Kris Rice has simplified the process of writing an extension to SQL Developer using Eclipse, according to a new post on his blog. Bash –x sqldeveloper and run the shell script with a –x. This will show what is being executed, says Rice. He elaborates with steps to make a run/debug configuration that will, ultimately, enable one to run and debug an extension.

Main Tab

• Main Class: oracle.ideimpl.Main
• Check the Include libraries when searching for a main class checkbox

Arguments Tab

• The paths in the VM arguments should be adjusted to your specifics. Also if there is a space in the paths they will have to quoted like so: "C:\Document and Settings\sqldeveloper...."
• VM Arguments:

  -Dide.product=oracle.sqldeveloper -Dide.splash.screen=raptor-splash.gif -Xverify:none -Xmx512M -XX:MaxPermSize=128M -Dice.browser.forcegc=false -Dice.pilots.html4.tileOptThreshold=0 -DEDITOR_J2SE_VERSION=1.5 -DINSIGHT_OMIT_HIDDEN=true -Doracle.xdkjava.compatibility.version=9.0.4 -Dide.debug.controller.stack=false -Dceditor.java.parse.small=300 -Dceditor.java.parse.large=1500 -Dide.extension.cpmissing.nowarn=true -Dcompiler.vmargs=-mx512m -Djbo.debugoutput=silent -Djbo.showdebugwarningbanner=false -Dide.config_pathname=/home/klrice/sqldeveloper/jdev/bin/sqldeveloper.conf -Dide.startingcwd=/home/klrice/sqldeveloper/jdev/bin -Dide.user.dir=/tmp

• Working directory: choose Other. Then enter the path to /jdev/bin

Classpath Tab

• Add the following (all paths are relative to)
• /ide/lib/ide.jar
• /ide/lib/javatools.jar
• /ide/lib/xmlparserv2.jar
• /ide/lib/help4.jar
• /ide/lib/share.jar
• /ide/lib/javax-ide.jar