Toad for Oracle 2025 R2 Beta

We are pleased to announce the Toad for Oracle 2025 R2 beta

We encourage you to participate in the beta program to help us deliver a high quality product. This is your opportunity to participate in the development, direction, and testing of Toad for Oracle. By becoming a beta tester you will have direct access to the development team and product management via the Toad World forum.

Instructions for joining the Beta program:

  • Read the Beta Agreement. Downloading the Toad Beta constitutes usage agreement.

  • Install Toad for Oracle version 24.2 for Windows (Non-subscription) and run it at least once. Do not uninstall 24.2 before installing the beta. The beta only works if the most recent GA version is also installed.

  • IMPORTANT: Do not install Toad Beta into your commercial Toad folder. Just accept the default folders when installing the beta.

  • The beta change log is below

Which version?

If you have a 32-bit Oracle client currently installed in a 32-bit or 64-bit environment:

If you have a 64-bit Oracle client currently installed in a 64-bit environment:

Important note about toolbars

We have redesigned and consolidated the main and editor toolbars, choosing only the most used items to display by default. If you're missing an item, the first place to look is the toolbar's R-click show/hide toolbar menu.

Most of you will be prompted to reset your toolbars on upgrade, if prompted, please reset and let us know what you think. If you are not prompted, the toolbars should have reset for you behind the scenes.

As always, we place high value on our beta user's feedback.

Shouldn't this be 2025 R1?
You'd think so, but actually, no. We're going to have a 2025 R1 release in January, which will just have some license changes (won't affect current users). So this beta is for Toad version 2025 R2.

Beta Expiration

Each beta expires after 4 weeks, but new versions with later expiration dates are released often, typically on Mondays. An indicator will appear on Toad's status bar when a new version is available. Click it to download and install the update (No need to remove the old beta first, just install the new one on top of it). It's very easy. In this way you can continue to use the beta until the next version of Toad is officially released.

We encourage you to stay up-to-date with the most recent beta version, and do not hesitate to post suggestions or problem reports to this forum. The development team reads every post and typically responds very quickly.

A Note about Oracle Clients:

  • 12cR2 and 18c are the recommended client versions.
  • 19c and 21c clients will work, but they leak memory with LOBs, and sometimes hang when cancelling queries against 11gR2 servers. The memory leak is not terribly severe, but something to be aware of. You can just restart Toad if/when you need to reclaim the leaked memory.
  • 12cR1 and older clients don't handle XMLTYPE natively.

Toad's no-client option

  • Uncheck the "Use Oracle Client" box on the login window to connect to the database without an Oracle client.
  • Pros of no-client option:
    • No setup required
    • It is a bit faster than using a client.
    • Supported: LDAP, TNSNames.ora, TNS_ADMIN environment variable, Oracle Encryption and Data Integrity, Spool SQL, SSH, TCPS, IPV6, External authentication, and Oracle Wallet connections.
    • Can connect to every database version since 7.3!
    • Can connect to very old and very new database versions at the same time.
  • Cons of no-client option:
    • Not supported: Oracle client style tracing/logging, proxy connections, Kerberos
    • If you don't have an Oracle client installed, of course you won't have their tools like SQL*Plus, DataPump, Import/Export, but if you have a client installed Toad can still use these tools, even if you run Toad in no-client mode.

What is this sorcery that Toad can connect to the Database without an Oracle client?

  • The Oracle client is just DLLs (and some other files) produced by Oracle that know how to connect to the database. Toad now contains code that can achieve the same thing. We did not compile Oracle DLLs inside of Toad, or package them together in any way.

The beta change log is below

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Toad Beta Change Log

Toad Beta 25.2.23.4845, Released 11-Nov-2024
Bug Fixes

  • Occasional access violation when session ending
  • Schema Browser: Access violation if materialized view dropped externally while viewing in Schema Browser

Enhancements

  • Schema Browser: Now conserves GDI and User Objects resources when usage starts to get high

Toad Beta 25.2.19.4832, Released 7-Nov-2024

Bug Fixes

  • Accessibility: Many windows have been updated to be usable by keyboard only.
  • Accessibility: Tab order in many windows in Toad has been fixed.
  • Data Grids: OCI Array Buffer Size setting behaves as automatic when set to manual
  • Editor: Both (deleted) and (modified) displayed if a file was externally deleted
  • Jump Search: Incorrect images were displayed
  • Jump Search: Removed invalid entries named "Test Case Name"
  • New Version Dialog: Date conversion error thrown if date format changed after "Remind me later" clicked
  • New Version Dialog: Reappears without content after clicking "skip this version" or "Remind me later"
  • Project Manager: File treated as folder when dragging
  • Single Record View: Timestamp columns too narrow
  • SQL Firewall: "Violations" schema combobox not refreshed after violations have been generated
  • Text Compare: "Reload file and recompare" button does not reload if text didn't come from file (button hint changed)
  • Workspace: If auto-load fails, partially loaded workspace can be overwritten and contents lost

Enhancements

  • Administer Tablespaces: Added "Bigfile" column
  • Editor: Dock panel tabs are now created as needed. Editor now opens faster and now initially consumes fewer GDI and User objects
  • Editor: Indicators for externally modified/deleted files is now optional in Options -> Editor -> Display
  • Editor: Instead of showing (deleted) or (modified) for externally modified files, editor tabs will be drawn in strikeout or italics
  • Find Dialog: Now opens in the center of the the Editor from which it was launched
  • GDI and User Object usage monitoring: If Toad approaches the limit for either of these resources, an warning will be displayed
  • GUI: Buttons to move something Up/Down/Left/Right are now consistent throughout Toad.
  • Login Window: Connections can now be imported from SQL Developer JSON files
  • Options: Startup tab simplified
  • Main Menu: Reopen File now prompts before removing files which could not be found
  • Toolbars: Main and Editor toolbars have been redesigned to have fewer buttons visible by default for a less overwhelming user experience

The change log for Toad version 24.2 is here

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