TOAD (software)
Encyclopedia
Toad is a software application from Quest Software
used for development and administration of various relational database
s using SQL
.
, Microsoft SQL Server
, Sybase
, IBM DB2
, and MySQL
. In 2009, Quest Software announced the availability of Toad for Cloud Databases with support for the following non-relational databases: Hadoop
, mongoDB
, SimpleDB, Azure Services Platform
, and Apache Cassandra. Toad runs on all 32-bit
Windows
platforms, including Windows 95
, 98
, NT
, 2000
, XP
, and Vista
. For backend connectivity Toad needs Oracle 32-bit SQL*Net and Oracle version 7.3.4 or later.
Toad can view the Oracle data dictionary - tables
, indexes
, stored procedure
s - and do various other tasks through multi-tabbed browsers.
Toad does not support any non-Microsoft
environment. Quest used to maintain an open source
platform independent tool offering some of Toad's basic functionality, called TOra
. Starting from 2005-02-17 TOra is fully maintained by the community.
Quest makes Toad available in both commercial and trial/freeware
versions. Freeware is available from the ToadWorld.com community
and later as freeware
, and McDaniel distributed it freely over the Internet
.
As the user base grew, so did the effort of maintenance and development. Finally, the author realized that he could no longer dedicate substantial amounts of time to the growing quantity of software enhancement requests.
On November 9, 1998 Quest Software, a developer and distributor of a competitive, related product, SQL Navigator, announced the acquisition of TOAD as an addition to its family of database development and management solutions for Oracle.
Toad remains the most successful database development and administration tool for Oracle database professionals, despite competition from Oracle's own software offerings, and those of other vendors.
In 2004, Quest re-branded the tool to accommodate product line expansion into other database platforms. Toad was registered as a Trademark and is no longer an acronym. Toad comes in six platform editions: Toad for Oracle, Toad for SQL Server, Toad for Sybase, Toad for IBM DB2, Toad for Cloud Databases and Toad for MySQL. Quest also has a heterogeneous edition called Toad for Data Analysts.
Toad for Oracle is written as a native Windows
application using Delphi. All of the other editions are written in C# on the .NET Framework
.
Quest Software
Quest Software is a computer software manufacturer headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California. Founded in 1987, Quest develops, manufactures and supports software used by Information Technology professionals in a variety of industries...
used for development and administration of various relational database
Relational database
A relational database is a database that conforms to relational model theory. The software used in a relational database is called a relational database management system . Colloquial use of the term "relational database" may refer to the RDBMS software, or the relational database itself...
s using SQL
SQL
SQL is a programming language designed for managing data in relational database management systems ....
.
Supported databases and environments
Toad supports the following relational databases: Oracle DatabaseOracle Database
The Oracle Database is an object-relational database management system produced and marketed by Oracle Corporation....
, Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server
Microsoft SQL Server is a relational database server, developed by Microsoft: It is a software product whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications, be it those on the same computer or those running on another computer across a network...
, Sybase
Sybase
Sybase, an SAP company, is an enterprise software and services company offering software to manage, analyze, and mobilize information, using relational databases, analytics and data warehousing solutions and mobile applications development platforms....
, IBM DB2
IBM DB2
The IBM DB2 Enterprise Server Edition is a relational model database server developed by IBM. It primarily runs on Unix , Linux, IBM i , z/OS and Windows servers. DB2 also powers the different IBM InfoSphere Warehouse editions...
, and MySQL
MySQL
MySQL officially, but also commonly "My Sequel") is a relational database management system that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. It is named after developer Michael Widenius' daughter, My...
. In 2009, Quest Software announced the availability of Toad for Cloud Databases with support for the following non-relational databases: Hadoop
Hadoop
Apache Hadoop is a software framework that supports data-intensive distributed applications under a free license. It enables applications to work with thousands of nodes and petabytes of data...
, mongoDB
MongoDB
MongoDB is an open source, high-performance, schema-free, document-oriented database written in the C++ programming language...
, SimpleDB, Azure Services Platform
Azure Services Platform
The Windows Azure Platform is a Microsoft cloud platform used to build, host and scale web applications through Microsoft data centers. Windows Azure Platform is thus classified as platform as a service and forms part of Microsoft's cloud computing strategy, along with their software as a service...
, and Apache Cassandra. Toad runs on all 32-bit
32-bit
The range of integer values that can be stored in 32 bits is 0 through 4,294,967,295. Hence, a processor with 32-bit memory addresses can directly access 4 GB of byte-addressable memory....
Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
platforms, including Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
, 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
, NT
Windows NT
Windows NT is a family of operating systems produced by Microsoft, the first version of which was released in July 1993. It was a powerful high-level-language-based, processor-independent, multiprocessing, multiuser operating system with features comparable to Unix. It was intended to complement...
, 2000
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, business desktops, laptops, and servers. Windows 2000 was released to manufacturing on 15 December 1999 and launched to retail on 17 February 2000. It is the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the...
, XP
Windows XP
Windows XP is an operating system produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops and media centers. First released to computer manufacturers on August 24, 2001, it is the second most popular version of Windows, based on installed user base...
, and Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is an operating system released in several variations developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, tablet PCs, and media center PCs...
. For backend connectivity Toad needs Oracle 32-bit SQL*Net and Oracle version 7.3.4 or later.
Toad can view the Oracle data dictionary - tables
Table (database)
In relational databases and flat file databases, a table is a set of data elements that is organized using a model of vertical columns and horizontal rows. A table has a specified number of columns, but can have any number of rows...
, indexes
Index (database)
A database index is a data structure that improves the speed of data retrieval operations on a database table at the cost of slower writes and increased storage space...
, stored procedure
Stored procedure
A stored procedure is a subroutine available to applications that access a relational database system. A stored procedure is actually stored in the database data dictionary.Typical uses for stored procedures include data validation or access control mechanisms...
s - and do various other tasks through multi-tabbed browsers.
Toad does not support any non-Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
environment. Quest used to maintain an open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
platform independent tool offering some of Toad's basic functionality, called TOra
TOra
TOra is a free software database development and administration GUI, available under the GNU General Public License. It features a PL/SQL debugger, an SQL worksheet with syntax highlighting, a database browser and a comprehensive set of database administration tools.In addition to Oracle Database...
. Starting from 2005-02-17 TOra is fully maintained by the community.
Quest makes Toad available in both commercial and trial/freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
versions. Freeware is available from the ToadWorld.com community
History
Toad was originally designed by a practicing Oracle developer, Jim McDaniel (aka "TOADman"), in order to make his own life easier. He called it Tool for Oracle Application Developers, TOAD for short. The tool was made available to others first as sharewareShareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
and later as freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
, and McDaniel distributed it freely over the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
.
As the user base grew, so did the effort of maintenance and development. Finally, the author realized that he could no longer dedicate substantial amounts of time to the growing quantity of software enhancement requests.
On November 9, 1998 Quest Software, a developer and distributor of a competitive, related product, SQL Navigator, announced the acquisition of TOAD as an addition to its family of database development and management solutions for Oracle.
Toad remains the most successful database development and administration tool for Oracle database professionals, despite competition from Oracle's own software offerings, and those of other vendors.
In 2004, Quest re-branded the tool to accommodate product line expansion into other database platforms. Toad was registered as a Trademark and is no longer an acronym. Toad comes in six platform editions: Toad for Oracle, Toad for SQL Server, Toad for Sybase, Toad for IBM DB2, Toad for Cloud Databases and Toad for MySQL. Quest also has a heterogeneous edition called Toad for Data Analysts.
Toad for Oracle is written as a native Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
application using Delphi. All of the other editions are written in C# on the .NET Framework
.NET Framework
The .NET Framework is a software framework that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It includes a large library and supports several programming languages which allows language interoperability...
.
Books
- Toad Pocket Reference for Oracle 1st Edition by Jim McDaniel and Patrick McGrath, O'Reilly, 2002 (ISBN 0596003374, ISBN 978-0596003371)
- Toad Pocket Reference for Oracle 2nd Edition by Jeff Smith, Bert Scalzo, and Patrick McGrath, O'Reilly, 2005 (ISBN 0596009712, ISBN 978-0596009717)
- TOAD Handbook by Bert Scalzo and Dan Hotka, Sams, 2003 (ISBN 0672324865, ISBN 978-0672324864)
- TOAD Handbook 2nd Edition by Bert Scalzo and Dan Hotka, Addison-Wesley Professional, 2009 (ISBN 0321649109, ISBN 978-0321649102)