SQL Developer is easy to install and use. Once you have unzipped the file and started the product, you can connect to your Oracle database without downloading or needing additional files. This easy connection uses the thin JDBC driver to make the connection. In addition to this, the product supports a wide variety of alternative connection and authentication types for Oracle and non-Oracle databases. In this chapter, we reviewed the SQL Developer support offered for Oracle database connections and authentication methods. We reviewed the various drivers required for non-Oracle databases and how to set them up. Finally, we looked at ways to manage connections and folders.

In the next chapter, we'll have a look at database data modeling and how to use SQL Developer Data Modeler to create and update entity relationship diagrams as well as relational and physical data models.