I have a weird situation that started a few versions ago. I'm using Toad 17.1 right now, but it happened after the last few.
Suppose I have an Export Data script, with a filename of "output.txt". I get everything working and it's running.
Then, I have to go in to make some change to the dataset script. Toad, for some crazy reason, changes the "output.txt" to "output.tab" or something else.
If I don't remember to change it back right then, it will be wrong once saved and the job will probably fail since I check for filenames.
I looked through the options, but nothing jumped out at me that might do this. It's really a little frustrating, since I have to (1) remember what the extension was supposed to be and (2) I have to change it back right then as soon as I notice it.
If I go into Automation Designer, click on a job, and click on an export data step, it will first pop up with everything looking correct, and then I might see ".tab" change to ".txt" or ".txt" change to ".csv" or WHATEVER.
I'm sure there was some great reason for Toad to have this feature, but it's a little annoying on jobs that are already in place.
Has anyone else tackled this issue yet and is there a fix?
Thank you!
Hi DeWitte,
I don't think this is intentional.
I have no idea where the .tab extension might be coming from. Is that the extension that you want/had it on, then it's changing to .txt as you move around the window?
Also, - this just started happening in 17.1? Not beta?
-John
After playing with it a bit, here is what I see:
- The only time I see the file extension change is when I change the export format. If you see it change when you do something else, please give me some steps to reproduce it.
- When I export delimited text format, the last-used file extension is remembered as the default extension for delimited text format.
So, combining points 1 and 2 above, I see this behavior:
- Set up a delimited text export that exports to c:\temp\test.txt
- Set up another that exports to c:\temp\test.csv
- Set up a third that exports to c:\temp\test.tab
- Run one of them
- Set up a 4th action and put in a file name. Change the export format to delimited text (change it to something else and then back if you have to). The file extension will be changed to match the action that you ran in step 4.
Does this explain/describe what you are seeing?
Hi John,
Well, let me answer that like this - since I just ran a test based on your email:
I have three back-to-back export steps all using delimited with extension of .txt
If I change the first one to .tab and execute just that step, then I go back into that step, it stays .tab. If I go to one of the other two, you see ".txt" and then it immediately changes to ".tab". So it is applying the default, however, it's applying the default on a step that was already in place and working which could potentially make it incorrect.
This is most noticable when I start Toad from scratch and start editing a job and it immediately starts changing the file suffix to whatever was used maybe the last time I was in Toad instead of NOT changing it at all, which I think would be preferred on an existing job step that was already in production.
I'm not saying it's a bad feature, but it would be great to be able to turn it off since we have about 50 jobs and if you have to make a quick query change and don't realize Toad altered the suffix, then it requires extra steps to go back in and put it back (and sometimes try to figure out what it was to start with).
I'm trying to reproduce this but so far no luck. Here's what I did:
- Made 3 export dataset jobs, all exporting to delimited text format with .txt extensions
- Changed the first to .tab and ran it.
- re-opened the first and it stayed as .tab
- opened the 2nd and it stayed as .txt (if it changes here just when opening the action, that's definitely a bug and as soon as I can figure out how to make it happen I will fix it)
This is most noticable when I start Toad from scratch and start editing a job and it immediately starts changing the file suffix to whatever was used maybe the last time I was in Toad instead of NOT changing it at all, which I think would be preferred on an existing job step that was already in production.
I agree 100%. This is a bug. Toad should not change the extension unless you change the export format (even if you change every other setting in there!)
But I can't reproduce it yet.
Can you record a short video? Maybe I am missing some detail....
Are you 100% sure that you are running Toad 17.1 and not 17.0? (Go to help -> About)
This was definitely a bug in 17.0. I found our bug report for it and I see the change we made in our code for version 17.1. I can reproduce this in 17.0 but not 17.1.
My apologies, it's 16.1. I have two versions installed and the one I use for automation is currently 16.1. I haven't upgraded all of the jobs yet for 17.1. But (reading your note) it sounds like this was addressed and fixed in that new version.
Ah! Great. No apology necessary. I'm just glad that was it and there is no lingering bug.
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