500k Installations of our Oracle Visual Studio Code Extension— What a Milestone!
Oracle Developer Tools for VS Code crosses the half million mark
We did it! The free Oracle Developer Tools for VS Code extension has just crossed the 500k installation mark! Yippee!
As you probably noticed, Visual Studio Code is everywhere! That open source IDE that runs on MacOS, Linux, Windows and web browser has over 14 million users and more than 40k extensions. These days you can do just about any type of coding from anywhere you want using VS Code. It is wildly popular with Python, Java, C# and, yes, Oracle developers like you.
Back in 2019 we heard this demand loud and clear and introduced the free Oracle Developer Tools for VS Code. This extension has tons of features, starting with editing and execution of SQL and PL/SQL for Oracle Database and Oracle Autonomous Database. We’ve been hard at work constantly adding features since then and we have lots more features planned for the year ahead.
Last week after we crossed 500k installations, the team took a moment to celebrate but then immediately turned our attention back to our 21.9 release which is coming out soon. You’ll see a blog from me very soon highlighting the new features in 21.9 so stay tuned.
We’ve been in constant communication with you on our Oracle Forums and working hard to implement the features you request (and of course, fix those pesky bugs you find). We hope you try out our extension and join us on the forum to help us keep making it better as we continue on our way to the one million mark!
Getting started?
If you are new to the extension, click the link at the top of the blog and try it out (or search for “Oracle Developer Tools for VS Code” in the VS Marketplace. There’s other similarly named extensions so check the name carefully. A good place to start is the Getting Started guide.
Check out my earlier blogs to see walkthroughs of various features, including PL/SQL Debugging (always a popular topic).
Here’s a video showing our extension in action in a Python and Oracle Database workflow:
Other features to check out (stolen from our feature summary on the Marketplace):
- Connect to Oracle Database and Oracle Autonomous Database using hostname/port/service name, aliases in a TNSNAMES.ORA file, connection strings, and more. Choose a default connection to make it easier when opening multiple SQL files. Organize connections by folder, workspace or user scopes.
- Create and manage Oracle Autonomous Databases (ADBs) using Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Explorer tree control. Create, start, stop and terminate ADB instances. Automatically create a walletless database connection or download credentials files.
- Oracle Database Explorer tree control: connect and explore Oracle schemas; show data for tables and views and save as CSV or JSON files; auto-generate CREATE, SELECT, INSERT, and DELETE statements for tables; view, edit, debug and save PL/SQL packages, procedures and functions. Run stored procedures and functions with a UI for entering parameter values. Use filters to limit the schema objects shown and to limit IntelliSense suggestions.
- Edit SQL and PL/SQL with support for hovering, Go to/Peek Definition, Go to/Peek Type Definition, Go to/Peek Implementation, and Go to/Peek/Find All References. The editor also features IntelliSense for autocompletion of schema object names, procedure/function parameters, and SQL*Plus commands. Navigate through large scripts using breadcrumbs. Format SQL and PL/SQL with a configurable formatter.
- Debug PL/SQL in stored procedures, functions, and packages using Visual Studio Code’s native debugging features. Compile PL/SQL for debugging, step into PL/SQL, and run to a breakpoint. Enable External Application Debugging to listen for and debug PL/SQL procedures and functions called by applications or SQL scripts.
- Execute SQL and PL/SQL and view and save results. View errors in the Problems panel and navigate to the line with the error. Enter bind and substitution variables into a dialog.
- Explain Plan and Execution Plan
- Use Real-Time SQL Monitoring to identify run-time performance problems with resource intensive and long-running SQL statements.
- View SQL command history and view and save SQL bookmarks
After you’ve played with it, join us on the Oracle Forums and let us know what you think! Have fun!
