Introduction

Our latest release of Toad for IBM DB2 – version 5.2 has just been released, so here’s a quick summary of what’s included so you can be sure you need to upgrade your current version.



Continuing along our main themes for Toad for DB2 of:

Productivity – enabling users to discover more of Toad’s features and ensure that the tasks they perform offer the maximum productivity and...

Spotlight® on Oracle provides visual, real-time diagnostics which can help you quickly eliminate bottlenecks in your Oracle and Oracle RAC environments. Because Spotlight helps you save time finding and fixing performance issues, you can reduce downtime and IT costs.

With Spotlight, you can pinpoint and resolve bottlenecks quickly, prevent or minimize unplanned downtime, improve service levels for users and stakeholders,...

Quest SQL Optimizer for Oracle automates the SQL optimization process and maximizes the performance of your SQL statements. SQL Optimizer analyzes, rewrites, and evaluates SQL statements located within database objects, files, or collections of SQL statements from Oracle's System Global Area (SGA) or Quest Software Foglight Performance Analysis for Oracle. Once SQL Optimizer identifies problematic SQL statements, it optimizes...

Introduction

Quest SQL Optimizer for Oracle automates the SQL optimization process and maximizes the performance of your SQL statements. SQL Optimizer analyzes, rewrites, and evaluates SQL statements located within database objects, files, or collections of SQL statements from Oracle's System Global Area (SGA) or Quest Software Foglight Performance Analysis for Oracle. Once SQL Optimizer identifies problematic SQL...

Many IT shops today are running a combination of Oracle and IBM DB2, which means they either have to cross-train employees to support both platforms, or hire two sets of employees, each with expertise on a particular DBMS.

The new Oracle compatibility features available with DB2 LUW 9.7 offer an alternative: porting Oracle applications to DB2 for LUW.



Although there are terminological differences between...

With the latest version of Toad for Oracle on the streets, the Toad User Conference season is with us again enabling us to showcase what’s new in Toad and other related products and for Toad users to network with each other to share experiences.

 

We have been running Toad User Groups and Conferences since 2002 and they have been extremely popular with our Toad community and with people who are new to Toad. Most...

When I wrote my last blog announcing the new Toad Weekly Quiz, I laid down a challenge to all you budding Toad users out there to see who knows the most about Toad for Oracle!

One of the things that gives me the greatest pleasure as I attend various Toad User Groups and Conferences around the world is the sheer enthusiasm for Toad amongst attendees and an ambition to learn as much as possible about Toad, not only from us at Quest Software, but from each other.



I remember...

As developers, we all know the pain associated with peer-based code peer reviews. It’s frustrating and time-consuming having to show your hard-worked code to your team-lead or development manager, only to have to make changes to it either through silly errors or because perhaps your PL/SQL experience is lacking.

One of the characteristics that makes Toad unique is its ability to leverage our wealth of domain expertise. Our experts include Bert Scalzo, a highly respected Oracle expert and Steven Feuerstein, one of the world’s leading authorities on PL/SQL. Many of Steven’s coding best-practices are actually embodied in Toad features, ranging from helpful knowledge and advice to flexible and automated code reviews.

If you are responsible for managing the backup and recovery of your company’s Oracle databases, this is a question you probably ask yourself, or maybe your manager asks you the same question. How would you respond?

Although you routinely backup your Oracle databases because that’s part of your job, do you know hand on heart, that if you had to, you could successfully restore a database if it got corrupt?



...

Introduction

Since the official release of Toad by Quest Software in 1998, the way the product has been licensed hasn’t changed, and this has created some challenges such as flexibility and consistency with other products from Quest. However, a new form of licensing was introduced with the release of Toad for Oracle v10.0 in October 2009.



As a Toad user, particularly if you work for a large organization,...

For all you Oracle DBAs out there, have you often wished there was a better way to manage your Oracle RMAN backups? Have you often asked yourself - is there some way to have a single, consolidated report of which backups executed successfully, which failed, what type they were, how much space they consumed, whether there were policy violations, some sort of health check?

Toad for Oracle version 10.6 directly supports Microsoft’s Team Foundation Server 2010. Previous versions of Toad supported TFS 2005 and 2008 only.

 

Also with Toad 10.6, we have aligned all the VCS support in Toad so it makes no difference whether or not you want to use Team Coding; file-based version control supports the same VCS providers.

 

I've created a PDF document ...

I occasionally get asked by DBAs and managers how to make Toad read-only. The reasons for this are various, but mostly have to do with safeguarding the security and integrity of the database from those Toad users whose job does not require them to make any changes.

 

Toad is such a powerful tool, it could allow its user to perform a DDL change, execute a script or alter some table data before they realize they...

This blog presents solutions for two symptoms we commonly hear from Toad for Oracle customers: Invalid characters in the data grids and invalid characters in the Editor.

Now there is a brand new, exciting way to share your ideas for things you would like to see in Toad for Oracle. You can also validate ideas that we or other users propose. www.ToadIdeaPond.com. With the Toad Idea Pond, you can sign in with your existing Yahoo account or create a new account.

John details the benefits of the upcoming Online Conference for Developers. This event is a NO-COST, online conference you can attend from the comfort and convenience of your home, desk or office. That means no flights, no hotels, no crowds - and best of all, no expense!

In this Part 2 blog, I will look at features typically associated with database administration as well as other general enhancements.

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.

For those of you who have already upgraded from an older version of Toad to Toad version 10, you will no doubt notice some visual changes and behavioural differences in the data grids.

 

Our Toad development team wrote an article highlighting these differences which is posted in the Toad for Oracle Community, but in case you missed it, here is the content produced in this blog so that you are all aware.

...

The next release of our popular enterprise-class Java profiler is about to hit the streets and we thought we'd give you a heads-up now to let you know what's coming!

The primary focus of this release is all about usability – right from installation and licensing to configuration ready for use. We've significantly revamped the whole user experience which should get you up-and-running with JProbe in a lot less time.

...

Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) is a single database that is shared by multiple Oracle instances. It provides opportunities for improved database availability, performance and scalability. Oracle RAC lowers the TCO of a high-end database and IT assets, since a complex Oracle database can be set-up on low-cost, standard, modular parts. Oracle RAC has matured into a true enterprise, scalable solution, but the adoption curve and skill-set required to maintain RAC is relatively slow, as most organizations who have installed RAC only use it as a two-node cluster.

...

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...

The very latest generation of Toad for Oracle is about to hit the streets (early October) so we thought we’d give you a quick preview now so you’ll be up to speed when it’s released. This blog is part 2 and covers more of the new features and updates.

The very latest generation of Toad for Oracle is about to hit the streets (early October) so we thought we’d give you a quick preview now so you’ll be up to speed when it’s released.

As many of you may be aware, Toad for Oracle is available in a number of different Editions and Suites. For those of you who have Toad Development Suite for Oracle or Toad DBA Suite for Oracle, there are a number of recent product updates which you can take advantage of now (GA Release Date July 8th) rather than waiting for the next full scheduled release of Toad (due in October).

The below listed products are, of...

You may already be familiar with the Toad World Exclusive Freeware area from where you can download and use really useful utilities such as the PL/Vision Code Library and the Freeware version of Quest Code Tester for Oracle.

 

Now there are two more which I’d like to introduce you to – one which has been around for many years and the other a relative newcomer.

 

The first one is called SQL Monitor....

You may already be familiar with the Toad World Exclusive Freeware area from where you can download and use really useful utilities such as the PL/Vision Code Library and the Freeware version of Quest Code Tester for Oracle.

 

Well here is another utility you’re going to find really interesting and it’s called the Toad Group Policy Manager.

 

As you probably figured out from its name, it has something...

Written by Olivier Gaudin

 

Toad for Oracle’s Code Xpert utility (part of the Toad Professional Edition) is one of the best PL/SQL code analyzers available on the market, embedding the know-how of leading PL/SQL experts such as Steven Feuerstein. However, although there is the option to store data in the Code Xpert repository for point-in-time reporting, it is still primarily a static reporting tool and therefore...

In this blog, I hope to be able to help you understand how Unicode is handled on your Windows PC/notebook and how to configure your PC/notebook in order to be able to effectively use Unicode in Toad.

As some of you may already be aware, we are releasing our next version of Toad (version 10.0) later this year and it will have one or two “under the cover” differences. Unicode support is one of those differences and is probably one of the most significant technology upgrades in Toad’s history.

Like most applications, Preferences or Options enable the user to make changes to the default configuration to suit the way they work. The same is true for Toad but there are so many, it can be a bit of a challenge finding what you are looking for.

So the objective of this blog is to help you get a handle on what the main options are that you probably need to know about.

Some Toad Options are set during the Toad...

In this week’s blog, I’d like to introduce you to Toad’s Formatter. For those older “Toadies”, you’ll be familiar with its predecessor Formatter Plus.

Subversion support has been updated in Toad for Oracle 10.6.  Read the updated version of this blog.

 

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 Toad 9.7 is released before you see what’s new, we’ll give you a little fore-taste now!  In this final blog (there are 2 parts), I want to cover what’s new for developers.  

  Data...

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 Toad 9.7 is released before you see what’s new, we’ll give you a little preview now !  

The main objectives of this release are to provide improved knowledge and education on the wealth of Toad features for users, so that you can really see Toad’s full value and realise you...

I thought that’d grab your attention!  

We know there are a lot of PL/SQL developers out there who are looking to make (or have already made) a break into application development using a more popular programming language like Java as well as many Java developers who use Toad to make access to Oracle easier.  

According to a 2006 IOUG survey of Oracle sites, the 3rd most widely used language after SQL and PL/SQL...

Toad for Oracle may use, but is not dependent upon, Oracle database options such as RAC, Partitioning and Spatial and Enterprise Management (OEM) Packs such as Tuning and Diagnostics depending on various factors. Such Toad features include (but not limited to) ADDM/AWR Reports and AWR Browser which are part of the optional DB Admin module add-on.

Some features in Toad which appear to do what Oracle does, DO NOT actually use any Oracle features such as Schema Compare & Sync and Quest SQL Optimizer (included with Toad Xpert, Development Suite and DBA Suite).

...

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...

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...

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...

Problem Resolution

For those of you who read my previous blog from last week, or read the recent White Paper entitled “Simplifying Oracle Database Administration” written by Mike Ault, Bert Scalzo and myself, you’ll have seen from the survey carried out by James F Koopmann that about 20% of a typical DBAs...

There’s no doubt about it - being a DBA is not easy.

Yes, you might work very hard to try to keep things under control through scrupulous planning, dedication and long hours, but some business manager or application developer somewhere is always going to be unhappy with you when something breaks, data is lost or their app goes slow, and you’ll just have to take the blame for it when it happens.



...

In Part 2 of this Blog, I want to introduce you to perhaps the most exciting feature of this release, the Toad Group Policy Manager – and it gives me particular pleasure to introduce this to you now as Toad for Oracle 9.1 is released. The Toad Group Policy Manager provides a facility by which multiple copies of Toad for Oracle within an organization can share the same set of options.  It consists of a Windows Service which...

We decided that, rather than let you wait until the next release of Toad before you see what’s new, we’ll give you a little fore-taste now!

For those of you who already participate in the Toad Beta Testing program (www.toadsoft.com ), you will no doubt, have already played with this. I would encourage as many of you as possible to join, if you can make the time, since you have...

In this short blog, I want to cover a topic which quite a few customers have asked me about over the years, and that is where they need to debug a Package where the Package Specification and Package Body is stored on their file system as a combined file. Toad’s Editor is designed to make developing Packages, Types, Procedures and Functions easy. In Oracle, the Spec and Body of a Package or Type are two separate objects, although...

In this blog, I want to introduce you to a little known feature in Toad for Oracle called the PL/SQL Profiler. Believe it or not, the profiler has been in Toad since September 1999 (Version 6)!

So why would I want to Profile my Code?

Well, as developers write their code, they’re principally focussed on ensuring the code enables the required application functionality and does so consistently for all test cases....

1. What is Team Coding Team Coding is a cooperative source control feature. You can use Team Coding alone, or in conjunction with a third party version control system. Team Coding works with the Editor to control access and development of functions, procedures, packages, triggers and types. It also supports scripts in the Editor. Some of its key features include:

·          Flexible Code Control Groups (CCGs), which...