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Connor McDonald

Thanks for the question, Craig.

Asked: January 03, 2006 - 1:53 pm UTC

Last updated: July 26, 2022 - 7:16 am UTC

Version: 9.2.0.7.0

Viewed 1000+ times

You Asked

Tom,

Just curious about your impressions of Oracle Raptor. I've installed the Early Adoptor Release and it seems to be a slick tool for SQL and PL/SQL application development. What group is Oracle trying to target with this free tool? How is it better then other development tools already out there. What are the limitations of Raptor - how isn't it meant to be used? As always, thanks for your insight!

Regards,
Craig

and Tom said...

What group? the database developer. Me. I might typify the target audience. I need a command line, sometimes I like to click.

How is it better? Well, "it comes with" which is always good (low barrier to entry). It is cross platform (good for me). It is being developed by a team that does "database development" (same people that brought you HTML DB). It'll be practical, pragmatic, and hopefully retain its ease of use (I do not forsee an Oracle Education Course on this tool)

What are the limitations? None really, nothing "stated". It does what it does and does that pretty well. I believe it'll be used in ways the authors of it did not forsee (as most things are). If you need a desktop tool to help you "talk to the database", here you go.

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Comments

I would really like a session viewer

Kim, January 03, 2006 - 2:21 pm UTC

Hi Tom

I like Raptor so far, but I would very much appreciate a session viewer, where I can see what i running, locks, long ops, i/o etc.

I often use EM/TOAD's session monitors to check my newly developed sql and production problems.

It would be a great feature, and quite good in a "thick client", as opposed to EM.
And it would be great to have all in one tool.

Tom Kyte
January 03, 2006 - 2:41 pm UTC

Raptor forum.... Raptor forum....

the guys that write it, read that.

Oracle Raptor - Session Viewer

Magesh, January 03, 2006 - 2:49 pm UTC

Session Viewer is pretty much there but not to the extent of OEM/TOAD. Just click on Reports or go to View->Reports and then click on Database Administration->Sessions. What I mean by not to the extent of OEM/TOAD is, in those tools, you can actually view the sql which is running, get the plan etc. and ofcourse the abilitiy to kill the session which is so far missing in Raptor or I am yet to explore. HTH.


killing sessions with Raptor...

Craig, January 03, 2006 - 5:23 pm UTC

There isn't a way to do it through the GUI, but you can kill the sessions in the SQL worksheet with the:

ALTER SYSTEM KILL SESSION '<sid>,<serial#>';

However, the reports for session information included under Database Administration->Sessions do not specify the SID or SERIAL# of the sessions.

I like it as a first attempt at more than SQLPlus but...

Bob, January 03, 2006 - 5:50 pm UTC

I think it's going to be seen as a sort of competitor to Toad or PL/SQL Developer, which are both full, very functional DB clients. Toad, while expensive ($$$) really does alot well and PLSQL Developer has an inexpensive enough site license to really use just that for 100's of developers and advanced reporting users. Graphical interfaces have really come along way, so to introduce one that isn't as complete, even while not trying to be, may be looked at as "too little too late".
Still, it's the right direction.

Tom Kyte
January 03, 2006 - 6:14 pm UTC

but don't forget, this tool did not exist until just a few, very very few months ago. Baby steps... It came a long way fast.

CLI vs. GUI

VA, January 03, 2006 - 9:38 pm UTC

IMHO, the biggest advantage CLI has over a GUI is that it can be used in ways that the GUI designer didn't intend. A GUI is designed to have a pre-determined number of menus, drop downs, commands, tabs, etc. Fixed at design-time, unchangeable by the end-users. (Unfortunately, the Firefox XUL concept doesn't seem to have caught on much outside of Mozilla)

On the other hand, Unix commands and scripts have a different philosophy (more powerful than a GUI can ever be, IMHO). Expose a set of low-level tools that can be combined and mix-n-match in various ways.

For example, show me the 10 largest tables in the following schema and generate DDL for them. If I had (hypothetical) scripts for each of the above components like, for instance,

$ user_segments -sort=size schema.% | head -10 | xargs -n1 get_ddl

Can Raptor do this kind of stuff?

Just my 2c

Tom Kyte
January 04, 2006 - 8:23 am UTC

Raptor is driven externally in much the same way as Firefox with XUL. "patching" Raptor typically involves "drop a new configuration file in". Adding functionality is the same.

Where I can get raptor ?

Parag J Patankar, January 04, 2006 - 1:16 am UTC

Hi Tom,

My understanding is "RAPTOR" soon will going to replace sqlplus window. Am I correct ?

From where I can download "RAPTOR" along with installation guide ? Can I connect "RAPTOR" to Oracle 9.2 database ?

regards & thanks
pjp

Tom Kyte
January 04, 2006 - 8:52 am UTC

download:

</code> http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/ask/z?p_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oracle.com%2Ftechnology%2Fproducts%2Fdatabase%2Fproject_raptor%2Findex.html&p_cat=RAPTOR_2005&p_company=10 <code>

sqlplus command line - not going away.

sqlplusw.exe - been documented as going away for a long time.

Thanks for highlighting product

John Wright, January 04, 2006 - 1:54 am UTC

Downloaded Raptor from </code> http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/project_raptor/index.html <code>today. Won't be trading in our TOAD licence just yet, but will be watching with interest.

Oracle Raptor

MEHMOOD, January 04, 2006 - 5:42 am UTC

I am downloading it, and very much curious to work on Oracle Raptor.

XUL

VA, January 04, 2006 - 11:20 am UTC

"Raptor is driven externally in much the same way as Firefox with XUL"

Hm, does that mean that the user community can write "extensions" for Raptor just like the hundreds of cool FF extensions out there?

Tom Kyte
January 04, 2006 - 12:10 pm UTC

that is not what I said. It is the development method used by the people building raptor.

Joe, January 04, 2006 - 11:58 am UTC

I guess it's a bit late for christmas, but here's my wishlist for Raptor.

1. Statement execution statistics (autotrace)
2. Ability to browse different between different schemas without creating a new connection for each one.
3. Tabs are great. But opening a new tab for each stored proc clicked is pretty annoying. Especially when you are searching through some stored procs to find the SQL statement that your STATPACKS turned up.
4. Execution Plan is great. TKPROF would be even better.

Anyways, great first attempt. For a free product it's already way beyond what i would expect.

Tom Kyte
January 04, 2006 - 12:20 pm UTC

don't tell it to us!

====>>> raptor forum <<<<====

tell it to the guys writing it.

Like the man said...

Craig, January 04, 2006 - 12:38 pm UTC

Raptor Forum!

TKPROF is coming in the next release. I learned that from the forum!

</code> http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=351692&tstart=0 <code>

At Last

Whisp, January 04, 2006 - 4:47 pm UTC

So glad.


Not the right forum but this has to be said.

At Last an Oracle database development GUI tool by Oracle.

I have no intentions of replacing the best development tool
( sqlplus ), But as far as point and click we could be dawning on a era with a GUI that is specifically for Oracle Developers, tightly intergrated to the database and has the full support of Oracle.

After all who knows better what is needed for there developers than Oracle who are gain all the information from forums such as this.

Hats off to Oracle again.
Whisp

Raptor Rocks

Fahd Mirza, January 05, 2006 - 4:40 am UTC

After reading it on your blog, I downloaded and installed raptor. After 5 minutes of using it, I was hooked. Its surely a new year gift.
Thanks for every thing.

Oracle's direction for Front end ?

Partha, January 06, 2006 - 12:54 am UTC

(a) OEM
(b) SQL Workshop in HTMLDB
(c) Raptor

Difficult to understand the direction that oracle wants users to go with their front end. HTMLDB V2.0 and 2.1 (for XE) has a lot of enhancements and features for SQL Workshop. Now raptor almost imitates TOAD / Pl/SQL Developer. Working with Raptor - shows a lot of promise and is quite interesting. Since the HTMLDB development team helped out in Raptor creation, wouldn't it make more sense if oracle consolidates and gives one GUI front end with Raptor. It's a pity to note that a lot of work was done in HTMLDB V2.0 and now most of the users will move over to Raptor. Sometimes makes a person feel that they could have worked out in other Application parts instead.

Tom Kyte
January 06, 2006 - 1:44 pm UTC

why would there be "one for all, all for one"

OEM (enterprise manager, grid control) - DBA, systems management tool. Does DBA work.

SQL Workshop in HTMLDB - well, if you are building an application in HTMLDB, you have that tool - you are in that environment. No reason why that environment shouldn't give you the ability to query. Nice thing there is - ZERO install, I can walk up to any terminal and be querying away.

Raptor - database development tool, like command line sqlplus, only not a command line (power of command line, neat things you get from a gui - all in one).

sqlplus - command line (still my tool of choice, but then again, look at what I spend much time doing - cutting and pasting here :)

jdeveloper - it has a sql thing too.


I hope they never kill the "all you need is a simple browser" (Htmldb sql studio), and keep making the gui raptor better, and keep sqlplus up to date with all of the new database features, and .........



Raptor

Raymond, January 06, 2006 - 10:37 am UTC

Raptor is Lakker!!! Saves time and makes development more interesting.

Love it!

Eric Schrauth, January 06, 2006 - 11:32 am UTC

What I like most:

Ability to collapse code (if, loop, etc.)
Ability to run without an install. Have it on my USB key and can take it from computer to computer in my organization.

I am sure there are more.

The most important

Eric Schrauth, January 06, 2006 - 11:33 am UTC

Free!

Collapse code

A reader, January 14, 2006 - 3:25 pm UTC

"Ability to collapse code (if, loop, etc."

Heh, I have had this ability for years in the best programmers editor on the planet - GVim </code> http://www.vim.org, <code>it has a feature called "folding" that lets you configure stuff to fold away, very very useful.

j developer and effective oracle by design

James, January 23, 2006 - 7:00 am UTC

Well I've completed chapter 2 of your book, Effective Oracle by Design. Very good stuff Mr Kyte!

In the last part of the chapter you moved onto j-developer and I could detect a distinct undertone of, how should I put it, less than full enthusiasm. You did a good job of promoting the virtues of j-developer but maybe your heart wasn't really in it.

Anyway, the point of this followup is to ask if you think Raptor is now the PL/SQL gui development software of choice? ie If you revised Effective Oracle by Design the last section of Chapter 2 would feature Raptor, maybe with a slightly more glamerous write up :-)

Regards,
James


Tom Kyte
January 23, 2006 - 10:30 am UTC

Effective Oracle by Design would include Raptor and likely no mention of Jdeveloper since I really only referred to Jdev for the debugging of plsql mostly - and Raptor does that and more.

A reader, January 23, 2006 - 3:49 pm UTC

Hi Tom, is Raptor on a faster Java?
I read about a new technology on java to get it faster, I don't remember the name.


Tom Kyte
January 23, 2006 - 11:05 pm UTC

a faster java, hehehe.

Just regular old java.

A reader, January 24, 2006 - 8:19 am UTC

Thanks Tom, but it is really faster than java enterprise manager, for example.
Why?

Tom Kyte
January 24, 2006 - 8:29 am UTC

it is not comparable to some other application - it does something completely different.

Oracle Developer Days...

Craig, January 24, 2006 - 12:38 pm UTC

I just got an email inviting me to an Oracle Developer Day in my area. Any talks about having one for Raptor?

Regards,
Craig

to craig

Dave, January 24, 2006 - 3:16 pm UTC

Why?

it's just a small easy to use developing tool

why do you need 'a day' about it

sys usage

A reader, January 24, 2006 - 4:46 pm UTC

Hi

I downloaded this tool but couldn't find how to create tablespaces and move them.
Limited functionality.



Raptor good first beta release

Dave Fowler, January 24, 2006 - 5:45 pm UTC

Nice and easy ,Very intuitive to use.

TOAD will have some competition before long, and that is always a good thing.

I know Raptor Forum.

A reader, January 25, 2006 - 2:40 pm UTC

Thanks Tom.

Where start enterprise manager, wheere it ends, and where start raptor.
Obviously the benefits from enterprise manager are web based, etc. etc.

But almost all the functionaly there are in enterprise is neccesary in raptor too.

Are you thinking to move all oracle enterprise functionality (related to schema and database objects) to raptor, including scheduling, etc. etc. etc.etc. etc. etc.etc. etc. etc.?

Thanks Tom

Tom Kyte
January 25, 2006 - 4:47 pm UTC

hardly would I say "almost all of the enterprise manager (EM) functionality necessary in raptor"

Raptor is all about a developer.
EM is all about managing the Oracle "Eco-System" (app server, database server, applications).

Raptor is about building
EM is about managing

there is some overlap, but only because they put things into EM that DBA's shouldn't be doing in a management tool, like creating tables (yes, I do not believe that physical schemas are the jobs of DBA's, they rightly would be the job of the developer - now if only I can get them to open the book and .......)

Oracle Raptor

Brian, January 26, 2006 - 7:32 am UTC

(yes, I do not
believe that physical schemas are the jobs of DBA's, they rightly would be the
job of the developer - now if only I can get them to open the book and .......)
With the trend of organizations to have OS support staff load Oracle on the servers and developers creating tables, I see the job of a DBA becoming more of a correcting mistakes of others. Garbage in gargage out.

Tom Kyte
January 26, 2006 - 10:20 am UTC

I see the job of the DBA becoming more of managing applications that happen to run on databases personally.

DBA's have developed some horrible schemas
DBA's do not good developers make
DBA's do not make the best implementors of applications

A reader, January 26, 2006 - 10:46 am UTC

Thanks Tom, congratulations for raptor.

Raptor or Toad (that is the question)

Phil, February 06, 2006 - 5:27 pm UTC

The responses provided shed some light on the new tool Raptor. Our developer constantly screamed for more copies of Toad, so we bought more copies. Then plague spread and virtually everyone felt they needed a copy too. I know Toad is a very powerful tool but does everyone need a full copy of the product. Finding that Raptor was available was like getting extra Christmas presents. LOW cost and a good deal of the power. The comments I have read validate my decision to limit the expensive copies of Toad to users that could (safely) use the power of the tool but reading the comments also indicate that Raptor is pretty powerful too. I guess we can get into trouble either way we go.

Has anyone heard of PL/SQL Editor plugin for Eclipse?

Andrew, February 15, 2006 - 7:44 pm UTC

There is another free, platform-independent alternative. And even better, it is open source and written in Java so you can put in any feature you want if you have the time and energy. And it works on what is fast becoming the best all-around IDE on the market, Eclipse, so it automatically integrates with CVS, etc. Just download Eclipse (Eclipse.org) and then go to: </code> http://plsqleditor.sourceforge.net/ <code>

It is still early days (v0.4.1), and this was written more for heavy PL/SQL development than ad-hoc SQL queries (although it does do both), but there are some pretty neat features that I don't believe even Toad or Raptor do. For example, the ability to open a declaration function (F3) which allows you to open the implementation of a function, procedure, field or type declared in a file somewhere.

Ch..ch..ch..changes

Jay, February 17, 2006 - 5:01 am UTC

Now, Raptor is knowed as sqldeveloper. :)

write back cache

Mark A. Gold, February 21, 2006 - 1:07 pm UTC

When considering mass storage devices and RAID levels I am also faced with the decision to use or not use write back cache. What are your thoughts on the matter?

Tom Kyte
February 22, 2006 - 8:07 am UTC

they are generally ok, but on any seriously large system - you will exceed their capacity.

So the argument typically goes "raid-5 is OK because we have a write cache". And then they proceed with loading the warehouse using direct path operations....

And waiting.

Rubbish name - SQL Developer

Disgruntled Developer, March 02, 2006 - 9:37 am UTC

Wonder how long they deliberated over choosing such a rubbish name!

Bring back Raptor!

SQL Developer

Andrea, March 16, 2006 - 5:49 am UTC

Hi,
I installed sqldeveloper 1.0.011 and started to use it. The question is about jobs, we can't see them through the tool! In your opinion is it a missing feature?

Tom Kyte
March 16, 2006 - 2:05 pm UTC

you cannot query user_jobs and dba_jobs?

"sql developer" a much needed tool has arrived..

nirav, March 17, 2006 - 6:18 am UTC

just installed "sql developer" today..this looks just great..the best part is ..it is free! The ability to browse the objects like tables etc is so good..the only few things, I would add in my "wish list" is:

1) The ability to sort the results or data just by a click on the column heading as in Toad -this is so crucial in day to day work

2) the ability to save result sets as html/xml/excel/csv etc (i know they gave an export wizard but Toad gives a point and click way to do it..

3) critical for a dba is :schema comparision (this utility is given under "dba" tab in toad ,this is entirely absent in sql deverloper.

Still, being free this is just a great tool, hope we get more functionality added as time ticks on..

Tom Kyte
March 17, 2006 - 5:29 pm UTC

put it into the forum on OTN!!! the guys that write it, read that every single day.

SQL Developer

Andrea, March 17, 2006 - 10:14 am UTC

Of course, I can query *jobs, but also I could interrogate *views, *tables and so on ... ;-)

Tom Kyte
March 17, 2006 - 5:49 pm UTC

so, I'm not sure what exactly is missing unless you mean "they should have an interface to create jobs" (because to see what is there is trivial. And if that is what you want - i'd suggest using the OTN forum since the guys that write it read that every day.

SQL Developer

Andrea, March 22, 2006 - 9:14 am UTC

I mean what you said.
Thanks a lot, Tom.

Raptor

A reader, March 24, 2006 - 3:55 pm UTC

Hi,

I just got the sql developer installed on my windoze machine, a few minutes back.

One of the first things I noticed

Tables ---> SQLs

The create table and create indexes SQLs does not have any tablespace or storage clauses associated with them. If you use that for creating the objects, won't it go to the default tablespace of the user ?

Tom Kyte
March 24, 2006 - 4:16 pm UTC

sure?

raptor

A reader, March 24, 2006 - 3:57 pm UTC

Hi,

There are quite a few useful things as well(when compared to TOAD) like Top SQL,Sessions,Cursors etc which are not there in TOAD

thanks
Anto

A reader, March 24, 2006 - 4:21 pm UTC

Hi Tom,

Yes - I did not see any tablespace clause in the SQLs

Also there should have been the facility for sorting the output based on some fields like
Storage ---> Free space ---> Free MB

This sorting is not available for any output I guess

thanks
Anto

Tom Kyte
March 24, 2006 - 5:35 pm UTC

and I'm saying "that's ok, it would use the default"

any sql developer requests should go on the sql developer forum on OTN - they (the developers) read that one for enhancement requests

raptor vs sqldeveloper

A reader, March 24, 2006 - 4:57 pm UTC

The Name Raptor has more appeal and weight than sqldeveloper.
Raptor sounds more robust than sqldeveloper.

Tom Kyte
March 24, 2006 - 5:57 pm UTC

I always thought it was funny to name a product after extinct, small brained, cold blooded reptiles myself :)

Mike, March 24, 2006 - 5:23 pm UTC

Hi Tom,

I tried it today, and my first impression is that it is a good tool, but still with some bugs.
Here is one of them, if you have three connections and let assume you have open three SQL workbooks for each connection. If you try to refresh some of the connections, all its workbooks are going to be closed...which is not such a good behavior.

Also, I had few database links created, but they didn't show up in under database links node.

These bugs are not minor, especially not for developers.

For me PL/SQL Developer is still the best PL/SQL tool.



Memory Hog!

A reader, April 05, 2006 - 4:10 pm UTC

Currently using sqldeveloper against a very large Oracle applications database, here's the RAM usage on initial connection:

1. Sqldevloper -- 133, 396 K
2. TOAD -- 39,068 K
3. sqlplusw -- 10,628 K

Note that I haven't even begun to browse/edit the code yet!

Save money on the s/w; pass it on to the RAM vendors ;) Wonder if the developers are aware of this.




Oi Memory Hog

Matt, May 17, 2006 - 6:01 am UTC

You want to compare the price of RAM with a toad license, and tell me the difference? ;-)

to Matt

Robert, May 29, 2006 - 6:52 pm UTC

>>You want to compare the price of RAM with a toad license,
>> and tell me the difference? ;-)

Comment does not make sense in this context...
1) It's mostly COMPANIES that spend money on Oracle/RAM/TOAD.....and
2) Most companies (that run Oracle) do not really care about costs of desktop dev tools..it's like that stapler on your desk --- peanuts.

So...in short $ is irrelevent in this context.

I don't know about you but personally I just don't like the fact that any tool, "free" or not, takes like 3~4 times more memory.
Maybe it's because I come from the days that I had to bust my a** working extra hours so that I could get that additional 64 MB RAM ;)

Using Parameterized View

mfz, November 10, 2010 - 9:56 am UTC

We are exploring SQL Developer for reports . As far as I know , I can generate ( tabular / grpah ) Reports using SQL only .
I can use pl/sql block only for 'pl/sql output ' types .

Here , I have parameterized view ( List_Sales_By_Resgion ) , where the parameters are set by the context .
We do this , as the base table is huge and do not want any run away queries by the power users.


Question :

Is it possible to use the reports by using the followuing mode( aka , Setting the context and then executing the select on the view.


Declare
Begin
Syn_Ctx_Acs.Set_Parameters('512420' , '25' , 'MFZ');
End ;
/

Select * From List_Sales_By_Region ;

Do you use SQL Developer

Doug, January 16, 2012 - 11:23 pm UTC

Tom
Do you use SQL Developer?
I am battling to install it and would love to know if I should even bother..
https://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=10090267#10090267
Tom Kyte
January 17, 2012 - 3:24 pm UTC

you just put it into a directory and it is installed? I've never had an issue with it.

Fixed it

Doug, January 18, 2012 - 8:13 pm UTC

The problem was that my user directory was not local but a network directory.

Not sure why but when I copied the unzipped sqldeveloper directory across to my c: and it started no problem

Fixed it

Doug, January 18, 2012 - 8:14 pm UTC

The problem was that my user directory was not local but a network directory.

Not sure why but when I copied the unzipped sqldeveloper directory across to my c: and it started no problem

Oracle SQL Developer 22.2

Rajeshwaran, Jeyabal, July 18, 2022 - 2:07 pm UTC

Team,

Good morning. got access to Oracle SQL Developer 22.2 version on my machine recently.
when we get into "Tools" -> "Rest Data Services" -> we don't see options other than "Manage Connections".

how ever the options like "Run", "Install", "Repair" and "Uninstall" are available in the pervious version 21.4.3

can you help us why they are not available on 22.2 and what were the workarounds for 22.2 version ?

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