Initially code named Project Raptor, Oracle announced the availability of Oracle SQL Developer which is a new, free database development tool.

Oracle SQL Develop was designed in order to ease up development cycles and reduce the need to buy third-party tools for developing and debugging SQL and PL/SQL. With this new graphical interface SQL Developer is intended to be a replacement for SQL Plus which hasn’t changed in 18 years.

Available for free download on Oracle Developer Network Site the new Oracle tool is set out to provide the user with easier object browsing and creation, running SQL statements and scripts, editing and debugging PL/SQL code and viewing and updating data. The new tool was designed taking into consideration feedback coming from Oracle users, giving credit to their recommendations, finally releasing a new product.

All the features included in SQL Developer were designed to provide easier database management and so far people who have been testing it are quite pleased with the final outcome.

The new tool is available for all Oracle Database 10g releases and for Oracle9i Database Release 2. It was also designed to run against all editors of Oracle Database 10g, including Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition, Standard Edition, Standard Edition One and Express Edition.