It’s almost that time again as another exciting new release of Toad draws closer !
We’ve decided that, rather than let you wait until this release of Toad before you see what’s new, we’ll give you a little fore-taste now !
The emphasis on this release is to simultaneously continue to add value through enhanced individual and team-oriented productivity and automation, increased support for improving code quality, robustness and performance as well as continuing to improve product performance and stability.
Before we get into the features, there are a couple of significant things just to get you warmed up ! The first is that the Toad Debugging functionality is moving from the Professional configuration to the Base (or Standard) configuration. This not only includes the standard (DBMS) debugging, but also the JDWP and External (formerly Just-In-Time) debugging. We’re also moving the Knowledge Xpert for PL/SQL and Knowledge Xpert for DBA to Base (Standard) from the Professional and DBA Module respectively.
Also, the Oracle Import and Export Utilities, currently only available in the DBA Module, will be added to Professional. We will continue to add more functionality to the Professional configuration this year.
By the way, a name change. The DBA Module (first introduced in December 2000 with v6.5) is to be called the DB Admin Module. Why ? Because we found that many people thought that the DBA Module was for DBAs whereas anyone who needs to administer an Oracle database can use it. It has a ton of stuff to simplify the administration of an Oracle database. So by making the name fit the function rather than the job title, we’re hoping more people will benefit from it.
Customization
The first feature I want to introduce is customization. Customization is not new in Toad, as some of you may already be aware. There are, in fact, a number of places in Toad where customization is possible ranging from the toolbar visual style, the Schema Browser through selection of tabs, tree-view, etc as well as the main toolbar and menu system.
In 9.6, we’ve made all of this really easy, right from when you upgrade (or install) your Toad.
There is an enhanced Initial Setup Wizard which includes a number of new options which enable you to decide how you want Toad to look and work for you.
These also include which window you wish Toad to open first (and for every connection thereafter) such as Editor, Schema Browser, etc.
Once you get into Toad, you can easily customize the toolbar or menu by simply right-mouse-clicking the toolbar or menu and selecting Customize.
The Customize dialog enables you to make a number of changes to both the toolbar and menu.
I’ll start with a very simple example based on something a customer said to me a few years ago. He said that he sometimes wished the Commit and Rollback buttons on the toolbar were separated so there was less chance he would inadvertently press the wrong one (which he had done on more than one occasion!)
OK, so right-mouse-click the toolbar the open the Customize dialog.
Now simply select the Commit button with a left-mouse-click and drag it to somewhere else on the toolbar. It’s that easy !
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You can even include text on the button if you so wish. With the Customize dialog still open, right-click the Commit button on the toolbar. Select Image and Text and watch what happens to the button.
becomes
Now let’s take a look at the menus. Let’s say you want to just show the things that you, alone, use.
I’m going to pick the Utilities menu as an example and let’s say my Oracle database is on a Windows server and I never use Java.
I can use Customize to “clean-up” my Utilities menu. Again, with the Customize dialog open, click the Utilities menu. It will expand, but you won’t be able to run anything. Drag and drop the following into the Customize dialog box to remove: FTP, Java Manager, Network Utilities and Unix Job Scheduler
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Looks a bit simpler doesn’t it ! I can also move items within the menu up or down the list according to how often I use them. (drag and drop again)
You may be a Development Manager and want to standardize on a specific Toad toolbar/menu configuration for your team. The good news is that all these settings changes are preserved into a file called toolbars.ini which is in the User Files sub-folder of your Toad installation directory.
You can save this file into your team’s network share folder and register it with Project Manager (along with all your other project assets) so that they can copy over their own toolbar.ini files.
By the way, if you’re not sure what Project Manager is, open it (
on the main toolbar) then press F1. This is a very powerful asset sharing system for sharing database objects, files, folders, web pages and a lot more.
OK, so let’s say I’ve customized the hell out of my Toad toolbar and menu and something changes and I need to get everything back I got rid of or moved. For example, the DBA has now moved the Oracle database onto a UNIX box and so I need all those fancy UNIX features back !
Simply right-click the toolbar again and select Restore Defaults and, voila, everything reverts back !
Database Browser
The Database Browser has been significantly improved for 9.6 and combines the benefits of the original Database Browser, with its ability to get information about different database in one screen, with the Schema Browser, with its ability to dive into the database and schema objects.
Back in January, Bert Scalzo wrote a blog detailing the new Database Browser – here’s the link..
AWR Browser
Another new feature in the release is the AWR Browser. This window is similar to the StatsPack Browser launched in 9.5 but collects data from the AWR (Automatic Workload Repository) instead.
Once you’ve set up your Snapshot management in the ADDM/AWR window and defined your snapshot intervals (Oracle default is every hour), you’re good to go.
Please note : Toad’s AWR Browser uses Oracle’s AWR, which is part of the Diagnostics Pack, so please check you are licensed to use this first !
Watch for Parts 2 and 3 of this Blog coming to Toad World very soon, where we’ll examine some exiting changes to the way the Editor Insight works, enhancements to the PL/SQL Profiler, new Vulnerability Assessment checks, new integration points with other Quest products and lots more !