SQLDeveloper Data Modeler is now production

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

Just a "quickie" to let you know that as of today you can download SQLDeveloper Data Modeler tool release 2.0.0.57.0.

After installing as suggested on the official page, in case you are running the tool on Mac OS X, you might get the following java exceptions:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: Bad version number in .class file
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:675)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:124)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:260)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:56)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:195)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:188)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:316)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:280)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:251)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(ClassLoader.java:374)

This means that your current java environment does not point to a supported JDK version, as it was in my case.
The current JDK version is pointed to by a link, as detailed below:

cd System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.Framework/Versions
ls -l

lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    5 Jul  1 08:52 1.3 -> 1.3.1
drwxr-xr-x  3 root  wheel  102 Sep 29  2007 1.3.1
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    5 Jul  1 08:52 1.4 -> 1.4.2
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    3 Jul 22  2008 1.4.1 -> 1.4
drwxr-xr-x  8 root  wheel  272 Aug 28  2007 1.4.2
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    5 Jul  1 08:52 1.5 -> 1.5.0
drwxr-xr-x  8 root  wheel  272 Aug 28  2007 1.5.0
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    5 Jul  1 08:52 1.6 -> 1.6.0
drwxr-xr-x  8 root  wheel  272 Jul 22  2008 1.6.0
drwxr-xr-x  8 root  wheel  272 Jul  1 08:52 A
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    1 Jul  1 08:52 Current -> A
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel    3 Jul  1 08:52 CurrentJDK -> 1.5

Note that you can change the current JDK pointer by using the Java Preferences utility, found in the Utilities folder:


i preferred to update the jdk.conf file located in my home directory with the following text:

System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.Framework/Versions/1.6.0/Home

instead of changing the current JDK pointer (just in case something else stops working...), but may be this is not the optimal solution or you have a newer version, so check out which version applies to your specific case, at any rate it must be 1.6 or better. You can navigate to the folder /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions and find out which versions are currently installed on your Mac.

Thereafter i was able to run SQLDeveloper Data Modeler by executing:

sh datamodeler.sh from the datamodeler folder.
I haven't investigated yet if i can start the modeler from withing SQLDeveloper as it was suggested some time ago.

Hope it helps

Updated July 2: According to Roel, SQLDeveloper Data Modeler requires a license for professional use.
Indeed if you carefully read the license agreement from start to end, you'll see significant differences compared to SQL Developer, one of the most significant being that one cannot use the product for internal development unless a valid license is purchased first.

See other articles about SQLDeveloper.