AQT Basics

Save Sessions

Table of Content

Table of Content

Table of Content

AQT can save the state of your AQT session and reestablish it the next time you start AQT.

  • you can save your session automatically when you exit AQT, or save it "manually"

  • you can save your session permanently. You will then be able to open that session at any time in the future

  • AQT has auto session save. With this, AQT will save the state of your AQT session while you are running AQT. This will prevent you from losing your session should AQT terminate unexpectedly.

When you save your session, AQT will save the state of the following windows:

  • Database Explorer

  • SQL Window

  • Data Display window

  • Query Builder

Saving your Session

To do this you must set Options > Sessions > Save Session on close. The recommended setting is Prompt to Save.

When you do this, you will get the following prompt when you close AQT.

Full Save Dialog

To see the Full Save Dialog, either:

Auto-Saved versus Permanently-Saved Sessions

  • When you select the Save option, the session will be saved as a Auto-Saved Session. This session will be restored the next time you start AQT. The session will then be deleted irrespective of whether you choose to restore it or not.

    Auto-Saved Sessions are saved with a name starting with $.

  • When you select Save Session as, the session will be saved as a Permanent Session. The session will not be restored automatically when you next start AQT. It will be saved permanently and only restored when you choose to do so.

Manually Saving your Session

You can save your session at any time with (from the Database Explorer window) File > Session > Save Session.

Unless you are saving your session permanently:

  • any subsequent Save Session will overwrite your saved session

  • if you close AQT and select Exit AQT without saving, your saved session will be removed

Manually saving your sessions is useful in the following circumstances

  • you have not selected the option to save your AQT session when AQT exits

  • you wish to save your current work in case of an AQT crash, machine reboot or other unexpected termination

Automatically Saving your AQT Session

AQT has an option automatiically save your AQT session. This can be activated with Options > Sessions > Automatically Save Session.

When this option is selected, AQT will save the state of your session while AQT is running. Your AQT session will be saved in the case of an unexpected termination of AQT.

This is very resource intensive as AQT will write the state of your session to disk on a continual basis. As a result, this option should only be used in rare circumstances.

Opening a Saved Session

When you start AQT, and there is a saved session, by default AQT will give you the following prompt.

The Session will be deleted once AQT starts, irrespective of whether you have restored it or not.

Mulitple Saved Sessions

You may have multiple saved sessions. This can happen if you run multiple AQT sessions and all of them have been closed.

By default, AQT will open the most recent one. However you can select a particular session by clicking on the More button to see the full Open Session Dialog.

Full Open Session Dialog

This allows you to select the session you wish to open.

Select:

  • OK to the selected session

  • Cancel to start AQT without opening a session. The session will be saved when AQT is closed.

  • Start without session. Start AQT without opening / saving a session. See Starting AQT without Sessions.

Active Sessions

A temporary session is marked with an (*) if it is an Active Session. This is one where AQT has not closed normally. These will be present in the following circumstances:

  • you were using auto-save session, and AQT terminated unexpectedly.

  • you have another AQT session running, and that session is using auto-save session.

  • you have another AQT session running, and you have manually saved the session with File > Session > Save Session.

You should open an active session with a degree of caution. Once you open the session, the session info is deleted; this might interfere with your other AQT session.

Saving a Session Permanently

You can save a session permanently by clicking on Rename and giving the session a name. This will change it from a Auto-Save to a Permanent Session.

Opening a Permanent Session

You can see permanent sessions by clicking on with Permanent Sessions or All Sessions.

Starting AQT without Sessions

You may wish to start AQT without using sessions. This might be because you want to start AQT quickly, without the previous session being either restored or deleted.

You cannot do this by clicking Cancel from the Restore AQT Session window, as this will result in the previous session being deleted.

You can do this by clicking More then Start AQT without Session. When this done:

  • AQT is started without opening a session

  • the previous session is not deleted. It will remain present and will be restored the next time you start AQT normally.

  • when you close AQT, your current session will not be saved

  • Options > Enable Auto Session Save will be ignored

  • you can still use File > Sessions > Open/Save to open a session or save your current one

Setting up a non-Session desktop icon

If you want to do this on a frequent basis, you can set up a desktop icon to start AQT without sessions.

This is demonstrated in the example below. You need to change the Target to have:

options=sessions=n

as a parameter after AQT executable

Starting AQT with a particular Session

You can specify that AQT is to always start using a particular session. This is specified in Options > Sessions.

This is useful if you wish to always start AQT in the same configuration, rather than opening AQT as it was when last closed.

It can also be useful if you have a lesser-experienced user, and you wish AQT to start with a pre-defined set of connections and queries.

Setting up a desktop icon to start AQT with a particular Session

You can set up a desktop icon to start AQT with your session. You may have multiple desktop icons for your different sessions.

This is demonstrated in the example below. You need to change the Target to have the following after the AQT executable:

options=startupsession32=session_name.

Example:

options=startupsession32="Customer Analysis"

Setting up a batch job to start AQT with a particular Session

This can be done as follows: