General

When Toad first loads, the main MDI screen appears and an initial Toad Server Login Window is displayed. This window will prompt for a Database, UserName, and Password. The database name should be one of the valid Oracle TNS entries. The user and password are the user/password for the schema to which you want to connect. For example, a sample schema that is installed with many versions of Oracle has a user/password of SCOTT/TIGER.

Previous connections will display in a list on the left of the Login window. Toad stores passwords for previous logins if the appropriate option is enabled. On most Toad screens, the Oracle connection active for that screen will display in the first or second panel of the status bar at the bottom of that particular screen. This is important to note because with several connections active, you will need to know which connection is in use for the active window.

For basic information about the most popular Toad features, please see the Features chapter of the Toad Getting Started Guide, which should be located in the docs folder of the Toad installation directory.

If you need help with a particular feature, you can press the F1 key while you are in the window to receive help on that topic.

If you want to knock out the freeware users, here is how to do so:

1. Create table TOAD.TOAD_FREEWARE ( Message VarChar2(2000));
2. Insert one row into that table containing the message you want your users to see when they attempt to login with Free Toad.
3. Grant select access on that table to PUBLIC. If the table exists AND is populated with at least one row, the freeware will not connect to that database.

• METHOD 1: See Database → Import → Source Files. This window can be used to import data from various kinds of source files into a table.
• METHOD 2: SQL*Loader You can use TOAD's interface to a program from Oracle called sqlloader. Save the Excel file as a comma-delimited (.csv) or tab-delimited (.txt) file. If your data has commas within a text field, save your file as tab-delimited.
  1. Open DBA→Sql Loader Wizard
  2. Choose "build a new control file". Next.
  3. Click "Add". Choose your comma-delimited or tab-delimited file. Next.
  4. Click "Add". Choose your table.
  5. If you are loading a comma-delimited file, type a comma in the "all fields delimited by" combo box. If you are loading a tab-delimited file, select "TAB" from the "all fields delimited by" combo box. Next.
  6. Choose a "load method" noting the following:
     • TRUNCATE will erase whatever is in the table before loading.
     • INSERT will insert data if table is empty but will return an error if table has any data in it.
     • APPEND will insert data without deleting any existing data. You might get duplicates this way but it's a good method if you're trying to get that last line that somehow got munged for some reason or another.
  7. If your file has column headers in its first row, type a 1 in the skip box. Next.
  8. Type a control file name in the control file name box. Next.
  9. Choose either "execute now" to load the data now or "just build the control file" to build the .ctl file. Once you have the ctl file theoretically you don't even need TOAD, as you could just use sqlloader on any machine that has sqlloader and can connect to the database. But why would you want to. :) I choose execute now.

Note: If you are working with Oracle 8.0 or earlier on a Windows 2000 or later OS, uncheck "Watch Progress"

Note: once you have a ctl file you can:

1. Choose DBA→Sql Loader Wizard
2. Choose "Use control file". Next.
3. Select your control file. Next.
4. Choose "execute now". Finish.

Check the options "Show Views on Table Selector" and "Show Synonyms on Table Selector" under Options → Editors. The next time you open the SQL Modeler, your views and synonyms will show up.

Oracle changed access to the dbms_system package which contains the trace procedure. Try the following:

CREATE PUBLIC SYNONYM dbms_system FOR sys.dbms_system;
GRANT EXECUTE ON sys.dbms_system TO DBA;

For a relatively small file (a few thousand rows) try Database → Import → Table Data. It's very easy to use, and the whole load takes place within TOAD. For a large file, use DBA → SQL Loader wizard. That lets you set up a control file for Oracle's SQL*Loader utility and run it. Of course, if you use this you will need to have the Oracle SQL*Loader installed on your client. See the Help file with its "SQL*Loader Wizard tutorial" for more information.

Your database character set is probably UTF8 or another Unicode character set, which TOAD does not currently support. There used to be a recommended workaround to change your Oracle client's NLS_LANG value to AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8, which will eliminate these error messages. But this can result in the wrong data being inserted into your database when you update records, because TOAD does not know how to interpret UTF8 data. TOAD 7.5 and up does not give these ORA-01460 errors except in TOAD Reports, but it still does not support UTF8, in that non-ASCII data may be retrieved and/or inserted incorrectly.

The WAIT_TIME column contains a value of -2 on platforms that do not support a fast timing mechanism. If you are running on one of these platforms and you want this column to reflect true wait times, you must set the TIMED_STATISTICS parameter to TRUE. Remember that doing this has a small negative effect on system performance

Somehow, your TOAD has become read only. There are 3 possibilities.

• One possibility is that the file "readonly.lic" has been copied over "toad.lic". To see if this is the problem, replace the "toad.lic" file in your Toad directory with "fulltoad.lic" and then restart TOAD. If you do not have a "toad.lic" or "fulltoad.lic" at all, then you will need to reinstall TOAD.
• Another possibility is that someone has implemented TOAD Security on your database and made your user or one of your roles read only. Run the following query:

select user_name, feature 
  from toad.toad_restrictions
  where user_name=USER or user_name in
    (select ROLE from session_roles)

If one of the results that comes back contains "Read only override", then that's the problem. Your TOAD will be read only unless you have the DBA role.

• A third possibility is that you have a read-only version of the TOAD executable. This would only happen if you downloaded the read only installation from Quest's website.

Browsing for a file name using certain browse-for-file dialogs in options unnecessarily adds double quotes to the path, which results in an error when the option is used. Double quotes are added when the file path/name isn't DOS/8.3 compatible. This issue will not occur if the path/file are entered manually. The following locations are affected: Options > Startup > "File to load on startup" and "File to execute on new connections", Options > Executables, Options > Monitors > "Alert file".

The workaround is to remove the double quotes added by the browse dialog or manually enter the path/file name into the field.

Install Toad on your laptop so you get all the registry stuff done. Zip up your desktop install and extract it over your desktop install. Voila.

The Project Manager is a window in TOAD that helps you accomplish your frequent tasks with the least amount of effort. Interested in reading more? Click Here.

Your FTP Server is returning an unknown format of LIST (Long dIrectory LisTing). You may workaround this by setting your default FTP directory to '/' at the login screen.

This is a known Oracle bug (# 2106606 - verified and tested)

If you have SQLab Developer, the file - Xpert_InterCommProj1.ocx - needs updated for the Xpert Tuning Module. SQLab has included an executable file, sqlabocx.exe, in the SQLab Tuning folder that will re-installs and registers the correct OCX file for that version of SQLab Xpert.

The problem is that this server is non RFC compliant. The RETR request asks the server to send the contents of a file over the data connection already established by the client as specified in the FTP RFC. Our components are build to be RFC compliant and it is sending the RETR cmd, which the server is not recognizing.

Starting with 7.5 you can now auto-open almost any TOAD window. Therefore the options have all been consolidated and moved to Options → Windows.

If you have a Win98 client, upgrade your display adapter from version 4.11 to 4.12

Perhaps the SQL Net configuration needs tuned. Try this: Some SQL Net issues worth a try with VPN's (note - this is not a TOAD issue):

SQLNet.ora file

TCP.NODELAY=yes
SQLNET.EXPIRE_TIME=10

TNSNames.ora file

SDU=2920

One of the third-party components we are using is trapping for WM_SETTINGCHANGED message in a WNDPROC. This is also why TOAD hops to the foreground after making any desktop change that causes a WM_SETTINGCHANGED message. This has been fixed for Release 7.3

When using the export utility (exp.exe) supplied with 10g clients you may see results like this.

Message 206 not found; No message file for product=RDBMS, facility=EXP: Release 10.1.0.2.0 - Production on Tue Jan 18 09:43:09 2005
Copyright © 1982, 2004, Orac
Invalid format of Export utility name
Verify that ORACLE_HOME is properly set
Export terminated unsuccessfully
EXP-00000: Message 0 not found; No message file for product=RDBMS, facility=EXP

The solution for this error is to add the environment variable 'ORACLE_HOME' and set its value to the ORACLE_HOME value for your client (ex. C:\Oracle\Ora10g).

This message means that you have uninstalled, removed your license key, deleted the directory where tha last version of Toad was installed or deleted the key found where you last installed Toad. Make sure the SERVER key in the registry points towards a licensed installation of Toad.

• run REGEDIT,
• hkey_local_machine –> Software –> Quest Software –> Toad –> SERVER

You are connecting to an Oracle 10G release 2 database (10.2.0.2 or higher) and you have a version of TOAD that is less than 8.6.1. Oracle made a change to the ALL_ARGUMENTS view at release 10.2.0.2 and this 'broke' TOAD.

The solution is either to :

• Stop connecting to 10.2.0.2 or newer databases :o)
• Upgrade to TOAD version 8.6.1 or higher.
• Alter the ALL_ARGUMENTS view in your database, moving the SUBPROGRAM_ID column to the end. Altering the data dictionary is unsupported by Oracle, so you probably should not do this to a production database. It does, however, seem to do the trick, with no known side effects.

NOTE: This list is always expanding. If you receive a "Table does not Exist" error, you can find what table is missing by spooling SQL to screen to see the code Toad is using.

Access to V$ synonyms required on selected Toad windows are:

• V_$Sesstat
• V$Statname
• V$Session

The following public synonyms must be present:

• v$rowcache
• v$sysstat
• v$system_event
• v$librarycache
• v$STATNAME
• v$SESSTAT
• v$sess_io
• v$session
• v$process
• v$latch

The following public synonyms must be present:

• V$DATABASE
• v$datafile
• v$filestat
• V$INSTANCE
• v$latch
• v$librarycache
• V$OPTION
• V$PARAMETER
• v$rollname
• v$rollstat
• v$sess_io
• v$session
• v$sesstat
• v$sgastat
• v$sqlarea
• v$statname
• v$sysstat
• v$system_event
• v$tablespace

The following public synonyms must be present:

• V$ARCHIVE_PROCESSES
• V$BH
• v$buffer_pool
• V$buffer_pool_statistics
• v$database
• v$dispatcher
• V$INSTANCE
• v$librarycache
• v$library_cache_memory
• V$LOG
• V$LOG_history
• V$PARAMETER
• v$pq_slave
• v$process
• V$ROWCACHE
• v$session
• V$SESSTAT
• v$sga
• v$sgastat
• V$STATNAME
• v$sysstat
• v$version

The following public synonyms must be present:

• v$sysstat
• v$system_event
• v$session
• v$librarycache
• x$ksllt
• v$sgastat

The following public synonyms must be present:

• v$version
• v$instance
• v$sysstat
• v$librarycache
• v$rowcache
• v$sgastat
• v$parameter
• v$database
• v$log_history
• v$filestat
• v$datafile
• v$tablespace

To see indexes other than your own you must have access to the following:

• sys.ob$
• sys.ind$
• sys.user$
• sys.object_usage

You must also have the ALTER ANY INDEX privilege.

The following public synonym must be present:

• v$parameter

The following public synonyms must be present:

• v$logmnr_contents
• v$logmnr_logs

You must also have:

• Execute privileges on DBMS_logmnr
• Execute privileges on DBMS_logmnr_d
• the Parameter UTL_FILE_DIR set in init.ora (Oracle 8i only)

The following public synonyms must be present:

• v$sqlarea
• v$sqltext_with_newlines

You must also have access to the V$ Oracle Dictionary views

No special public synonyms required. However, DBMS_DEBUG must be valid

On 10g databases, Debug Connect Session privileges must be granted

• SYS.OBJ$ – used only in Activity tab of the browser
• SYS.USER$ – used only in Activity tab of the browser
• V$INSTANCE – used only in Activity and 'User' tabs of the browser
• V$LOCK – used only in Activity tab of the browser
• V$PROCESS – used only in Activity tab of the browser
• V$SESS_IO – used only in Activity tab of the browser
• V$SESSION – used only in Activity tab of the browser

In addition, you will need SELECT privileges on many Oracle Applications views

The following public synonym must be present:

• v$parameter
• V$INSTANCE

The following public synonyms must be present:

• V$SESS_IO
• V$SESSION
• V$PROCESS
• V$STATNAME
• V$ROWCACHE
• V$SYSSTAT
• V$SYSTEM_EVENT
• V$LIBRARYCACHE
• V$SESSION_PRIVS

The following public synonym must be present:

• V$SYSTEM_EVENT

The following public synonym must be present:

• V$LATCH

The following public synonyms must be present:

• V$SESS_IO
• V$SESSION
• V$PROCESS
• V$STATNAME

The following public synonym must be present:

• V$SYSSTAT

The following public synonyms must be present:

• V$SESSION
• V$PROCESS
• V$SESS_IO
• V$SESSION_WAIT
• V$SESSION_EVENT
• V$ACCESS
• V$SESSSTAT
• V$STATNAME
• V$OPEN_CURSOR
• V$SQL
• V$LOCK
• V$SESSION_LONGOPS
• V$SQLTEXT_WITH_NEWLINES

In addition, you must have access to the following:

• SYS.V_$TRANSACTION
• SYS.V_$ROLLNAME

The following public synonym must be present:

• V$SYSSTAT

The Toad schema must have the privileges to create and alter jobs, create and drop its own tables and procedures, and must have SELECT access on the following:

• DBA_DATA_FILES
• DBA_FREE_SPACE
• DBA_JOBS
• DBA_TABLESPACES
• V_$FILESTAT