TOra is a free and open source software for database management, and database development. TOra started out as a dedicated tool for Oracle only (even the name TOra stands for “Toolkit for Oracle”). Down the line, TOra expanded its universe to support most of the popular database out there, including, Oracle, MySQL, and Postgres. Because of its rich feature set, TOra can be used by developers and database administrators alike.
TOra integrates database management and database development features very well. Here are some of the features of Tora.
Database Management and Administration Features of Tora:
- Requires no installation on server side.
- Server Tuning.
- Server overview.
- Tuning charts.
- I/O by tablespace & file.
- Performance indicators.
- Raw server statistics.
- Statistics Manager
- Security Manager
- Storage manager with object & extent viewer.
- Session manager.
- Database & schema comparison.
- DBMS alert tool.
- Rollback manager with snapshot too old detection.
- SGA & long operations trace.
Database Development Capabilities of TOra:
- Code completion.
- Explain execution plan.
- Execution statistics.
- SQL syntax highlighting.
- PL/SQL editor & debugger.
- Breakpoints.
- Variable watches.
- Schema browser.
- Table & view editing.
- References & dependencies.
- Quick menu for often used custom SQL.
- Parse error location indication.
- Chart visualization of result.
- PL/SQL block parsing.
- Tab & tree based browsing.
- Object & data filtering.
- Line by line stepping.
- Debugger SQL output viewing.
- Syntax structure tree parsing.
As you would see from above, Tora is really full featured. The fact that it is truly free is quite amazing. If you have been using proprietary tools like TOAD or PL/SQL Developer, Tora can save you lot of money. You can couple TOra with the free version of Oracle database, and you would have a completely free setup of database, and development tool.