Release Notes

Toad^® for Oracle 16.2

Release Notes

Revised 9/20/2022

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

Toad World is a unique and valuable resource available to all Toad users. Toad World provides forums, blogs, videos, product information, Beta releases (when available), and Trial downloads for Toad products. Visit Toad World at: https://www.toadworld.com.

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 comment on other 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 16.2 is a minor release, with enhanced features and functionality.

Toad for Oracle 16.2 includes component and requirement upgrades. These upgrades address security vulnerabilities previously identified in the third party component.

About Toad^® for Oracle^® Editions

Each Toad for Oracle Edition is packaged with additional Quest products to expand your experience. The following products may be part of your Toad for Oracle Edition:

• Toad for Oracle 16.2
• Benchmark Factory for Databases
• Code Tester for Oracle
• Spotlight on Oracle
• SQL Optimizer for Oracle
• Toad Data Modeler

The following Toad for Oracle Editions are available:

Note: The DB Admin Module can be added to any Toad Edition.

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 Editions release notes at: https://support.quest.com/technical-documents

New Features and Enhancements

Toad for Oracle 16.2

Data Grids

Improved formatting when copy/paste into applications that can accept HTML, e.g., Microsoft Teams, Microsoft Word, etc.

Fonts

Default fonts have been changed for an updated look. The default UI font is Segoe UI and the default Editor font is Consolas.

Color Schemes/Dark Mode

• Toad Script Runner now supports color schemes.

• Improvements to default Editor colors in dark schemes.

Login Window/Connections

• Clientless connections now support LDAP.

• Unchecking "Save passwords" requires confirmation.

• TNSNAMES Editor and LDAP Editor buttons have been moved to more relevant locations.

• Improved error handling and recovery when an ORA error is raised during connection initialization.

Automation Designer

• Improved performance with many apps/actions.

• Apps and folders can be cloned using copy/paste.

• Connections within the Connection Iterator action can be selectively enabled/disabled.

Editor

• Tabs for files modified externally have their captions updated to reflect the modification.

• A new word list has been added that can be used by you to set your own words to style how you see fit. See the "User List 1" list on the SQL tab (View | Options | Editor | Font and Styling).

Execute/Compile

• A new option has been added to check for locks prior to compiling (View | Options | Execute/Compile).

• Execute Snippet chooses better variable names when replacing PL/SQL references with bind variables.

Generate Schema Script, HTML Schema Doc Generator, and Compare Schemas

• Object set filters are saved as text files.

• Filter files can be specified in the respective actions for those windows in the Automation Designer.

Schema Browser

The right-click Clone/Copy user window now has a Show SQL button.

Describe Dialogs

Options added to remember the size and position (View | Options | Schema Browser | Describe Dialogs).

Compare Files

Shortcuts have been added for next/previous difference.

Toad Debug Mode

Toad debug mode has always been available via Toad.ini settings. Debug mode can now be enabled using controls within the Options window (View | Options | General). Use these options only when requested by Quest Support.

Toad for Oracle 16.1

Security

Several improvements to address OWASP Top 10 security risks.

Spool SQL

Pause and resume capture for a focused log.

Schema Browser

• Expanded subobject support

  • See the Show LHS Subobjects option located beneath the Browser Style tool button menu

• Team Coding status represented by images instead of text

Editor

• Find dialog options to exclude or limit search to comments and/or strings

• Active editor tab is more prominently displayed when using dark themes

• Send errors from the Script Output | Errors tab to external editor

Compare Table Data

An object in the target session matching the selected source object is automatically selected by default.

Script Manager

• Save and restore list of connections to execute against

• Add ability to clear all output

Connection Colors

Window border painting improvements for increased visibility.

DBMS Output

Improved speed performance when fetching output.

Toad for Oracle 16.0

Color Schemes

Grid colors can be customized when a color scheme is applied.

Code Insight

Fields of cursor loop variables, %ROWTYPE variables, and record variables are now shown when variables are included in the list of Code Insight objects. See the Editor | Code Assist page in Options.

Schema Browser

A new option allows subobjects to be displayed beneath their parent object in the left-hand side. Click the Browser Style tool button and enable Show LHS Subobjects.

Connections

• Toad for Oracle 15.1 introduced a new feature that allows for connections to be made without using an installed Oracle client. A new checkbox has been added to the Login window so you can make the connection without a client even if you have installed clients.
• Clientless connections will now populate the TNS tab from tnsnames.ora file if you have one present. The file can be in a path referenced by the TNS_ADMIN environment variable or even placed in the same folder as Toad.exe.

Transactions

The transactions window was moved from the Output panel to its own dedicated dock panel and will update connection bar button images to indicate when a session is in transaction. Also, transactions will be refreshed when the window is closed if the Always on option is enabled before closing the Transactions panel.

Alert Log Viewer

Added ability to load a local or remote files which are not the active alert log.

Master-Detail Browser

• If a master-detail file cannot be loaded due to objects not being found, you will be prompted to choose another schema.
• Loading master-detail files gracefully handles dropped columns.
• A new tool button for adding missing columns has been added.

Team Coding

Include/exclude filters can be set globally for a project.

Enhancements from Idea Pond

Discontinued Features

Knowledge Xpert. Knowledge Xpert is no longer available on Toad World. Beginning with release 13.1, Toad components no longer reference the online Knowledge Xpert.

Ask a Question. The Go to Toad World and Ask a Question commands on the Toad World toolbar have been replaced. To ask a question, click the Forums toolbar button to go directly to the forum. To go to Toad World, click the Forums or the Browse Blogs toolbar buttons. You can also use the Help menu: Help | Toad World | Forums. This change is found in Toad for Oracle 13.1 or later.

Integration with Toad Intelligence Central. Beginning with Toad for Oracle 13.1, Toad no longer provides integration with Toad Intelligence Central. The Toad Intelligence Central window is not available and you cannot publish scripts, files, Code Analysis results, and other resources to a Toad Intelligence Central server using Toad for Oracle. You cannot connect to Toad Intelligence Central through Toad for Oracle.