Some time ago I tried 6.0 and 6.1 betas, but it seems that the final 6.1 release got even worse.
As I understand a new formatter has been implemented, but it fails to work for me.
The formatter options have Header/Tagline, which by some reason places the comment line at the end of code, instead of… you know, being a header and place it in front.
Following 1, the explain plan tool fails to work if there is a comment at the end of code -
3:38:27 PM Error in SQL: ORA-01742: comment not terminated properly
/* Formatted on 1/7/2009 3:25:10 PM (QP5 v5.120.811.25008) */
The same comment placed at the end fails in SQL Nav 5.5, but no issue if it is in front in both 5.5 and 6.1
The formatter adds some special symbols, I think for tabs, that are visible as square symbols (and no tabbbing) on the editor window, but the same formatted code look normal in explain plan window, in addition to that there’s totally different key word hi-lighting on code editor and explain plan windows.
see the attached image (explain plan on top, code editor on the bottom)
The new code editor window fusioned with DB explorer fails to control window focus.
Sometimes it treats key presses done in code editor window as key presses on the DB tree, i.e. instead of deleting a character on ‘Del’ key press SQL Nav prompts to drop a DB object instead. Very funny.
That’s what I found in just 5 minutes. I guess I’ll go back to 5,5, even that it crashes all the time for me.
Some advices the formatter tool creates are incorrect
SELECT a.name, b.visit_date, ‘abc’ text, NULL val
/*ADVICE(1): Elements in the SELECT list (either columns or expressions)
are not qualified by a table/view name [403] */
FROM table1 a, table2 b
WHERE a.id = b.parentid
Well, do I really need to qualify ‘abc’ or NULL? Don’t think so.
FUNCTION fcn_get_alert(p_ptl_id IN TRANSACTION.ptl_id%TYPE,
/*ADVICE(3): This item has not been declared, or it refers to a label [131] */
p_trn_id IN TRANSACTION.trn_id%TYPE)
/*ADVICE(5): This item has not been declared, or it refers to a label [131] */
RETURN VARCHAR2
IS
…
Thanks for the feedbacks. For those that are related to the Formatter, they will be forwarded to the Formatter team.
About the header/tagline, we made a decision to put it at the bottom to avoid some issues we had with saving packages containing comment on the first line. Usually, this comment will be lost after the object is saved. We moved it to the last line so that it can be kept but we didn’t make changes to the option in the Formatter. For the coming version of Nav, this will be moved back to the first line.
I’m particularly interested in the one about DB Explorer. As far as I know, if you put the cursor in the DBX, the action will be done there. It would help us a lot if you can provide us with a usecase where you’re editing in the code editor and the cursor jumps to DBX.
I'm particularly interested in the one about DB Explorer. As far asI know, if you put the >cursor in the DBX, the action will be donethere. It would help us a lot if you can provide >us with a usecasewhere you're editing in the code editor and the cursor jumps to DBX.
It happened randomly, not sure what exactly causes that. The cursor did not actually jump to DBX part of the screen. I played with integrated DB explorer for a while, but found it pretty much useless because it did not have any object details, so I let it hide to the side. I opened a new code editor, typed some code, formatted it and then when I tried to edit it using cursor keys and pressed 'Del' key SQL Nav prompted me to drop the last object I clicked on DBX side.
What is the actual purpose of DBX? Whenever I open a DB object it goes to a totally new window. I'm puzzled.
I could not reproduce the issue but I will keep an eye on this bug.
DBX provides a subset of information of DB Navigator tree. Because of the way it’s docked, the developer can get the information and browse the schema while editing the code. They don’t have to switch back and forth from code editor and DB Navigator tree. Actually, DBX is only a part of the Toolbox. Toolbox has other tools that the user can utilise while coding. Code Explorer & Outline parse the code so you can have a look at the structure of your code and move among functions/procedures or even parameters. History gives you a list of statements that have been executed, etc.
You can get more information from the Help file.
Thanks for pointing the issues out. I’m Vincent and I placed the new formatter into 6.1. I hope I can help here.
1): We did that for we would like to save the comment to database when saving an object. It didn’t appear to be a good change and it brought issue to the Explain Plan Tool. To make it better, I have made change to place comment to the line right after object if user opens an object and editing the contents. For general SQL scripts, the comment will be in the first line, just like what it used to be.
2): As 1 is done, this issue won’t be caused by formatter now. One workaround now can be turning the Tagline off in Formatter Options | General | Header page.
3): The square symbol is suppose to be tab char but it displays obviously incorrect. We currently have a problem in handling tabs between Code Editor itself and formatter because they both have their own settings. We have task on it and it will be fixed soon. Workaround: choose “Insert spaces” in Formatter Options | General | Tabs page.
The Code Editor and Explain Plan don’t use the same component or don’t load the same settings for displaying text. This how the different highlighting comes. It’s truly not a good idea to do this. We should merge them once we can.
4): Gwen is looking in DBXJ.
5): The advices, we still use the old FmtPlus4.8.7 to generate them and then insert them to the text which is formatted by new formatter. The formatter team is working on the new advisor and will already have the known issues, including this one, fixed as soon as they finish.
