Develop database-related tools in an integrated environment with support for syntax highlighting, debugger, code assistant, and compiler help.
Nowadays, when IT is flourishing more and more, database administrators and programmers need advanced and well-optimized tools in order to achieve their required tasks. PL/SQL Developer, an IDE that offers the tools to manipulate databases and execute scripts, was built to help guys who work in the IT industry to develop their projects.
The program's GUI can be described as intuitive and easy to use by professionals, so it's not recommended for regular desktop users. It comes with various configuration options and it allows some basic customization of the appearance. Moreover, despite not being quite easy to notice at first use, it has a user manual for any type of encountered difficulties.
Pl/SQL Developer comes with numerous useful features. It has a built-in editor that offers object descriptions, gives compiler hints, and highlights the syntax. Besides that, the Integrated Debugger offers functions as Step In, Step Over, Step Out, Run Until Exception, Breakpoints, View & Set Variables, View Call Stack, so you can debug any program unit without making any modifications to it.
Moreover, after editing table definitions or program units you can compare user objects, in order to transfer these changes to another database user. Users can also export the DLL statements using the Export User Objects tool. Other embedded features include Multi-threaded IDE, plug-in extensions, DBMS monitor, Querry builder or a DBMS scheduler.
To summarize, PL/SQL offers various and numerous features that any programmer or database administrator would love to use. The fact that table editing can be quicker, and that it sometimes freezes shouldn't stop you from giving it a try.
v12.0 [Aug 1, 2017]
- Stability improvements.
- User interface preference "Switch to menu" now uses a classic menu bar.
- Bookmarks could disappear with Block indent/unindent.
- Code Assistant items were not always quoted correctly when choosing (all).
- Debugger could include member function names and member procedure names when displaying object instance attribute values.
- Program Window did not always display compilation errors for mixed case program unit names.
- Describing object types with mixed case object attributes could fail.
- Fixed incorrect unused value hint when a record field was used in a local subprogram.
- Fixed empty items in toolbar configuration in the File category.
- Loading a previous desktop in SDI mode could show duplicate windows.
- XMLTYPE instances fetched on an UTF8 client could be converted to the local character set.
- Plug-In function IDE_SetMenuName did not work for the Ribbon and Tab, only for buttons.
- Object Browser Triggers folder always used the all_triggers view, regardless of the "Use DBA views" preference.
- PL/SQL Clipboard performance improved.
- Plug-In Tabs and Groups were not always named correctly.
- 64 bit Visual Studio Plug-Ins were not always loaded.
- Text Importer could break or stop screen updates.
- Drag & Drop table and view texts (e.g. select, insert, update) did not work correctly for mixed case column names.
- Insert column highlighting did not always work correctly for select lists.
