Our annual conference, formerly known as Oracle Open World, Oracle Cloud World is an opportunity for us to share news and announce upcoming projects and features. This year I spent a few moments teasing what’s next for Oracle SQL Developer.
Let’s recap the last 17 years
Previously on Oracle SQL Developer…
- launched in 2005
- a Java Swing application, built on the Oracle FCP
- Fusion Client Platform, i.e. JDeveloper
- ~5 million+ users worldwide
- Billions of dollars saved for our customers
That’s a really, really nice ride for a software product and/or product platform.
But, every beginning eventually has an ending, and it’s time to consider what’s next for SQL Developer.
VS Codium enters the room
Visual Studio Code has become the de facto IDE for developers of all-types. And there’s a open-source distribution of that product that has none of the Microsoft branding or telemetry/tracking included.
Oracle SQL Developer Desktop lives on!
Leveraging our existing Java code base – why throw away 17 years of awesomeness, we’ll be able to give you a SQL Developer branded application with the same user experience you’re used to, but with a much more modern, and powerful underpinning.
The keyboard shortcuts will be there, you’ll have connections, object browsers, ability to run ad-hoc SQL, debug PL/SQL, manage your database, run SQLPlus-style scripts, and so much more.
Our parser and all of it’s goodies – the formatter, syntax highlighting, object completion, etc. will all be made available via VS Code’s Language Server Protocol (LSP).
A Quick Glimpse…
A list of connections on the left, a kick-butt editor on the right. Query results in a easy-to-use and navigate ‘grids.’ Pretty much what one would expect.
What about my favorite feature?
Obviously porting 17 years of product to a new platform is going to take awhile. And decisions we made in 2009 won’t necessarily make sense in 2023. That being said, it will take us some time get to the point where the existing Oracle SQL Developer can be officially retired.
That means we may live in a world where you have 2 different desktop application options to choose from for a couple of years.
We’ve always been a community-driven product team. We’ve been working with you collaboratively since 2005. We know your expectations will be deservedly high. We look forward to hopefully meeting if not exceeding those.
When can I get it already?
Early 2023 is the game plan. Now, that might be an Early Adopter/Beta type of offering, but we want something you can download and start using and providing feedback on very soon!
If you want to keep up with news/updates and enjoy being teased be sure to follow us on Twitter (@oraclesqldev @krisrice @thatjeffsmith).
31 Comments
Hi Jeff! Happy new year!! Is there any progress on the launch?
It’s ready as of…TODAY!
I am eagerly waiting for the release., I almost everyday look at this blog post with a hope that the day has arrived… 🙁
I have a question though, will we be able to load 3rd party plugins/extensions in the VS code version of SQL Developer? Like I have to heavily use a 3rd party plugin called “keep alive” in my current SQL Developer because the DB connection disconnects every 5 mins in our environment. Hence “keep alive” is a savior for people in my situation.
Will the VS code version of SQL Dev have similar features?
I’m not going to comment on the perils of a Keep Alive extension, but in general, yes.
However it won’t be ready/available when the extension launches.
Hey Jeff, is this still going to be released this year?
WE ARE GONNA TRY.
Hi Jeff,
Is this the same as the existing extentions VSC has had for some time now?
Thanks
No, completely net new.
Is “SQL Developer Next” available to the general public yet? I tried to find it on Oracle’s website (SQL Developer area), but don’t see anything.
Nope, we’re still working on it! Hope to have it on the VS Code community marketplace SOON!
Mid Summer any updates on Beta?
Nah we’ll just release it for real at Cloud World.
We’re jonsing for the new VSC version of SQL Dev! :-p
Looks great, one thing though, Treeviews (on schema objects) can be painful to work with while having lots of items on every level – it takes a lot of scrolling to go from one level to another without collapsing them. Would you consider also a different presentation style like tab pages (like in Toad for Oracle you can choose preferred style)?
Tabs are literally the worst, my opinion of course.
We’ll investigate having a drop-down control in addition to the tree.
Being able to seamlessly navigate to objects from the code editors will largely side-step this issue however.
For this, there will be released something like an official Oracle PL/SQL LSP thing, usable within other editors? Or will it be exclusive for VsCodium/VScode?
We haven’t decided yet..
What about this (https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Oracle.oracledevtools) project?
Great question.
Where can we get more info about this project?
Status, used technologies, is it open for contributing, etc.
More when than where. There will be an extension framework you can plug into but this won’t be an open source project.
Hello,
I come hère and I like the idea to have a SQL Dev plugin for Vscode, do you have a beta test 🙂
Thank you for your job
We’ll do an internal beta here at Oracle, so come work for us if you want to participate!
Then we’ll release product and do at least quarterly updates, aiming for Late Spring/Early Summer.
Why do you abandon Java (which belongs mostly to Oracle) and start develping SQLdeveloper in something created by Microsoft???
We didn’t abandon Java, it’s being used ‘under the covers’
On OSD i can execute commands in two modes: Run Statement and Run Script. Will the “Run Script” mode use a separate SQLcl process? This means that statements will be executed in different sessions/transactions.
The execute as script flow will continue using the ‘worksheet connection,’ however having multiple, threaded connections will be a thing, AND you’ll have the option to open SQLcl in the terminal as well if you want complete ‘independence.’
Any new improvements to Data Modeler ? We’d like to see source to target mappings in like in Erwin or PowerDesigner.
Not on the short term roadmap.
This is a huge development. Where can I get alpha/beta access to pronto? I would like to start using this and giving feedback.
It’s not where, but when. We’ll let you know (Early 2023)