Toad for Oracle – Database Versions Q and A

Questions and Answers on Toad for Oracle Database Versions:

Q1:  Does Toad support Oracle RDB, Times Ten, or Berkeley DB?

A1: The answer is NO to all of these. Essentially, these are all radically different database engine technologies acquired by Oracle over the years. Toad does not currently support connecting to these different database server engines. However we fully expect the Times Ten memory resident technology to see more integration with the standard RDBMS server engine – so we remain vigilant for that platform.

Q2: How quickly does Toad offer new Oracle version support?

A2: Toad is one of the most aggressive tools when it comes to supporting new Oracle releases – both in our standard product features, and the optional DBA module. Generally speaking as a premier Oracle partner, we actively participate in all new Oracle version betas as soon as possible. Our goal is to support basic database connectivity and full backwards compatibility of existing Toad features ASAP – often at nearly the same time frame as the new Oracle release. We often refer to this as new Oracle version tolerance. So our goal is to be tolerant ASAP – and hopefully at the same time as the Oracle release (depending of course on our own release schedule). Next we strive to add new Oracle version feature support – again trying to shoot for nearly the same time. However, sometimes we cannot 100% know for sure how a new Oracle feature will actually work until the actual Oracle release date (i.e. Oracle features sometimes evolve during the Oracle beta program – and thus we have a moving target). But it’s safe to assume that no matter what the scenario – Toad will be one of the leading tools to implement any new Oracle version tolerance and new feature support. We take great pride in this fact.

Q3: How do we determine which version of Oracle Client we have?

A3: On the Toad connection screen, press the button next to Oracle Home with three periods (…) in it. That will invoke the Toad Oracle Home screen so you can browse and see which clients you have. This is not 100% foolproof since sometimes Instant Clients are not detectable if the user does not have proper Windows environment variables for PATH and TNS_ADMIN set. But it's a start.