Friday, March 13, 2009

How to change the language of SQL Developer's user interface?

Always check out the original article at http://www.oraclequirks.com for latest comments, fixes and updates.

Yesterday i upgraded SQL Developer from version 1.5.1 to 1.5.4 and when i opened it, i noticed that the user interface was automagically showing up in Italian.
I say automagically because i am italian indeed, but the operating system on this particular machine is localized in mexican-spanish, so i wonder if SQL Developer was spying my conversations... ;-)

While i appreciate the globalization efforts, i feel much better having certain programs with an English user interface for the simple reason that when i need to communicate with someone else who doesn't speak Italian, i can talk about menu entries, settings, button names using a commonly understood language and without having to guess what the original entry in English language could be.

How to get rid of this automatic translation then?
I started wandering through the preference menu and either because i am getting old or there are too many settings or this setting can't be changed in the preferences, i failed to find a list available translations.

After a quick OTN search i found a thread where users were reporting some problems when creating new connections and i noticed a workaround where one must add the following two lines to the Sqldeveloper.conf file in bin subdirectory.

AddVMOption -Duser.language=en
AddVMOption -Duser.country=US

I promptly tried it out to see if that could solve my problem and bingo!

I don't know if this is the only "supported" way of changing the user interface language, but it's certainly working.

Please let me know if there are any other options.


See more articles about SQL Developer.

PS: I encourage everyone interested in this feature to cast their vote in the SQLDeveloper Feature request application: https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=43135:7:0::NO:RP,7:P7_ID:10821
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41 comments:

  1. Popovic StevoMonday, 23 March, 2009

    I hate when program tries to guess your language, and leaves you with no option to change it...

    Thanks for info...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Byte64Monday, 23 March, 2009

    I agree Stevo,
    imagine if you had to work remotely on a customer's PC, say a chinese or japanese machine, and you can't *easily* change language in the user interface: it would be a nightmare, especially if you had to change some menu option.

    Of course the reverse might apply as well, for a chinese or japanese person could be difficult to work on a localized version of SQL Developer.

    I hope they come up with some easy-to-find menu option in 1.5.5 where you can pick the preferred language, just in case.

    Thanks
    Flavio

    ReplyDelete
  3. kAlvaroWednesday, 29 April, 2009

    I'm a native Spanish speaker but I googled here to learn how to change the GUI back into English because I just couldn't understand the Spanish translation.

    Apparently, they also used Google to translate it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Byte64Wednesday, 29 April, 2009

    Alvaro,
    as you know latin american spanish varies with the nation, the translator may have opted for the mexican word which sounds odd for the spaniard or the argentinian or viceversa.
    Normally i don't like translated software because when you encounter a problem then it's much easier to find a solution if you search for english terms, that's the main reason as to why i prefer to have an english OS and english version of the software.

    Saludos,
    Flavio

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownThursday, 30 April, 2009

    Thank you very much Flavio Casetta.

    ReplyDelete
  6. jasonWednesday, 20 May, 2009

    Thank you. Google suggested your post at the top of the list with only my 3-keywords "sqldeveloper change ui language". Actually, I'm not familiar with the translated terms. Your tip saved my time and it was very helpful for me. thanks~!

    ReplyDelete
  7. AmitWednesday, 17 June, 2009

    Thank you very much sir...
    I digged the whole sqldeveloper & google to explore this option...

    thanks again for your great help.

    god bless you

    Regards,
    Amit

    ReplyDelete
  8. Aliaksandr BirukouThursday, 06 August, 2009

    Thank you! Worked for me too! I am Belarusian, using English in Italy, so spying over conversation wouldn't work;) I especially was surprised by Italian since I followed all steps for download in English

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousWednesday, 18 November, 2009

    This works perfectly ! I was fighting against this SQL Developer since I upgraded.
    Thanks again !! I now have the program in English again and no longer in French.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousFriday, 22 January, 2010

    Thanks a lot for this tips. I was quite disapointed with the french interface. English settings has become really more familiar :-).

    ReplyDelete
  11. edilayMonday, 12 April, 2010

    hi!
    I almost took my eye out with this XD.
    I use it in versión Version 2.1.1.64 but the file for add the lines is ide\bin\ide.conf.

    I'm native spanish too and consider so freak see the Oracle messages in spanish.

    thanks a lot Flavio.

    ReplyDelete
  12. GianfrancoFriday, 13 August, 2010

    Ciao Flavio,

    I was having the same issue then, googling, I found this post.

    Actually I have the same application language setting (eng) for the same reason.

    I'm working on SQL Developer 2.1.1 so I had to guess where the .conf is.
    I found it, changed it and wohooo! :)

    Of course only at the end I read the above edilay comment!

    Thanks a lot for your tip!

    Gianfranco

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousThursday, 03 February, 2011

    i want to change the language of caption of my oracle form from english to french.
    how it is possible

    ReplyDelete
  14. Byte64Thursday, 03 February, 2011

    I don't have a clue, I'm sorry.

    Flavio

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousFriday, 04 February, 2011

    thanks for your reply...but clearify me that it is feasible or not?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Byte64Friday, 04 February, 2011

    I don' know, what do you mean exactly by "the caption of my oracle form"?

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousFriday, 11 March, 2011

    Hi Friend,
    Thanks a lot for your post. I searched language setting for SQL Developer, and simply clicked on the first link (yours url). The explanation is so simple to understand and solved my problem in a minute. I am English speaking guy and working on Terminal of Client at Germany. Again its great help.

    Thanks
    Patel

    ReplyDelete
  18. UnknownTuesday, 15 March, 2011

    Just tried it today, with SQL Developer version 3.0 and works great.
    Thanks ;)

    ReplyDelete
  19. GiordanoTuesday, 15 March, 2011

    Just tried it today with SQL dev version 3.0 and it works great!
    Thanks for the hint (even if unfortunately it means that the un-friendly user experience is still there in the latest version as well..)

    ReplyDelete
  20. pflopWednesday, 29 June, 2011

    Thanks for the tip, very useful.

    ReplyDelete
  21. OracleNewbieMonday, 12 September, 2011

    Thank you so much for the post - your solution worked for me (SQL Developer 3.0)! The non-english interface was sooo annoying :[

    ReplyDelete
  22. Aravinth KannanWednesday, 21 September, 2011

    Hi thanks it resolved for SQLDeveloper 3.0

    ReplyDelete
  23. Warren ChangSunday, 27 November, 2011

    thank you so much. I am so happy to see "English" interface

    ReplyDelete
  24. achimMonday, 28 November, 2011

    I'm using SQL developer 2.1.1 with a German OS (Win XP). This is not a matter of choice, my employer determines what language the OS uses and WinXP is not an OS for easily changing languages anyway.

    I checked the /bin subdirectory of my SQL dev installation and found an ide.conf but not sqldeveloper.conf. None-the-less ide.conf does contain several AddVMOption statements so I made the change as specified. No joy! It hasn't worked. That might be because I don't have the necessary language pack installed.

    ReplyDelete
  25. AnonymousMonday, 23 January, 2012

    Thank you! it works for me on V3.0.

    Frank from Montreal

    ReplyDelete
  26. AnonymousFriday, 24 February, 2012

    Many many thanks,
    Manuel from Spain

    ReplyDelete
  27. AnonymousWednesday, 14 March, 2012

    three years have been passed and still no preference option has been still added to change interface language quickly :-(

    Still googleing id required to solve this :-(

    Thanks for the info,
    Alfonso

    ReplyDelete
  28. Byte64Wednesday, 14 March, 2012

    I encourage everyone interested in this feature to cast their vote in the SQLDeveloper Feature request application:
    https://apex.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=43135:7:0::NO:RP,7:P7_ID:10821

    ReplyDelete
  29. ജിംWednesday, 21 March, 2012

    Thank You! It solved my problem.

    ReplyDelete
  30. MassimoFriday, 04 May, 2012

    Thanks, it worked great.

    Grazie!

    ReplyDelete
  31. AnonymousFriday, 14 September, 2012

    Thanks a lot. It worked .. bingo!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  32. AnonymousSaturday, 29 September, 2012

    thanks a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  33. CGabatWednesday, 12 December, 2012

    Grazie mille!!!

    I am still using a laptop ho comprato a Milano. It has its original Windows XP-Italian Home OS, since 2005.

    It is no wonder that SQLDeveloper comes with Italian flavor.

    Now, I am happy to have the English UI.

    Bravo, Flavio!

    ReplyDelete
  34. UnknownThursday, 28 February, 2013

    Very great. It's a relatively old topic but still very usefull. I'm from Brazil and changed the software language to spanish using this solution.
    Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  35. AnonymousWednesday, 20 March, 2013

    Thanks Flavio. You solved my problem!

    ReplyDelete
  36. AnonymousTuesday, 30 April, 2013

    Oh - am I the only one, where it does NOT work ...

    ReplyDelete
  37. HenningWednesday, 22 May, 2013

    4 years later and this posting is still the top Google hit for "oracle sql developer language". Thank you, very helpful!

    Over the SQL Developer versions however, the path of the sqldeveloper.conf has slightly changed; it's now at $installdir/sqldeveloper/bin

    ReplyDelete
  38. MünchenMonday, 12 August, 2013

    Even into spanish with "idioma sql developer" is the first a few months later!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  39. MaykonFriday, 17 January, 2014

    Thank you, In english is better.

    ReplyDelete
  40. AnonymousTuesday, 25 February, 2014

    Thank you. Very useful for me. Greetings from Spain.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Marco Oreste PogliaghiMonday, 19 January, 2015

    Hi Flavio just to thank you: I was searching exactly this information.
    marco

    ReplyDelete

I appreciate your comment however bear in mind that I might not have the time to reply soon.
Normally I do not reply to all comments but I am glad if you found something useful or if you learned something new, in that case I strongly encourage you to promote the article with the +1 google button.
Flavio