Oracle® SQL Developer
Installation Guide
Release 24.3
G16894-01
October 2024
Oracle SQL Developer Installation Guide, Release 24.3
G16894-01
Copyright © 2005, 2024, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Primary Author: Celin Cherian
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Contents
Preface
Audience v
Documentation Accessibility v
Related Documents v
Conventions v
1 Installing Oracle SQL Developer
1.1 SQL Developer System Recommendations 1-1
1.2 Installing and Starting SQL Developer 1-1
1.2.1 Windows Systems 1-2
1.2.2 Linux and Mac OS X Systems 1-3
1.3 Migrating User Settings from a Previous Release 1-4
1.4 Migrating Information from Previous Releases 1-5
1.5 Location of User-Related Information 1-5
1.6 Database Certification for SQL Developer (Oracle and Third-Party) 1-6
1.7 Advanced Security for JDBC Connection to the Database 1-7
1.8 Finding SQL Developer Accessibility Information 1-7
1.9 Uninstalling SQL Developer 1-7
1.10 SQL Developer Documentation 1-8
1.11 Oracle on the Web 1-8
iii
List of Tables
1-1 Default Locations for User-Related Information 1-5
1-2 Oracle Database Certification for SQL Developer 1-6
1-3 Non-Oracle (Third-Party) Database Certification for SQL Developer 1-6
iv
Preface
This guide provides information for those installing the Oracle SQL Developer tool on
Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X systems.
Audience
This guide is intended for those who need to install the Oracle SQL Developer tool.
Documentation Accessibility
For information about Oracle's commitment to accessibility, visit the Oracle Accessibility
Program website at [Link]
Access to Oracle Support
Oracle customers that have purchased support have access to electronic support through My
Oracle Support. For information, visit [Link]
or visit [Link] if you are hearing impaired.
Related Documents
For conceptual, usage, and reference information about Oracle SQL Developer, see the online
help available when you are running SQL Developer.
To download free release notes, installation documentation, white papers, or other collateral,
go to the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) at
[Link]
The documentation section of the OTN website is located at
[Link]
Conventions
The following text conventions are used in this document:
Convention Meaning
boldface Boldface type indicates graphical user interface elements associated with an
action, or terms defined in text or the glossary.
italic Italic type indicates book titles, emphasis, or placeholder variables for which
you supply particular values.
monospace Monospace type indicates commands within a paragraph, URLs, code in
examples, text that appears on the screen, or text that you enter.
v
1
Installing Oracle SQL Developer
Note:
This guide assumes that you plan to download SQL Developer and run it as a
freestanding tool.
Please read the information in this chapter before you install Oracle SQL Developer. This
chapter contains the following major sections:
• SQL Developer System Recommendations
• Installing and Starting SQL Developer
• Migrating User Settings from a Previous Release
• Migrating Information from Previous Releases
• Location of User-Related Information
• Database Certification for SQL Developer (Oracle and Third-Party)
• Advanced Security for JDBC Connection to the Database
• Finding SQL Developer Accessibility Information
• Uninstalling SQL Developer
• SQL Developer Documentation
• Oracle on the Web
1.1 SQL Developer System Recommendations
SQL Developer requires JDK 17, which you can download from Java Downloads.
For information about operating system versions supported for Oracle JDK 17, see Oracle JDK
17 Certified System Configurations.
1.2 Installing and Starting SQL Developer
This section contains subsections with instructions for installing SQL Developer on all
supported systems.
SQL Developer does not require an installer. To install SQL Developer, you will need an unzip
tool. You can download a free, cross-platform unzip tool, Info-Zip, available at http://
[Link]/.
1-1
Chapter 1
Installing and Starting SQL Developer
Note:
Do not install SQL Developer into any existing ORACLE_HOME. You will not be able to
uninstall it using Oracle Universal Installer.
Also, do not install SQL Developer into an existing sqldeveloper folder or directory.
Either delete the existing sqldeveloper folder or directory first, or ensure that the
new SQL Developer version is installed into a different location.
Note:
If you are using a prerelease (Early Adopter) version of SQL Developer, and if you
want to be able to continue to use this prerelease version after installing the official
release kit, you must unzip the official release kit into a different directory than the
one used for the prerelease version.
Before you install SQL Developer, look at the remaining sections of this guide to see if you
need to know or do anything else first.
The steps for installing SQL Developer depend on whether or not you will be using it on a
Windows system that does not have Java SDK (JDK) release 17 installed:
• For a Windows system with JDK release 17 installed, follow the instructions in Windows
Systems.
• For all other systems (Linux and Mac OS X systems, and Windows systems with no JDK
release 17 installed), follow the instructions in Linux and Mac OS X Systems.
1.2.1 Windows Systems
If a Windows 64-bit SQL Developer file that includes JDK is available, you can download and
install that on a Windows 64-bit system, and SQL Developer will use the embedded JDK that is
provided.
However, if you want to use a JDK on your Windows 64-bit system, you can install the JDK (if it
is not already installed) and the Windows 32/64-bit SQL Developer file, and SQL Developer will
use the JDK that is installed on your system. The bit level (32-bit or 64-bit) of the JDK that you
install will determine if SQL Developer runs as a 32-bit or 64-bit application.
Note:
Do not install SQL Developer into an existing sqldeveloper folder. Either delete the
existing sqldeveloper folder first, or ensure that the new SQL Developer version is
installed into a different location.
To install on a Windows system, follow these steps:
1. Go to the Oracle page for SQL Developer at [Link]
sqldeveloper/.
1-2
Chapter 1
Installing and Starting SQL Developer
2. If you do not need or want to install a suitable Java Development Kit, go to step 3.
Otherwise, download and install the JDK as follows:
a. On the Java Downloads page, select the Java 17 tab.
b. Click the link for the download that you need (for example, the Windows x64 link for a
Windows 64-bit system).
c. Save the file anywhere on your system (such as a "temp" folder).
d. Install the JDK (for example, on Windows, double-click the .exe file name and follow
the displayed instructions).
3. On the Oracle page for SQL Developer at [Link]
click Download SQL Developer.
4. Read and accept the license agreement.
5. Follow the instructions for downloading and installing SQL Developer.
If you are asked to enter the full pathname for the JDK, click Browse and find the JDK folder.
For example, on a Windows system the path might have a name similar to C:\Program
Files\Java\jdk 17.0.
1. Unzip the SQL Developer file into a folder (directory) of your choice, which will be referred
to as <sqldeveloper_install>. Ensure that the Use folder names option is checked
when unzipping the file.
2. Unzipping the SQL Developer file causes a folder named sqldeveloper to be created
under the <sqldeveloper_install> folder. For example, if you unzip the file into C:\, the
folder C:\sqldeveloper is created, along with several subfolders under it.
To start SQL Developer, go to <sqldeveloper_install>\sqldeveloper, and double-click
[Link]. On Linux systems, type sh [Link].
If you are asked to enter the full pathname for the JDK, click Browse and find the JDK folder.
For example, the path might have a name similar to C:\Program Files\Java\jdk17.0.
After SQL Developer starts, you can connect to any database by right-clicking the Connections
node in the Connections Navigator and selecting New Connection. Alternatively, if you have
any exported connections (see Migrating Information from Previous Releases or Uninstalling
SQL Developer), you can import these connections and use them.
You can learn about SQL Developer by clicking Help, then Table of Contents, and reading the
help topics under SQL Developer Concepts and Usage.
1.2.2 Linux and Mac OS X Systems
SQL Developer requires that JDK 17 be installed on the system.
Note:
Do not install SQL Developer into an existing sqldeveloper directory. Either delete
the existing sqldeveloper directory first, or ensure that the new SQL Developer
version is installed into a different location.
1-3
Chapter 1
Migrating User Settings from a Previous Release
Note:
On Macintosh systems, a native Macintosh application in the form
[Link] is provided. When it is expanded, it appears as a
Macintosh application that can be put into the applications folder. If you choose to
expand this file, it will replace any older sqldeveloper applications in that folder.
To install and start SQL Developer, follow these steps:
1. Unzip the SQL Developer kit into a directory (folder) of your choice. (Ensure that the Use
folder names option is checked when unzipping the kit.) This directory location will be
referred to as <sqldeveloper_install>.
Unzipping the SQL Developer kit causes a directory named sqldeveloper to be created
under the <sqldeveloper_install> directory. It also causes many files and directories to
be placed in and under that directory.
2. To start SQL Developer, go to the sqldeveloper directory under the
<sqldeveloper_install> directory, and run sh [Link].
After SQL Developer starts, you can connect to any database by right-clicking the Connections
node in the Connections Navigator and selecting New Connection. Alternatively, if you have
any exported connections (see Migrating Information from Previous Releases or Uninstalling
SQL Developer), you can import these connections and use them.
You can learn about SQL Developer by clicking Help, then Table of Contents, and reading the
help topics under SQL Developer Concepts and Usage.
1.3 Migrating User Settings from a Previous Release
The first time you start SQL Developer after installing it or after adding any extensions, you are
asked if you want to migrate your user settings from a previous release. (This occurs
regardless of whether there was a previous release on your system.)
If you choose not to migrate your user settings and then later want to do so, go to the SQL
Developer user preferences location, which is C:\Users\<user name>\AppData\Roaming\SQL
Developer\systemn.n.n.n.n for Windows and ~/.sqldeveloper/systemn.n.n.n.n for Linux or Mac,
and delete the system.n.n.n.n folder. Then restart SQL Developer, and you will be asked about
migrating settings from the previous release.
These settings refer to database connections, reports, and certain SQL Developer user
preferences that you set in a previous version by clicking Tools and then Preferences.
However, some user preferences are not saved, and you must respecify these using the new
release.
To migrate user settings from a previous SQL Developer release:
1. Unzip the kit for the current release so as to create a new sqldeveloper directory.
2. When you start the SQL Developer current release, click Yes when asked if you want to
migrate settings from a previous release.
3. In the dialog box that is displayed, you can accept the default option to migrate the settings
from the most recent SQL Developer installation. Or, if you want to migrate the settings
from an earlier installation, you can click to show all builds and then select the desired one.
1-4
Chapter 1
Migrating Information from Previous Releases
Related Topics
• Migrating Information from Previous Releases
1.4 Migrating Information from Previous Releases
If you have used a previous release of SQL Developer, you may want to preserve database
connections that you have been using. To preserve database connections, save your existing
database connections in an XML file. To save the connections, right-click the Connections
node in the Connections Navigator and select Export Connections. After you complete the
installation described in this guide, you can use those connections by right-clicking the
Connections node in the Connections Navigator and selecting Import Connections.
If you want to use any user-defined reports or the SQL history from a previous version, see
Location of User-Related Information for information about where these are located. If you
have user-defined reports and SQL history from Release 1.0, they are modified by any later
SQL Developer release to a format that is different from and incompatible with Release 1.0.
To migrate the SQL Developer preferences (specified by clicking Tools and then Preferences)
from a previous release, ensure that the previous installation of the software is available in the
same system.
Note:
If you want to uninstall your prerelease version of SQL Developer before installing
this release, see Uninstalling SQL Developer.
1.5 Location of User-Related Information
SQL Developer stores user-related information in several places, with the specific location
depending on the operating system and certain environment specifications. User-related
information includes user-defined reports, user-defined snippets, SQL Worksheet history, code
templates, and SQL Developer user preferences. In most cases, your user-related information
is stored outside the SQL Developer installation directory hierarchy, so that it is preserved if
you delete that directory and install a new version.
The user-related information is stored in or under the IDE_USER_DIR environment variable
location, if defined; otherwise as indicated in Table 1-1, which shows the typical default
locations (under a directory or in a file) for specific types of resources on different operating
systems. (Note the period in the name of any directory named .sqldeveloper.)
Table 1-1 Default Locations for User-Related Information
Resource Type System (Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X)
User-defined Windows: C:\Users\<user-name>\AppData\Roaming\SQL
reports Developer\[Link]
Linux or Mac OS X: ~/.sqldeveloper/[Link]
User-defined Windows: C:\Users\<user-name>\AppData\Roaming\SQL
snippets Developer\[Link]
Linux: ~/.sqldeveloper/[Link]
Mac OS X: /Users/<Your user>/Library/Application Support/ SQLDeveloper/
[Link]
1-5
Chapter 1
Database Certification for SQL Developer (Oracle and Third-Party)
Table 1-1 (Cont.) Default Locations for User-Related Information
Resource Type System (Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X)
SQL history Windows: C:\Users\<user-name>\AppData\Roaming\SQL Developer\[Link]
Linux: ~/.sqldeveloper/[Link]
Mac OS X: /Users/<Your user>/Library/Application Support/ SQLDeveloper/
[Link]
Code templates Windows: C:\Users\<user-name>\AppData\Roaming\SQL Developer\
[Link]
Linux: ~/.sqldeveloper/[Link]
Mac OS X: /Users/<Your user>/Library/Application Support/ SQLDeveloper/
[Link]
SQL Developer Windows: C:\Users\<user-name>\AppData\Roaming\SQL
user preferences Developer\systemn.n.n.n.n
Linux or Mac OS X: ~/.sqldeveloper/systemn.n.n.n.n
If you want to prevent other users from accessing your user-specific SQL Developer
information, you must ensure that the appropriate permissions are set on the directory where
that information is stored or on a directory above it in the path hierarchy. For example, on a
Windows system you may want to ensure that the SQL Developer folder and the \<user-
name>\AppData\SQL Developer folder under Users are not sharable; and on a Linux or Mac
OS X system you may want to ensure that the ~/.sqldeveloper directory is not world-
readable.
1.6 Database Certification for SQL Developer (Oracle and Third-
Party)
This section describes Oracle and non-Oracle (third-party) databases that are certified for use
with SQL Developer.
Table 1-2 lists the Oracle database certifications.
Table 1-2 Oracle Database Certification for SQL Developer
Product Releases
Oracle Database Oracle 11gR2, Oracle 19c, Oracle 23ai
SQL Developer can be used to view metadata and data of several non-Oracle (third-party)
databases. Table 1-3 lists the third-party database certifications.
Table 1-3 Non-Oracle (Third-Party) Database Certification for SQL Developer
Database Releases Notes
IBM DB2 DB2 UDB For any DB2 release: [Link] and db2jcc_license_cu.jar files
DB2 8.x required; available from IBM.
DB2 9.x
1-6
Chapter 1
Advanced Security for JDBC Connection to the Database
Table 1-3 (Cont.) Non-Oracle (Third-Party) Database Certification for SQL Developer
Database Releases Notes
Microsoft SQL SQL Server 7 For any Microsoft SQL Server release: JDBC driver [Link]
Server SQL Server 2000 required; included in [Link] available from
[Link]; also available through Help, Check for
SQL Server 2005
Updates.
SQL Server 2008
MySQL MySQL 3.x For any MySQL release: JDBC driver required. For MySQL 5.x:
MySQL 4.x [Link], which is included in mysql-
[Link]; also available through Help, Check
MySQL 5.x
for Updates. (Do not use the latest MySQL driver 5.1.)
Sybase Adaptive Sybase 12 For any Sybase Adaptive Server release: JDBC driver
Server Sybase 15 [Link] required; included in [Link] available from
[Link]; also available through Help, Check for
Updates.
Teradata Teradata 12 JDBC driver files [Link] and [Link] required;
Teradata 13 included (along with a [Link] file) in the
TeraJDBC__indep_indep.[Link].zip or
TeraJDBC__indep_indep.[Link].tar download.
For information about creating and using connections to third-party databases, see the
information about database connections in the SQL Developer online help or Oracle SQL
Developer User's Guide.
1.7 Advanced Security for JDBC Connection to the Database
You are encouraged to use Oracle Advanced Security to secure a JDBC connection to the
database. Both the JDBC OCI and the JDBC Thin drivers support at least some of the Oracle
Advanced Security features. If you are using the OCI driver, you can set relevant parameters in
the same way that you would in any Oracle client setting. The JDBC Thin driver supports the
Oracle Advanced Security features through a set of Java classes included with the JDBC
classes in a Java Archive (JAR) file and supports security parameter settings through Java
properties objects.
For more information about using Oracle Advanced Security, see Oracle Database JDBC
Developer's Guide.
1.8 Finding SQL Developer Accessibility Information
For the latest configuration information or for information on addressing accessibility and
assistive technology issues, see the Oracle Accessibility FAQ at [Link]
corporate/accessibility/faqs/.
Also, check the SQL Developer release notes ([Link] file) to see if there are any currently
known issues regarding accessibility.
1.9 Uninstalling SQL Developer
Before you uninstall SQL Developer, if you plan to install SQL Developer (the same or an
updated version) later, you may want to save your existing database connections; and if so,
see Migrating Information from Previous Releases before uninstalling.
1-7
Chapter 1
SQL Developer Documentation
To uninstall SQL Developer, remove the entire SQL Developer installation directory (that is, the
directory named sqldeveloper and all directories and files under it in the hierarchy).
If you also want to remove all user-specific SQL Developer information, you should also delete
the directory under which that information is stored (that is, the SQL Developer user
information directory). For the location of this directory, see Location of User-Related
Information.
If you have created a shortcut for SQL Developer, and if you do not plan to install SQL
Developer into the same location again, you should remove that shortcut or modify the shortcut
properties to reflect the new location.
1.10 SQL Developer Documentation
SQL Developer provides user documentation in the Oracle SQL Developer User's Guide and in
the online help. To see the help, click the Help menu, or click the Help button or press the F1
key in relevant contexts while you are using SQL Developer.
1.11 Oracle on the Web
Oracle provides a number of resources on the web. These are some sites you may find helpful:
• SQL Developer home page (OTN): [Link]
• SQL Developer discussion forum (OTN): [Link]
domain/dev-community/category/sql-developer
• PL/SQL page on OTN: [Link]
[Link]
• Oracle Accessibility Program: [Link]
1-8