Best Oracle database manager/editor?

Question

We have an Oracle 8i database that our developers run against and we currently use the 9i enterprise manager to view tables/values and do some minor manual data editing.

I was wondering if there is a more modern tool to use than OEM 9. One major annoyance with OEM is the lack of mousewheel support.

To keep this question objective, I basically need an Oracle Database editor that 1) has mousewheel support 2) can let a developer easily view tables and edit data

I looked at the latest Oracle 11 client but there doesn't seem to be a database manager in it!

Answer 1

Toad is the best database manager on the market. It is targeted at Oracle, so it has support for nearly every Oracle feature known to man.

If you can't quite bring yourself to spend money on Toad (which I guarantee is worth it), other options include:

TOra

DBVisualizer

SquirrelSQL

See Also: Oracle Alternatives to TOAD

Answer 2

TOAD is probably the best.

PL/SQL Developer is also pretty good.

And Oracle SQL Developer is a freeby and pretty good. Not so many bells and whistles.

And of course there is always SQL* Plus

Answer 3

I'd recommend TOAD as well.

There is a free version of TOAD, but you have to redownload it every sixty days and it is missing some features.

Answer 4

Everyone who recommended TOAD didn't read your question closely. You're currently using OEM. That tells me that you're not doing a whole lot of development in that Oracle database. OEM would be horrendous as a development tool. You actually state what you need it for, " view tables/values and do some minor manual data editing." And for that you don't need TOAD at all.

I'm not a TOAD detractor, I couldn't live my life without it. It's as important a piece of software that I have.

But if that's the list of what you do and that's how you do it now, just download SQL Developer. It's free, it's from Oracle, it has a lot more bells and whistles now that earlier versions; But you weren't asking for bells and whistles - you were asking for very basic management.

And hey, if you don't like it. You've spent ZERO dollars and you can still go pay Quest a boatload to do minor manual data editing.

Answer 5

SQL Developer is a handy tool, with many prebuilt reports to support DBA's and some limited DBA functionality. However, it is not certified against Oracle 8i -- hardly surprising, since it's three major releases behind the most recent.

Answer 6

PL/SQL Developer has nice editor with integrated debugger

http://www.allroundautomations.nl/plsqldev.html

Recommended for Oracle Developers and DBA.

Answer 7

TOAD is good, but it doesn't support fully Unicode.

I think EMS EMS SQL Manager for Oracle is rather good because it display fully Unicode on my country.

Answer 8

SQL Developer is good.

It is made by the database makers. Therefor it should fit best. There is mousewheel support and a lot more usefull functionality and its free of charge.

TOAD is better for DBA.

All developer tools included in SQL Developer you find in TOAD too. There are some DBA functions which let our DBAs prefer TOAD.

Answer 9

As mentioned by many other, SQL Developer is decent and free. But note that you will not be able to connect to an Oracle 8i instance with the latest version (because of the lack of support by the latest version of JDBC, which it uses). You will need SQL Developer version 1.2 for that.

I have also been using SqlDbx quite successfully : simple, neat and ther is a free version.