Problems with Worksets

[cassiusdrow]

I am having intermittent problems with worksets in version 15.0.3.

I don't use multiple worksets. I have one single workset that I use to automatically restore the windows from the previous PL/SQL Developer session. Today, I closed PL/SQL Developer and then re-opened it about 10 minutes later and the contents of all unsaved SQL windows were lost. The SQL windows were still in the window list but there was an error something like "Unable to read file" for each unsaved SQL window and the contents were lost. This happens at least once every week or so.

Sometimes the entire workset is lost and no windows are opened at all. This happens must less frequently. It has only happened a handful of times since I began using version 15 in April 2022.

I don't usually explicitly save the workset before closing PL/SQL Developer as the documentation states that it is automatically saved when PL/SQL Developer closes.

Is there anything I can do or provide to help debug this issue?

 

[Marco Kalter]

Is there any pattern to this error situation? Do you keep PL/SQL Developer and/or Windows running for multiple days when such an error occurs?

 

[cassiusdrow]

I haven't noticed a specific pattern but I do tend to leave PL/SQL Developer open for more than one day.

 

[cassiusdrow]

Last week, I had a workset that was lost. I accidentally opened two copies of PL/SQL Developer and they both opened the same workset. I closed one copy of PL/SQL Developer and went about my day. Later, I closed the remaining copy and when I reopened it, the all the windows of the workset were completely gone. The workset itself was still there but it had no contents.

 

[lulap]

I have the same problem, it happened few times that my worksets were lost and I lost important sqls, so I stopped using worksets.

 

[cassiusdrow]

I lost my workset again today and another time last week. I started closing PL/SQL Developer at the end of the day for the past few weeks and I am losing worksets more frequently, usually about once a week. This is probably because closing and opening PL/SQL Developer more frequently gives it more opportunities to lose the workset.

 

[WexSoft]

I have never used worksets, but I must say that I have been using Projects for at least 5 years and have never had an issue with any lost files or projects.

 

[IvanZ]

I've also had occasional problem with lost worksets (no errors given). I've notiiced that lost was more possible during open operation and was less possible while close operation.
But this bug is too serious to use this functionality so I've reverted to ol'good "desktop=" which works flawlessly.

 

[cassiusdrow]

Marco,

The "unable to read desktop.cfg" happened again today. This time I looked at the "AppData\Roaming\PLSQL Developer 15\Worksets" folder and saw two folders: "General", which is the name of my only workset, and "General.tmp". The "General.tmp" folder had a "desktop.cfg" file along with the "file.info" and other "desktop" files with numeric extensions like "desktop.005". However, the "General" folder was missing the "desktop.cfg" and some "desktop" files with numeric extensions. I made a backup copy of the "Worksets" folder and closed PL/SQL Developer, which deleted the "General.tmp" folder and deleted everything in the "General" folder. I copied the contents of the "General.tmp" backup to the "AppData\Roaming\PLSQL Developer 15\Worksets\General" folder. When I re-opened PL/SQL Developer, the workset was restored.

Could it be that PL/SQL Developer did not save the workset properly? Can you have PL/SQL Developer look for the "General.tmp" folder if it does not find the "desktop.cfg" in the "General" folder?

 

[cassiusdrow]

These problems continues to happen frequently. At this point I consider the Worksets feature to be completely unstable and unusable.

 

[Pilot7478]

This exact problem happens for our developers too. It's a serious problem that makes the worksets not usable and dangerous. Any comments from PL/SQL Developer Support? Is it going to be fixed?

 

[cassiusdrow]

Revisiting this issue, I have had much more success by explicitly closing the workset when I am done with it, regardless of whether I leave PL/SQL Developer open or closed afterwards. However, I still have problems if PL/SQL Developer unexpectedly shuts down. I have started manually backing up the "%AppData%\PLSQL Developer 15\Worksets" folder before I open PL/SQL Developer so I can manually recover the worksets if needed. The Worksets feature still needs work to make it more robust and fault tolerant.