Free Or Opensource Database/schema Browser? - Alternatives to TOAD or PL/SQL Developer

I was wondering if there were any alternatives to TOAD or PL/SQL Developer that allows you to browse through a database(s), the different schema objects, and perhaps the stored procedure/function/packakge editors. One thing I have tried is to the use the Data Tool Plugins set for my Eclipse but that brings my machine's performance to crawl. One a further note, I am basically looking for Windows environment, with connections to remoate databases.

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If you install the full Oracle 9i client (choosing the administrator option from the install menu) you have oem, which is a good alternative to toad. It allows you browsing each user's schema, see all tables, indexes, etc. You choose between a standard user connect or a sdba connect.
And starting from 10g, this database browser is included in the database server's distro, you reach it through your internet browser at an URL looking like https://dbserver:1158/em
Also do not forget the isqlplus Oracle facility, which helps a lot.
Regards
Yordan

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Ah - thanks a ton yordan. Not sure why I did not lookup at Oracle. I sure do use the SQLPlus through the Unix box. Those are more than enough to run most SQL commands. It is usually when we need to edit stored procedure/function/package that it becomes cumbersome and we require a schema browser to do the job.

PS: In terms of remote database, not sure I can use a URL, but I think I can make do with some TNS entries. The databases are residing with in a network and I don't think it is available as URL. (But that should be a small hurdle to figure out).

Thanks!

 

 

 

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If the database is oracle 10g or above, the dba has to fire "isqlplusctl start" and the isqlplus server will start and will tell the SSL and the non-SSL URL for isql.
and "emctl start dbconsole" (in a shell window on the database system) will start the dbconsole, which you can access through it's URL. If this service is started, you don't need the Oracle 9i oem console on your PC, it's embedded in the 10g server-side.
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By the way, I am discovering that "free" has several ways of understanding.
Oracle gives you freely access to a lot of tools if you want to learn how Oracle works (for instance you download and install the RDBMS on your PC, and you learn SQL and you start writing nice programs).
But once your system goes to production, I mean when you start using the tools for making money, then the things are not free any more. For instance you use your IE6 web browser in order to access to the Oracle Enterprise Manager Web console, but the owner of the server paid the licence. And if you put the stand-alone 9i version I was talking about on your own PC, if you want to use it at a customer site and be paid for doing that, you have first to pay the Oracle Client administrator software, else it's fully illegal.
That's why we have sometimes to make the difference between free and paid version, in the context "for learning purposes" or "making money with that".
I loved a ftp sofware which, after one month, started warning you : "If you are student, this software is free, please continue using it. If you are not a student, please stop using this tool and please buy it first".
So, everything I said today concerns the "learning purposes" part, it's free for personal usage. As soon as you start making money with Oracle you must pay your software licence.

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You can also use sql*plus on your PC through the Oracle thin-client. On the PC you define the server's database SID and IP in your local "tnsnames.ora" file. I do this by means of opening the server"s tnsnames in my putty session, one mouse select the part concerning the database, and paste it in the notepad window for the file tnsnames.ora on my PC.
If, on your PC, in a CMD window you type "sqlplus system/mypass@remotedb", before the prompt you see the version of your local sqlplus. After the prompt you type "select * from v$instance" and the answer is the version of the server-side Oracle version, the network name of the server running the request, and the name of the database correspond to the "@remotedb" address you gave in your starter command line.

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Thanks for explaining the concepts again - that makes sure that I was on the right track, in terms of tnsname.ora files. As far as the sqlplus command goes, I am more comfortable on the CLI (command line interface) even through a terminal application (like PuTTY), when it comes to short commands and such use cases. The focus currently is on PLSQL development.

In terms of free - yes ofcourse. There is free as in beer and free as in freedom. Since I am using it in a corporate environment, I for heck do not worry about what they end up paying. I have done my share of advising them to use open source tools/apps/solutions - but after a point - it is their money, I don't care how they spend it.

Coming to why I asked the way I asked in the first post (may be I should have explained a bit more in the first post itself).

At my day job, they do provide me with a working desktop (which runs on Windows XP) and have given me a TOAD license to use for all my development tasks. The problem is, I like to work on the move, increasing my productivity, and have salvaged one of their older laptops. They are not able to provide me with another TOAD license, and thus, I am thinking of using some other solution to get my work done.

Thanks again for the detailed feedback and suggestions, yordan. Will surely explore all those possibilities.

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Remember that you also can use sql*plus on your PC, in order to make queries on the remote database. Have a look at my "Sql*plus on your PC" topic here : http://www.astahost.com/index.php?showtopic=19567
This way you don't need to connect to the remote Linux system, you edit your sql programs locally with your Notepad++ on your PC, and your local sqlplus.exe starts the queries on the remote database.

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