Release Notes

Toad^® for Oracle^® 13.0

Release Notes

Revised 4/20/2018

About Toad for Oracle

Toad for Oracle provides an intuitive and efficient way for database professionals of all skill and experience levels to perform their jobs with an overall improvement in workflow effectiveness and productivity. With Toad for Oracle you can:

• Understand your database environment through visual representations
• Meet deadlines easily through automation and smooth workflows
• Perform essential development and administration tasks from a single tool
• Deploy high-quality applications that meet user requirements; perform predictably and reliably in production
• Validate database code to ensure the best-possible performance and adherence to best-practice standards
• Manage and share projects, templates, scripts, and more with ease

The Toad for Oracle solutions are built for you, by you. Nearly two decades of development and feedback from various communities like Toad World have made it the most powerful and functional tool available. With an installed-base of over two million, Toad for Oracle continues to be the “de facto” standard tool for database development and administration.

Toad for Oracle resources

The parent site for all Toad family products is ToadWorld.com, where you will find videos, white papers, web-based training, expert blogs and podcasts, as well as beta releases, trial downloads and much more. The Toad for Oracle Community on this site focuses this content specifically on Toad for Oracle.

Two of the most-often used features of Toad World are the Forums and the Idea Pond.

• On the Idea Pond page, you can submit your ideas to improve Toad and vote for or against other customers' ideas. The Toad team takes your suggestions seriously, and you may even hear back from one of our developers on the topic. We encourage all Toad users from new to experienced to let us know how we can improve Toad.
• On the Forum page, you can ask a question or start a discussion and view all other forums within the Toad community.

The Toad World blog pages feature a broad range of information, including topics of interest to our industry, as well as instructions from team members on how to use the latest Toad features.

The Toad for Oracle web-based training is a perfect accompaniment to your product license. This free training walks you through major product features and explains how to perform frequent tasks. You’ll also see how to utilize time-saving automation functionality. You’ll receive a certificate of completion for each course once you pass the accompanying test.

About this release

Toad for Oracle 13.0 is a minor release, with enhanced features and functionality.

About Toad^® for Oracle® 2018 Editions

All commercial versions of Toad for Oracle are bundled with additional Quest products, based upon the license that you purchased. These bundles are known as Editions and include the following:

For more information about the products in your Toad for Oracle Edition and the minimum system requirements for running these products, see the Toad for Oracle 2018 Editions release notes at:

https://support.quest.com/technical-documents

New Features and Enhancements

General

• Dual Monitor Support has been added. You can now use Toad in either its standard MDI (Multiple Document Interface) mode or in SDI (Single Document Interface) mode.

  • The default mode for Toad is MDI, where Toad has a single application window, and all other windows that you open are contained within that application window. However, even in MDI mode, Toad lets you selectively choose to "pop out" MDI child windows to move them to a separate screen or a separate portion of the same screen. You can then pop the window back into the Toad application when needed, and it will restore it to its original form. Although a window is popped out, its name still shows on a tab in the Toad task bar, as it would if not popped out. Thus, you can use either keyboard shortcuts or the tabs on the toolbar to switch among windows.

  • Alternatively, you can use SDI mode, where every window opens in its own window, outside the Toad application. This mode provides complete control over where windows are placed. As a result, not only can you move individual windows to other monitors, but you can also dock windows, such as the Project Manager, Team Coding Manager, and Object Palette. You can spread your work out across multiple monitors to work on multiple tasks simultaneously without having to wait for certain processes to finish. When processes are running in background threads, they can be kept visible, rather hidden behind other windows, so you know immediately when they are finished.

    • To use SDI mode, go to View | Toad Options | General, then select the mode under Application Style.
    • Floating dock windows automatically realign themselves when starting in SDI mode. To keep them where they were when you last shut down Toad, go to View | Toad Options | Startup, then clear Realign floating dock sites when starting in SDI mode.

  Note: Connection border colors cannot be drawn around forms operating in either SDI or "popped-out" mode; however, the colored status bar will still be shown.

• Toad toolbars are now locked by default to prevent accidental dragging to an unwanted configuration. To unlock a toolbar, right-click any toolbar then clear Lock Toolbars. You can still right-click a toolbar to customize it, even when toolbars are locked.

• The Trace File Browser has the following changes:

  • Renamed the "Seq" column in the main statement listing to "Rel Seq" (for Relative Sequence). It numbers the items within the parent statement.
  • Added a new "Seq" column that is a straight numbering of all statements.
  • Added a "Send to Excel (no units)" option, which leaves the non-numeric data out of the numeric columns so that sorting in Excel is numeric.

Schema Browser

• The right-hand-side Partitions and Subpartitions tabs (for tables, MVs, and indexes) of the Schema Browser have been combined into a single Partitioning tab. This will allow you to get an overall picture of partitioning for a given object, without having to go back and forth between two separate tabs. By default, partitions and subpartitions are shown in a tree. However, the display can easily be changed to show only partitions or subpartitions, so that you can easily select all of one or the other to perform some operation.
• The Describe option of the Schema Browser options in Toad Options now includes settings for defaulting the Describe window to a popped-out or popped-in position. The Stay on top option has been removed.

Database

• The Redo Log Manager now supports standby redo logs.
• The Rebuild Table, Generate Schema Script, Compare Databases, and Generate Database Script windows were reorganized as wizards.
• Generate Schema Script in the 32-bit version of Toad has been improved to manage memory better when creating a SQL file.
• Generate Schema Script, Generate Database Script, Compare Schemas, and Compare Databases are now threaded to allow them to run in the background while you work on other things at the same time. This applies only when they are run from the Toad GUI window. If you run them in the Automation Designer, they will not be threaded.
• The performance of generating schema scripts has been improved.
• A new Prebuilt Tables option has been added to the Materialized Views tab of Export DDL to include the table DDL when a materialized view is created on a prebuilt table.

• The Compare Individual Objects feature has been improved:

  • It now supports all object types in same window (check/uncheck Schema to toggle between schema-level and database-level objects).
  • Side-by-side viewer and sync scripts now appear within same window rather than launching new windows or popups.
  • Columns only for tables and views is now just a separate tab in the results section, rather than an option.
  • An option to sync tables with DBMS_REDEF has been added.

• The Compare Data feature has been improved:

  • The Minus mode has been removed. You can still use it by editing the Toad.ini file and setting EnableComparisonMethod=1 under [DataCompare].
  • The buttons to view/edit a query and run each comparison step separately have been removed. You can still use it by editing the Toad.ini file and setting AdvancedMode=1 under [DataCompare].
  • The Compare Table Structure link has been replaced with an icon for Single Object Compare. It is only visible on the Select columns step, at the lower left of the page, when there are differences between the tables being compared.
  • A switch sides icon has also been added (only visible on the "select tables" step) to enable you to switch the source and target tables.
  • The "synchronization complete" message is much shorter now and includes Commit and Rollback buttons. If you simply close the dialog without choosing commit or rollback, a pair of commit/rollback icons appears in the Compare Data window.
  • Toad now does an automatic savepoint at the beginning of syncronization. If user cancels the synchronization, Toad rolls back to the savepoint.
  • The Synchronization step has been replaced with a Sync button. The button determines the fastest sync method and chooses it automatically, so the user no longer has to make this choice. The button is a dropdown that provides choices to synchronize immediately, save a script to file, or send it to editor.
• The Estimate Table Size and Estimate Index Size windows have been combined into one tabbed window called Estimate Table/Index Size.
• The following shortcuts were added to the Refresh in the Session Browser: Press F5 to refresh all. Press F6 to refresh details.

Team Coding

• You now have the ability to customize how DDL is extracted for Team Coding objects. These settings can be configured under the Team Settings node of the Team Coding Configuration window. By default, the settings mimic what is currently being extracted for Team Coding, with the following exception: NOT NULL constraints have a different format than what is currently being used, because of changes in the export methodology.
• You can now optionally include INSERT statements for table data with your DDL script to save to your version control provider. NOTE:  This can result in very large scripts being saved to the VCS and can significantly affect the performance of Team Coding. As a result, this option should be used with caution.
• Access to the Folders and Extensions naming dialog has been moved from the toolbar to the General page underneath the Team Settings node.
• A new Getting Started with Team Coding guide has been added to the docs folder within the Toad installation. A shortcut button has been added to the Team Coding Configuration toolbar, which enables you to launch this guide using the built-in PDF viewer.

• Team Coding VCS debugging has been improved:

  • A Debug Log Viewer window was added, which launches when you click Open log file. This window allows easier navigation through the log to locate log entries and view the requests and responses with the version control system. You can also select multiple cells in the viewer grid and press Ctrl+C to extract only those entries of the log file (in their original format) to the clipboard.
  • Team Coding context information was added to help identify which specific VCS commands are being executed for which Team Coding steps.
  • You can still view the full raw text file in the text editor by clicking on the toolbar, or you can click to open the log folder to select a file to open.
  • You can select multiple cells in the grid and press Ctrl+C to copy only those entries to the clipboard. The entries will be copied to the clipboard in the same format as the log file.
• Toad now supports using personal access tokens with Visual Studio Team Services. Simply generate the token and then paste it into the login window when you log in to VSTS from Team Coding. For more information about generating a token, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/vsts/integrate/get-started/authentication/pats.
• Team Coding now supports table rebuilds. A Rebuild Table option has been added to Team Coding Manager for table objects. When you click this option, it launches the Schema Browser, from which you can run the Rebuild Table Wizard (select Rebuild | Table). The table is automatically updated after you run the rebuild script.
• The Revision History grid of the Object Properties dialog has a new right-click option to Open Revision in Editor. This feature enables you to compile a specific revision back into your database, thus providing a path to restore old revisions easily.
• Support was added for cloning, and pulling and pushing between, distributed remote repositories from inside Toad, so that you no longer need to go outside Toad to perform these functions.
• Team Coding support was added for rebuilding tables from the Team Coding Manager, Schema Browser, and Editor.

Automation Designer

• A Running status was added which, when a long running action is executed in the automation designer, notifies the user that the action is still running.

• Support was added for setting the encoding option at an action level:

  • Added encoding to the Generate Database Script and Generate Schema Script actions. Find this option under Output | Scripts | Encoding.
  • Added Encoding and Spool Encoding options for the Execute Script action under the DB Misc tab.

Connections

• When connection colors are used, Toad combo boxes that display a list of connections now include the colors for each connection shown. These include:

  • Compare Data
  • Compare Databases
  • Compare Schemas
  • Compare Multiple Tables
  • Analyze All Objects (under Options -> Stats Table and Copying)
  • Trace File Browser (in the Open trace file on database server dialog)
  • Export File Browser (DB Compare mode)
  • Single Object Compare
  • Copy object to another schema
  • Data Subset Wizard

Formatter

• The Formatter now uses less memory during formatting large lumps of SQL text.

• In a stacked named parameter list, whenever a parameter with a large values wraps its value to a next line, it will no longer trigger all other parameters to do so. In addition, text folds better on low right margins. Example:

  p_partno => r.partno, p_synonym_of => r.synonym_of, p_value_lines => COALESCE (r.value_lines, 0) + COALESCE (r.repl_value_lines, 0), Former output (5.307): p_partno => r.partno, p_synonym_of => r.synonym_of, p_value_lines => COALESCE (r.value_lines, 0) + COALESCE (r.repl_value_lines, 0), New output: p_partno => r.partno, p_synonym_of => r.synonym_of, p_value_lines => COALESCE (r.value_lines, 0) + COALESCE (r.repl_value_lines, 0),

• Alignment has been added to "parameter = value" lists.
• Expressions between parentheses are formatted differently, more closely obeying the Expression and Parentheses formatter options. This is due to required internal formatter refactoring. You can mimic to original setting by selecting Toad Options | Formatter | List Arrangements | Expressions | Parentheses options = 1, 2 or 3, combined with On Overflow = None on that same page.

Parser

• Support was added for SET SQLFORMAT.
• Support was added for custom analytic functions in PIVOT clause.

• The function DBMS_XMLGEN.GETXMLTYPE(query) was changed: If the parameter is a simple string, a syntax check will be done on that string.

Code Analysis

• An "Overall Summary" section was added to the top of the Code Analysis HTML report, which contains the counts, run date, and ruleset used.
• A menu item was added to the context menu for rule violations that would allow the user quick access to edit the rule.
• The Code Analysis rule window now allows editing without the need to open a separate edit window.

New Rules

The following new rules were added:

• Rule 2141 ("Make sure the given Schema Prefix name exists for all objects.")
• Rule 2142 ("Table names should be under N characters.")
• Rule 2143 ("When creating an index or a table then specific tablespaces should be used.")
• Rule 2144 ("When creating a table then a primary key should be created.")
• Rule 2145 ("Avoid using the listed data types.")
• Rule 5903 ("All queries (dynamic and fixed) must leverage bind variables for performance, security, and maintainability purposes.") will not flag simple comparisons with equal left and ride side such as 1 = 1 and 7 < 7 anymore.
• Rule 6702 ("No RETURN statement found in function.")

• Rule 6703 ("Replace IF ... CONTINUE by CONTINUE WHEN.")

• Rule 6705 ("An IF having ELSIF clauses should have an ELSE clause.")

• Rule 6709 ("ROWNUM found in a WHERE clause.")

• Rule 6711 ("Search literal following LIKE should contain wildcards _ or %.")

• Rule 6713 ("Isolated semicolon(s) found.")

• Rule 6714 ("Duplicate CASE WHEN entry found.")

• Rule 6715 ("COMPRESS or NOCOMPRESS specified more than once.")

• Rule 6724 ("Check on PL/SQL block and loop label matching.")

• Rule 6726 ("Consider replacing '(NOT) IN subquery' by '(NOT) EXISTS subquery'.")

• Rule 6727 ("NVL in a WHERE clause may disable the use of an index.")

• Rule 6731 ("A WHERE condition containing the (+) operator cannot be combined with another condition using the OR logical operator.")

• Rule 6740 ("Assigning variable to itself (A := A).") : New rule detecting assignments to itself (A := A).
• Rule 6748 ("Consider writing IF THEN CONTINUE as CONTINUE WHEN.")

Enhancements from Idea Pond

The following is a list of enhancements requested by Toad for Oracle users on the Toad Idea Pond and implemented in this release.

The Idea Pond on Toad World is a site where you can submit your ideas to improve Toad and vote or comment on ideas submitted by other people. The Toad development team has always been driven by our customers, and the Idea Pond makes it easy for you to tell us what changes are most important. This site is free for all Toad customers.

Removed items

The following items were removed from Toad in this release:

• The following items were removed from Toad options. Toad will always behave as if the options were checked.

  • Commit after every statement option has been removed from features that contained it. If you must use this feature, you can edit the Toad.ini file to add CommitAfterEachStatement=1 under [SETTINGS] to re-enable it.
  • The Check for access to DBA views option has been removed.
• The INI file as a connections export format has been removed. Connections only export to XML. You can still import from an INI file, however.
• The Autocommit icon and text has been removed from main status bar.
• The Stay on Top option has been removed from the Describe window. You can now right-click on the window and pop it in and out as needed.
• The Unix Job Scheduler and Unix Monitor have been removed from the interface, but are still usable through menu customization.