7 hacks to use Toad Edge® like a boss

Introduction

Shopping for open source tools? If you’ve made the decision to move your existing application or create a new application using an open source database back-end—and don’t want to be stuck with the often-times inadequate free tooling that comes with these platforms—keep reading.

It can be confusing sorting through third party options. You need a tool that is both intuitive and powerful, yet cost-effective. You also need a tool that you can trust. More than likely, if you have used Oracle and/or SQL Server, you’re probably very familiar with Toad products, since Toad® for Oracle and Toad for SQL Server have been used globally for more than 20 years by users who want to administer their database platforms.

If you’re looking for intuitive, powerful, cost-effective and trustworthy—look no further than Toad Edge®. The short learning curve of Toad Edge helps you begin developing immediately with our intuitive GUI.

7 hacks you can learn right now

Evaluating Toad Edge is simple. Whether you want to purchase Toad Edge or are trying it out now with our free 30-day trial on your Windows or Mac machine, you probably want to know … what’s next? Below is a list of 7 features you can learn about right now.

• Object Management
• Content Assist (using worksheets)
• SQL Recall
• Compare and Sync
• Snapshots
• Automation (CI/CD)
• Monitor Sessions

These 7 features will allow you to administer and design within your open-source database environment with minimal time and effort. Keep reading to see screen-shot summaries and accompanying blog and video links that cover the 7 features in detail.

Object Management

Access all your databases objects in order to create and/or alter them using our intuitive UI. You can simply right-click on the object from the Object Explorer in order to alter or even create objects as seen below:

Watch the video on Object Management now.

Content Assist

When writing SQL statements within a Worksheet, our Content Assist feature is automatically invoked and practically writes the SQL statement for you by making suggestions and allowing you to access the database metadata.

Watch the video on Content Assist (using worksheets) now.

SQL Recall

Should you forget to save a SQL statement, we have you covered – our automatic SQL Recall feature allows you to retrieve it instantly through drag and drop. You can even search for it using text as search criterion. You can find it just below your Worksheet.

Watch the video on SQL Recall now.

Schema Comparison

Do you have a team of developers making changes to the environment and want to know exactly what these changes are? Better yet, do you want to promote those changes to another environment quickly with minimal risk? The Schema Comparison feature allows you to do just that. Simply right-click on a schema within the Object Explorer to invoke the Compare feature. You’ll not only see the differences between your source and target schemas, but you can either fully or partially synchronize them between the two environments.

Watch the video on Compare and Sync now.

Snapshots

You can also take a snapshot of your schemas on a daily basis using the aptly-named Snapshots feature. Used in conjunction with the Schema Comparison feature, you can track schema changes over time. You can compare a snapshot either against the live database connection or even another snapshot! Simply right-click on the schema and select “Take a Snapshot” from the pop-up menu.

Watch the video on Snapshots now.

Automation

While taking a snapshot as described above, it can also be automated using the Automation (CI/CD) feature located in the upper right of your Toad Edge console. By doing so, you’ll see that you can also automate many other important Toad Edge features – either as just a task you wish to automate or as part of a Continuous Integration/Delivery workflow (with a specific plug-in to Jenkins).

Watch the video on Automation now.

Monitor Sessions

While knowing the state of your database is crucial, knowing who is logging onto your databases and seeing what they are doing is equally or even more important. In the lower right portion of your Toad Edge console, there will be a tab called Sessions where you can do just that – see who is logged in and what SQL statements they are actively running. With elevated privileges, you have the power to kill a session if required or even cancel a query that is running.

Watch the video on Monitor Sessions now.

These are just some of the features that make Toad Edge a premier solution for administering your open-source databases. With its intuitive design and accessing Toad World’s Toad Edge videos, you’ll be using Toad Edge like a boss in no time!

Our Toad family of products are continually evolving and getting better because we listen to you, our customers. So if you want to be part of the evolution and make the product even better, you can simply make that suggestion/enhancement request by using our Toad Edge Idea Pond.

Toad Edge is just one solution within the Toad family of products offered by Quest Software; an independent software vendor (ISV) with a long-standing history of creating world-class database management solutions for developers, administrators and data analysts.

Enjoy!