January 31, 2006
DB-API UML Diagram
I have been a little slow catching up on my email recently and only today did I stumble across this gem introducing us to a UML class diagram for the Python DB-API 2.0. I've printed one out and put it next to my machine, I strongly suggest you do too.
It's available in a number of formats, for instance; JPEG, GIF, and PDF. Thanks for the great work Travis.
Posted by Andy Todd at 04:13 PM | Comments (0)
January 24, 2006
Getting Cranky with Raptor
I've been using Raptor in anger for a couple of weeks now, and the initial enthusiasm is beginning to wane somewhat.
Here's what is currently getting my goat;
- ORA-0911 errors in the SQL Worksheet. With more than one SQL statement in a worksheet I'm supposed to be able to put my cursor in one, hit F9 and it will only execute that statement. Except it doesn't always work. This isn't quite the same problem as just selecting which query in the worksheet to run, as seen in great detail on the forum. But rather that I get ORA-0911 errors (invalid character) intermittently. If I cut and paste the offending statement to elsewhere in the worksheet it will execute, but there seems to be some problem when you try and run the last statement in the worksheet - although of course it's not consistent enough to enable me to post a bug report. Oh hang on, there isn't a public bug database so I can't post a report anyway.
- The behaviour in the Connections window is annoying. Each of the connections has a context menu which can be brought up with the right mouse button, but just clicking on a connection causes it to connect. Meaning that when I start up Raptor and want to connect to a database (which is most of the time) I right click on a connection and it connects to the database (and opens a SQL Worksheet) but focus remains on the connection item and the context menu appears with a first option of 'Connect' highlighted. Very poor interface design if you ask me.
- It's written in Java so occassionally the garbage collector will kick off and the whole application just freezes, often for as much as a minute. During which time I will curse and swear as well as click on every button in sight. Which means that when Raptor returns from it's little sleep I've often managed to close the application. TOAD doesn't do that.
Posted by Andy Todd at 02:32 PM | Comments (1)
January 13, 2006
Upgrading Raptor
At work we've been eating Oracle's dog food for them and running their new SQL development tool Project Raptor.
I rather like it. As it's an early adopter (a.k.a Beta) release I'm expecting the updates to come fast and furiously. The first one arrived yesterday and I dutifully installed it. As per the instructions I unzipped the new release in a different folder and fired it up. All was well but I had lost my database connection descriptions. Fear not, fair reader, because there is a simple way of retrieving them.
All you need to do is copy the IDEConnections.xml file from the jdev/system/oracle.onlinedb.11.0.0.36.49 folder of your original installation (you didn't delete it did you?) to the new one.
Update: I'm an idiot. If I had actually read the upgrade_guidelines.txt file that comes with Raptor I'd have noticed the instructions for migrating your connection settings. All you need to do before you upgrade is to right click on your connections list and select "Export Connections ...", then upgrade and right click on the connections list again and this time select "Import Connections ...". Remember kids, RTFM.
Posted by Andy Todd at 08:05 AM | Comments (0)
January 05, 2006
Will my tablespace auto extend?
Today we had an alert message from one of our applications telling us that a tablespace in one of our Oracle databases had run out of space. As our DBA is working the night shift and his cover hadn't arrived in the office it was left to me (the backup DBA's backup) to figure out what was going on. My first question was "Will this tablespace auto extend?" Because if it would I could get back to my coffee.
Suprisingly enough I didn't know how to easily figure this out. I had a look at DBA_TABLESPACES but that didn't offer any obvious clues. A little searching led me to this tip of the week which amongst other things alerted me to the fact that in Oracle it's your data files that are set to auto extend, not the tablespace itself.
So given that I know that my USERS tablespace was having a spot of bother I tried this query;
SELECT file_name, autoextensible FROM dba_data_files WHERE tablespace_name = 'USERS'
And sure enough the autoextensible column for the single data file in this tablespace said NO. So I added another datafile and went back to reading Bloglines.
Posted by Andy Todd at 08:14 AM | Comments (1)