What is the perfect toolbox for PL/SQL development?

Question

I work on two projects with a lot of PL/SQL code since few months.

However, I didn't find any really interesting tools to develop on this langage.

For the moment, my configuration includes the following tools:

• Eclipse (the rest of the application is developed in Java), with PL/SQL Editor plugin
• As I really don't like and trust the PL/SQL Editor plugin for Eclipse, I use mainly PsPad for editing my PL/SQL files.
• SQL Developer (I have also TOAD, but I don't really know/like this tool).

So what is your "perfect" toolbox for developing PL/SQL applications?

I've also read that SQL Developer 2.1 introduces a PL/SQL unit testing feature. Does anybody has a feedback about this feature and this version of SQL Developer (I still use 1.5) ?

Answer 1

Being an old-fashioned sort of chap I still mainly get along with SQL*Plus and the TextPad IDE. TextPad is nagware, but the licence is cheap and the tool has some fantastic features. Also people have written PLSQL syntax libraries for it, which give you keyword highlighting. It is also possible to hook TextPad into other desktop tools such as Subversion.

SQL^Developer is written in java, which means it is a voracious consumer of memory. Still there is undoubted merit in having a data browser. Also the upcoming version 2.1 features built-in unit test, which could be very tasty.

Useful utilities:

• pldoc :: generate Javadoc-style documentation from the comments in your package spec
• utplplsql :: unit test harness; old but it still works
• QUTO :: another, more sophisticated unit test harness (which I don't use for the same reason I'm still hacking with SQL*Plus and TextPad)
• QGCU :: PL/SQL code generator (previously QNXO)

In defence of Luddism

The danger with tools like TOAD and SQL*Developer is that they allow us to execute DML and DDL directly against the database, including editing PL/SQL source. This is fine and dandy and awfully in the spirit of Getting Things Done. Until we need to revert our changes. Or the production DBA demands a script....

Of course it is possible to use TOAD or SQL Developer in a safe fashion - I know SQL Developer can hook into source control as well - if just requires more self-discipline.

Answer 2

I always liked the PL/SQL Developer by Allround Automations - an excellent, quick and easy to use, and totally affordable tool!

For an interactive query shell - much better than SQL*Plus - I used to use "Golden" - a nice and powerful shareware tool, highly recommended.

Much better than anything else I ever tried with Oracle.

Marc

Answer 3

Might be a slightly different answer than you were expecting but I feel the Oracle documentation and in particular this book should be essential for any PL/SQL toolbox.

Answer 4

My primary editor for PL/SQL packages is SlickEdit. SlickEdit offers good support for PL/SQL development, though you might miss the direct connection to the database that tools like TOAD or SQLDeveloper offer. On the other hand, working on PL/SQL files (instead of directly working on database objects, like many TOAD users do) is IMO a good practice for any non-trivial project. In addition to SlickEdit, I use a few self-made helper programs, e.g. one that loads source code from the database and creates a source file, and another one that compiles the source and calculates the correct line numbers for errors in a file that contains multible objects, e.g. both package specification and body.

For direct database access, I prefer SQLDeveloper, mostly because it's free and works well on Linux.