What the heck is that?

This is what my friend and co-worker, Dennis, supports on a daily basis!  And yes, it is that confusing.

Dennis is an Applications Developer for our IS group here at Quest Software.  I asked Dennis if he’d spend some time talking about what he thinks about Toad®.

Dennis:  This is actually just a portion of an Oracle Apps 11i Order Management ER Diagram.  I’m just glad I wasn’t the person that got assigned the task of diagramming this.  This is only 1 module out of almost 200 that can be installed in an Oracle Applications installation.

Jeff: Wow.  I’m betting that the complexity can really skyrocket depending on what you’re trying to achieve with Apps.

Dennis:  Put Oracle Applications hardware, service components, forms, reports, development tools, setup modules, refreshes, database development/support, etc. on top of all this and it can be overwhelming to almost any programmer.  I have worked with Oracle Applications and databases for nearly 15 years, and I have only been able to learn a fraction of all its components and functionality.  I have been able to become efficient in a couple modules, and familiar with several more.  The nice thing about working in an Oracle Apps environment is there is never a lack of something to learn.  The down side is, well, there is never a lack of something to learn.  I quickly contest anyone that believes they are an Oracle Apps expert, simply because of its shear size.  I have had the pleasure to work with some of the most intelligent Oracle Apps gurus over my career, and they all have said the same thing:  It’s impossible to know everything!

Jeff: So, how do you cope with such a daunting task?

Dennis: The answer is actually pretty simple – you can’t!  But, there are things that can make your life a lot easier.  One of them is using tools that ease the pain and suffering.  One of those tools for me is Quest’s Toad for Oracle.  This tool saves me several hours each day.

Jeff: How can it do that?

Dennis: The first thing you notice when you go into Toad is the easy to use GUI Interface.  Ok, I know what your saying – a pretty front-end cannot save you time, right?  Wrong!  Perhaps, I’m a bit nit-picky about my code, but I want everything where I can find it, and most importantly, find it when I need it.  Toad lets me do just that.

But, moving onto the real time savings has got to be all the different components within Toad.  I can have numerous database connections open at once, so if I need to do something in one of my test environments, I can very easily port that change/code over to another environment in a matter of seconds.

Toad is designed to handle multiple Oracle connections with ease

Another key feature that I utilize a lot is the Schema Browser.  How great is it that I don’t have to remember what all the different schema names are, and I can pick tables from a list, instead of trying to remember their spellings, like we had to do in the old days using SQL Plus.  Oh, I can look at data in a table and filter it based on what I want to see – this is incredible!  I don’t even need to write code to look at data.  I can’t tell you how many times this has resolved issues quickly in my environment.

Toad’s Schema Browser revolutionized the Oracle IDE world.

The Project Manager is another big time saver.  I can put all my projects in there and quickly and easily have access to all my code for a given project.  I also have FTP sites setup to our servers so I can quickly FTP any code to our Oracle Apps server when needed.  I even store links to some of my most commonly used files (Excel, Word, Text, etc.) in Project Manager.  Why?  Why not!  I’m in Toad all day long, so there is no need to go to a different application to find what I want when I can have it in front of me already – nice!!

Jeff: What about when you to need to research a complex database topic or technology?  

Dennis: If I ever have a question about some PL/SQL syntax or just need an example, I can simply go to the Knowledge Browser, and get the answer within seconds.  I don’t need to try to navigate Metalink’s plethora of menus and websites to find a simple example of some code.

Most of your answers are generally only a click away.

Jeff:  What about help with Oracle Applications itself?  Is there anything Toad helps you with explicitly here?

Dennis: Of course, another great tool for any Oracle Apps Developer is the EBiz Browser.  I can now see the actual applications setups without actually having to log into Oracle Apps at all. 

Did you know that Toad had support for eBiz?

Jeff: Any last tips for someone who might just now be upgrading to the latest and greatest version of Toad (9.1)?

Dennis:  Yes!  Another cool new feature is the Action Palette.  In here, I can create multiple steps of routine tasks that I have to do on a daily basis, such as create a report for a user, and then email it directly to them, with simply one touch of a button.

I could go on for days…but, from my perspective as an Oracle Apps Developer, there is no substitution for a great tool. I’m never going to know or learn everything I want to in my job area, but I can definitely try to make my life easier.  Toad makes that easy and most of the time, even fun.

Jeff:  Thanks so much Dennis for taking the time to share your thoughts with the rest of our Toad World users!

If you’re interested in learning more about the challenges faced by IT professionals and the Best Practices Quest advocates and USES to address them head-on, I recommend reading this white paper by Quest’s VP of Information services, Carol Fawcett.  Tired of reading? Watch the video.