News

Oracle Gets a New Toad from Quest

• By Kathleen Ohlson
• June 8, 2005

Quest Software recently introduced its latest version of Toad for Oracle, used to manage database objects, create and debug PL/SQL, and create, execute and optimize SQL queries. The database tool is aimed at Oracle Real Application Clusters, Citrix and terminal server environments.

Version 8.5 of Toad for Oracle features an auditing interface that enables users to administer Oracle’s auditing capabilities, including the ability to view audit trails to meet compliance requirements. Its enhanced project management is designed to help customers load and run scripts and SQL statements against multiple databases simultaneously.

Users can parse and browse the contents of Oracle export files through its export file browser, enabling them to choose the content they need without importing the files into the database. A Windows task schedule interface schedules any data description language task from within Toad for Oracle.

Code expert now features SQL scanning and a matrix for reporting script and PL/SQL data access based on code correctness, efficiency, maintainability, program structure and readability. With it, developers and administrators can debug PL/SQL code that is written and run from any client server app with a just-in-time debugger, connecting directly to the app and debugging multi-tier apps in real time.

Constellation Energy, which uses Toad for Oracle 7.6, plans to move to the new version, says Jeffrey Johnson, manager of IT corporate applications at Constellation Energy. The company supplies electricity to large commercial and industrial customers in North America. It owns or co-owns 35 power plants in 11 states, and delivers electricity and natural gas through its regulated utility, Baltimore Gas & Electric.

“We are looking forward to increased support for stored procedure and package development,” Johnson says. Past upgrades went “fairly smoothly,” pushing out to desktop users automatically, and Johnson expects this upgrade to do the same. “As we move more and more code into the database for processing, tuned, optimized and well-managed code will become increasingly important.”

Constellation’s Oracle database supports human resources, payroll, corporate portal, document management and financial apps. The company’s developers and database analysts use Toad for Oracle to format output from SQL queries and long lines of SQL source code into color-coded paragraphs. Developers create and maintain stored procedures, triggers and packages. The tool also helps Constellation perform database comparisons during projects to ensure environment uniformity, as well as for preparation for deployments, according to Johnson.

Toad for Oracle 8.5 comes in four editions: Toad for Oracle, Toad for Oracle Professional, Toad for Oracle Xpert and Toad for Oracle Suite. It supports Oracle platform versions 7.3.4 and higher. Pricing starts at $870 per seat.