SQL Guru User Guide

This user guide provides information on how to use the Oracle Cloud Tool’s SQL Connect software.

Purpose

The purpose of this user guide is to provide information on how to use the Oracle Cloud Tool’s SQL Connect software. If you are looking for server-side administration of SQL Connect, please refer to our Administrator Manual.

Installation

The SQL Connect installer file will install SQLConnect.exe on your computer. Once you receive your license information including username and password, install the exe on your computer. Read our FAQ for any issues during installation. For an enterprise license, contact your administrator. If you have not already registered for a username/password, then click on the “SIGN-UP” button on the login screen. This will allow you to register and send you an email with Username and Password for login to the application.

CLICK HERE FOR INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

  • STEP 1 – Download Software (Use one of the links for PROD or BETA version) and Install.
  • STEP 2 – If you do not have a Username / Password – Then click “SIGN-UP” button and you’ll receive an email with credentials.

How To Use

First Time Launch

After installation is complete, go to Programs –> SQLConnect –> SQL Connect or run the executable file SQLConnect.exe.

The application will execute, and you should be able to see the login prompt.

The login information you should have received from your license administrator. In case you are using a trial version, this username and password will expire after 15 days. For production/live users, this is provided to the license administrator.

Violates of the above conditions would entail cessation or suspension of your right to use the Website.

Login

On the login screen, enter your username and password. You should’ve received the username and password with your license. If you do not have one, please contact the administrator for SQLConnect and obtain login credentials or use the “SIGN-UP” button to register. SQLConnect client can be used by the user associated with the application on each machine.

  1. Enter User Name
  2. Enter Password
  3. Press the login button.

Note: The login button will be enabled after entering the username and password. If the login button is greyed out, you must enter the Username and Password.

Creating A New Connection

  1. After logging in, click on the Plus sign on the Connections options on the left pane. If the left pane is not open, click the Yellow slider to open the left pane.
  2. Create Connection window will open. Enter the following information in the connection fields:
    • Oracle Connection Name: Enter the Oracle Connection Name. This is the name you want to save this connection as.
    • Oracle Cloud User Name: Enter your username for Oracle Cloud. This must be a valid user in the cloud environment/pod that you want to connect to. Also, this user must have the required role and data access in Oracle. If you are not sure about this, please contact your system administrator.
    • Password: Enter your Oracle Cloud password. You can use the EYE icon to toggle the visibility of the password.
    • URL: Enter the URL for your Oracle pod.
      e.g., http://EEEE.us6.oraclecloud.oracle.com
  3. Once you enter all the fields, the NEXT button should be enabled. Click NEXT to check the connection. If the connection is successful, it will be saved under your connection and you will be connected to the database. If for some reason, the connection is not successful, you’ll get an error. If the system is unable to establish a connection it may spin forever – in which case cancel and close the application.
  4. While using the application, you can select “Connect To” and select the name of the pod from the drop-down list.

Opening New Tab

To create a new Tab, simply click the + button. You can also open files from the File menu to open the file in a new tab.

Working With Files

You can open one or more files at the same time, by using File –> Open menu option. The same menu provides options to SAVE and CLOSE files. You can also click the SAVE icon to save the file.

Running Query

Query can be executed by clicking the EXECUTE button, or pressing CTRL+Enter keys on your keyboard.

Editor Functions

Following are some of the shortcuts used for editing purposes:

  • Ctrl-C – Copy
  • Ctrl-V – Paste
  • Ctrl-F – Find
  • Ctrl-Shift-F – Replace
  • F4 – Open DB Browser

User Interface Features

The user interface of SQL Connect is divided into five sections:

  1. File Menu & Header
  2. View Menu
  3. SQL (Query) Editor
  4. Left Pane & Controls
  5. Main Menu
  6. Results Pane

In the File Menu, you have options to open, close, and exit from the file and application. You can add multiple tabs and save them with different names locally on your file system.

In the main menu, you’ll find a button to execute a SQL – “Execute”. Options to export the results to “CSV” and “Excel”. You can also manage the number of items you want to see in each page from the query results. This defaults to 100. You can also switch connections between multiple connections using the “Connected To” drop-down menu.

View Menu

The View Menu provides you the option to hide/unhide the Connections Tab and Database Browser Tabs.

Sizing The Panes

Using the yellow control button, you can hide or unhide the left pane. Using your mouse controls, you can resize the panes.

Architecture

SQL Connect uses the following components to make the product work:

Component

Purpose

SQL Connect User Interface (SQLConnect.exe)

The graphical user interface, editor, that is used by end user to launch and run queries against Oracle Cloud. This is the main user-facing executable product for SQL Connect.

Query Processing Engine

This is built within the executable to parse, syntax check, validate and convert the user-entered SQL in a format that can be processed by the request processor on Oracle Cloud.

BIP Web Service

A key logic component of SQL Connect that interprets the request sent by QPE and processes that in Oracle Cloud to generate the result set and send it back to the BIP Web Service.

Request Processor

Helen Bennett

Results/Error Processor

Component of SQL Connect which renders results in a format the UI engine can process. It also processes any errors produced by the request and converts them to a user-readable format to be displayed on the UI.

UI Engine

The User Interface (UI) Engine is the presentation component of SQL Connect which renders results for the user.