displayed with objects being snapped-to-grid or objects aligned to each other to enable excellent close-up work as well. There is also an Autolayout button.
The properties of objects can be displayed directly in the diagram using F4 and you can even right-click an object and view the Schema Browser right-click menu on-the-fly if you need to perform a task (such as Alter Table).
Notes and a Title block can be added for additional documentation. There is even a Category feature which allows different groups of objects to be customized by color.
For printing purposes, multiple formats are supported up to A3 size and there is a fit-to-page feature.
Workspaces allow specific parts of an application to be drawn separately, when convenient, but the connections to the main diagram remain. You will also be able to color code category sub-groups – by functional area if you choose.
Diagrams can be exported into bmp, png and jpeg format and reports can be generated in HTML or RTF format. The HTML diagram is hyperlinked allowing you to view object details simply by clicking on the object in the diagram. Reports can be automatically zipped and added as an email attachment by opening your Windows Outlook client.
HTML Code Dependency Report
Auto debugging (All Toad Editions)
I've spoken with many PL/SQL developers who still prefer the "old fashioned" DBMS_OUTPUT form of debugging instead of those offered by most IDEs. So in the fine tradition of Toad, we will automate the generation of DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE statements for those users. This will be done by parsing the code and injecting statements wherever variables in the code are used.
PL/SQL function with auto-generated DBMS_OUTPUT statements
Our Toad expert, Jeff Smith recently wrote a blog on this specific new feature which provides a lot more detail and which you can read
here.
Enhanced Code Refactoring (All Toad Editions)
Code refactoring is the process of improving the design of the code without affecting its overall behavior. There are a number of methods for achieving this, of which Extract Procedure is one (introduced in Toad 9.7).
In Toad v10.5, all refactoring methods are now presented from the Editor right-click menu and have their own group called Refactor, and have two new additions: Find Unused Variables and Rename Identifier.
Refactoring your PL/SQL code
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Find Unused Variables locates variables which are no longer used in your code.
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Rename Identifier will rename all occurrences of a selected identifier within the same scope.
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New SQL Auto-Optimization (Toad Xpert Edition)
Optimizing SQL performance can be very challenging at the best of times, but when you have little experience in what's involved and you barely understand what an Oracle execution plan is showing you - let alone know what to do to fix the performance issue - it can be next to impossible.
The Quest SQL Optimizer for Oracle product, which is a component of the Toad Xpert Edition (and higher) is designed to address this very problem and provides an array of technologies to discover where the problem is happening in the application and to simply and effectively resolve that problem - either through a SQL re-write or by recommending the appropriate index(s).
SQL Optimizer is typically used by developers, DBAs, testers and QA personnel;however, this interface could be a little daunting if you are, say, an application developer building a Java application which runs SQL on the Oracle database. You need a simple but effective way to optimize the SQL while you are in the Toad Editor – just one of a number of use cases for which this feature is designed to support.
With the SQL statement visible in the Editor, you merely select the SQL Optimizer drop-down and click Optimize Current SQL to invoke.
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Optimize Current SQL will initiate an optimization task based on the caret position of the SQL statement in the Editor (where you have more than one) |
Auto-optimizing a SQL statement in the Editor
This Auto Optimize functionality will look for as many alternative rewrites as you want based on database type and search depth. The deeper the search depth the more re-writes, but the longer it will take. It will then show you which alternative was the best in terms of Elapsed Time (or any other metric you select from the drop-down).
You can compare the best (or any other) SQL alternative side-by-side with the original SQL to reveal the SQL, Explain Plan and Execution Statistics. If you decide at this point, you want to launch the full SQL Optimizer and investigate index alternatives, etc, the SQL Optimizer button is right there.
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 be literally performed in minutes.
Look for Part 2 of this Blog coming to Toad World very soon, where I’ll be revealing lots more new enhancements and features coming in Toad 10.5.