If a connection fails due to some network error, there is a window showing the error.
At some point I must have hit some option without being fully aware, so when a connection fails, an external text editor opens with the XML representation of the error.
I simply cannot find out, which Toad option I need to reset, so I see the Toad window and not the text editor. I tried searching "Options" but could not find the correct setting.
Can anyone give me a hint on that?
Never experienced that before... screen shots or short vid might help please.
We used to display that info as rich text.
Now it is displayed as HTML. The HTML component relies on IE or Edge being installed. Do you have either of those installed?
Edit: IE must be installed, Edge is not used.
Edge is installed.
It’s been a while so I don’t remember it in detail. But I recall the prompt to show the error, and I must have hit one of the options in the heat of things, and noticed a tick in a check box saying “always“ or similar.
Isn’t there an option to choose between Editor or Browser, or similar?
To provoke the same situation, simply stop some vpn then try to connect.
The white Toad window appears but sent to background, as my text editor is showing the HTML representation.
Mike just mentioned to me offline that it's IE that's required.
The weird thing is that I don't have the full IE installed on my Win 11 machine (at least I can't find it in the start bar).
I'm done for today but I'll see if I can find a solution for this tomorrow.
Our browser component wraps shdocvw.dll which is the core web control for IE. You don't need to have IE installed as shdocvw is a core part of Windows. It is in the %windir%\System32 folder.
Are you using the Subscription version of Toad, i.e. you need to sign in with your Quest account in order to use it, or do you have Toad with offline licensing? If you are using Subscription we can likely rule out any access issues to shdocvw.dll as the sign-in page uses the same control. If you are using Toad with offline licensing, go to Help | Release Notes and let us know what your experience is there.
Michael
Here's the license info:
Help | Release Notes opens a "Toad Online" window within Toad, which shows nothing but a grey area. The fane "Online Resources" shows this:
So the Release Notes tab is completely blank and grey, similar to the background color we see in the "Online Resources" tab? The Online Resources tab does not use the browser control so that should never have an issue, but if Release Notes is not showing anything it sounds like there is a problem with using shdocvw.dll on your machine.
Run "where shdocvw.dll" in a command prompt. Does it find the file? If not, can you find it in your %windir% directory? It should be in the System32 folder, but "where" should find it in that case. If you have the DLLs perhaps there's some Group Policy setting or similar that is blocking it that I'm unaware of.
Michael
Thanks.
This is the Release Notes tab:
This is the "where":
This is the properties:
As I said, I was prompted at some point, and must have hit the wrong button as it went a bit quickly. I do not recall if it was a Toad prompt or a Windows one.
Maybe it was a Windows message asking to allow or block the source? You may find something in your Windows Internet Options on either the Security or Advanced tabs.
Thanks. I wouldn't know what to look for. But just to understand this right: Are connection failuers meant to be shown in a Toad window, similar to Release Notes? Or are they supposed to show html in an external browser?
If I test it by punching a wrong password, I do get a Toad modal window:
More complicated connection errors are intended to show using HTML in an embedded, internal browser component. The component uses shdocvw.dll to render the HTML.
The reason for this difference compared to other ORA errors is that connection errors have historically been one of the biggest barriers to using Toad. There can be any number of reasons a host is unreachable. When an error occurs, Toad performs a few checks of the environment, Oracle client configuration, etc. and reports on its findings. Toad can rule out basic configuration issues that may be difficult for a new user to locate quickly on their own.
Michael
Older versions of Toad used RTF to display this info. We switched to HTML about a year ago in hopes of simplifying our source code a little. But this is the 2nd time I've heard of that dialog showing HTML code instead of it being rendered properly, so we'll switch back to RTF for the next version of Toad. I'm not sure if it will make it into the first beta for the next version, but probably at least the 2nd beta.
In the meantime, you can always save that file as html and then double-click to view it in your browser. Sorry, I know that's inconvenient.
This is what that dialog is supposed to look like. The actual content changes depending on the error, of course.
Try this... Open Windows Internet Options. On the Security tab, select Local Intranet and click "Custom level...."
Scroll down to the Miscellaneous section. If "Access data sources across domains" is set to Disable, I can reproduce the issue. Set it to Prompt or Enable. And if prompted, allow Toad to open the link.
That's how I remember the dialog.
I understand that HTML makes sense, I was just hoping you guys would recognize the issue and find a way to undo whatever I'd selected once without taking notes 
Normally when this happens, I simply check if my vpn has expired - the low cost of working from home - so it's not a big deal, just doesn't look half as cool.
I've just changed it from disabled to enabled. To be sure, relaunched Toad, without a change, and restarted windows - also without a change.
You can test it by looking at the Help | Resource Notes and also by changing the IP address of a database in your connection string and trying a connection. That will force a connection error that triggers the HTML dialog.
