1. Installation Guide
  2. Installing Oracle SQL Developer
  3. Installing and Starting SQL Developer

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://infozip.sourceforge.net/.

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 11 installed:

  • For a Windows system with JDK release 11 installed, follow the instructions in Windows Systems.

  • For all other systems (Linux and Mac OS X systems, and Windows systems with no JDK release 11 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 https://www.oracle.com/database/sqldeveloper/.

  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:

    1. On the Java Downloads page, select the Java 11 tab (https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/#java11).

    2. Click the link for the download that you need (for example, the Windows x64 link for a Windows 64-bit system).

    3. Save the file anywhere on your system (such as a "temp" folder).

    4. 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 https://www.oracle.com/database/sqldeveloper/, 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 11.0.

  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 sqldeveloper.exe. On Linux systems, type sh sqldeveloper.sh.

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\jdk11.0.

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 11 be installed on the system. If you need to install a JDK, go to https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/downloads/#java11.

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.

Note:

On Macintosh systems, a native Macintosh application in the form sqldeveloperxxx.tar.gz 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 sqldeveloper.sh.

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.