Create/Edit/Select Database Connection

The database connection dialog box displays any existing connections. Depending on the context, you can select a connection to connect to the database, edit the information about existing connections, or specify information while creating a new connection. (See Creating and Editing Connections.)

Connection Name: An alias for a connection to the database using the information that you enter. (The connection name is not stored in the database, and the connection is not a database object.) Suggestion: Include the database name (SID) and user name in the connection name. Example: personnel_herman for connecting to the personnel database as user Herman.

Username: Name of the database user for the connection. This user must have

sufficient privileges to perform the tasks that you want perform while connected to the database, such as creating, editing, and deleting tables, views, and other objects. Password: Password associated with the specified database user.

Save Password: If this option is checked, the password is saved with the connection information, and you will not be prompted for the password on subsequent attempts to connect using this connection.

Information for Database-Specific Tabs:

■ Oracle tab ■ TimesTen tab ■ Access tab ■ DB2 tab ■ JDBC tab ■ MySQL tab

■ SQL Server and Sybase tabs ■ Teradata tab

Oracle tab

The following information applies to a connection to an Oracle Database.

Role: The set of privileges to be associated with the connection. For a user that has been granted the SYSDBA system privilege, you can specify a connection that includes the privilege.

Connection Type: Select Basic, TNS, LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), or Advanced. (The display of fields changes to reflect any change in connection type.) OS Authentication: If this option is checked, control of user authentication is passed to the operating system (OS). This allows the specified user to connect to the database by authenticating that user’s OS username in the database. No password is associated with the connection since it is assumed that OS authentication is sufficient. For

information about using OS authentication, see Oracle Database JDBC Developer's Guide. Kerberos Authentication: If this option is checked, credentials can be shared across many Kerberos-enabled applications (for example, to have the same username and password for both the operating system and Oracle Database). Thick driver configuration is done through sqlnet.ora (sqlnet.authentication_

services=(KERBEROS) and related parameters), so no username and password are needed. Thin driver configuration uses the configuration (.conf) file and the

credentials cache, and uses a service principal and password. For more information about Kerberos authentication options, see Database: Advanced. For information about configuring Kerberos authentication, see Oracle Database Advanced Security

Administrator's Guide.

Proxy Connection: If this option is checked, proxy authentication will be used, as explained in Section 1.4.5, "Connections with Proxy Authentication". Displays the

Oracle Proxy Authentication dialog box.

Basic connection type

Host Name: Host system for the Oracle database. Port: Listener port.

SID: Database name.

Service Name: Network service name of the database (for a remote database connection over a secure connection).

TNS connection type

Network Alias: Oracle Net alias for the database. (The list for selecting a network alias is initially filled from the tnsnames.ora file on your system, if that file exists.)

Connect Identifier: Oracle Net connect identifier.

LDAP connection type

Enterprise users are authenticated with the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) server. The user login information must be configured in the LDAP server and mapped to a schema in the database. Support for LDAP-compliant directory servers provides a centralized vehicle for managing and configuring a distributed Oracle network. The directory server can replace client-side and server-side localized tnsnames.ora files.

LDAP Server: Select from the list (from <DIRECTORY_SERVER> entries in the ldap.ora file); or enter the directory server location and port (either SSL or non-SSL), for example: system123.example.com:389:636 (ldap-system:nonssl-port:ssl-port) Context: LDAP administrative context. The contexts available in the selected server are listed.

DB Service: Database connection information: click Load to display a list of database services associated with the selected context. (If an error is displayed, no database services are associated with this context.) If a connection uses the OCI/Thick driver (see the Use OCI/Thick preference under Database: Advanced), the system on which SQL Developer is running must have an Oracle Client installation that contains the JDBC and orai18n libraries, these libraries must be present on the path, and the Oracle Client installation must be version 10.2 or later.

Advanced connection type

Custom JDBC URL: URL for connecting directly from Java to the database; overrides any other connection type specification. If you are using TNS or a naming service with the OCI driver, you must specify this information: Example:

jdbc:oracle:thin:scott/@localhost:1521:orcl

Note that in this example, the "/" is required, and the user will be prompted to enter the password.

To use a custom JDBC URL, the system on which SQL Developer is running must have an Oracle Client installation that contains the JDBC and orai18n libraries, is present on the path, and is version 10.2 or later.

TimesTen tab

The following information applies to a connection to an Oracle TimesTen In-Memory Database.

For Username and Password, specify the user name and password of the user account in the TimesTen database.

DSN: Data source name. Select an existing DSN (if any are displayed), or User-specified to create a new DSN. A DSN is a character string that identifies a TimesTen database and includes connection attributes to be used when connecting to the database. A DSN has the following characteristics: its maximum length is 32 characters; it cannot contain spaces; and it consists of ASCII characters except for the following: []{},;?*=!@\

Connection Type (if DNS is user-specified): C/S for client-server mode or Direct for direct mode

Connection String: Connection attributes including database attributes, first connection attributes, general connection attributes, NLS attributes, and Cache Connect attributes. (See the TimesTen Cache Connect to Oracle Guide for information about the attributes.)

Oracle Password (for Cache): The password for the TimesTen user account on the Oracle Database. (See the TimesTen documentation for more information.)

For more information about SQL Developer support for TimesTen, see Section 1.18. For detailed usage and reference information about Oracle TimesTen, see the online documentation that is included in the TimesTen installation. For additional

information, go to:

Access tab

For a connection to a Microsoft Access database, click Browse and find the database (.mdb) file. However, to be able to use the connection, you must first ensure that the system tables in the database file are readable by SQL Developer. To do this using Access 2003: