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I have done quite a bit of traveling since October last year. Every other week or so I've been at a conference, training event, user group or special interest group. When I'm back at my desk, I spend a good chunk of time doing webcasts and demos for small groups of people. In all I have noticed that there are growing SQL Developer and Data Modeler audiences, which is great. What I've also found is that lots of folk are using a lot of the features and not investigating further to see what the product has to offer. For some time now Kris and I have discussed the need for a webcast series, where we'd demo features of the product, drilling down into different areas. Both SQL Developer and the Data Modeler audiences need this, so I'll be doing a monthly webcast, alternating between the two products, to show off some of the features, and to drill down into some specific details. I'll kick this series off with an overview of the Data Modeler (this month) and a review of the SQL Developer 2.1 new features, next month. After that we'll start drilling into more of the detail.

First Public Webcast

Here are the details:

17 March 2010
09:00 PST | 12:00 EST | 17:00 UCT | 18:00 CET

• Introducing the new webcast series
• Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler update
• Product Overview Demonstration
• Q&A

Duration:
One Hour

Audience:
This is general public webcast, designed for anyone interested in or using Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler

The details of this event will be announced on OTN next week. For more information on Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler see Oracle Technology Network: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/datamodeler

All calls are recorded and published on Oracle Technology Network.

The next webcast is scheduled as follows:
21-Apr-10: SQL Developer: SQL Developer 2.1 New Features, Q&A

We have just released the first patch release for SQL Developer 2.1. SQL Developer patch releases are full downloads and installs - see the release notes - we call them "patch releases" because they exist only to provide fixes to issues. Most of these are found and reported in the early adopter releases and did not make the production release, some were older issues and some found in the production release. A patch release is not a vehicle for introducing new functionality. As ever, not all bugs are addressed with a patch release and so you should look at the list of bugs fixed or the known issues to determined whether you need or want to make the switch.

There are new bits!
While a patch release is not for new functionality, there are quite a few little additions based on feature requests from the Exchange that have been included in the patch. I blogged about the Font setting earlier in the week, to name but one of these. Take a look at the Bugs Fixed list to see a few of the others. Alternative look at the Exchange and search on Fixed in 2.1.1 to see the new features added.

For links to the downloads, bugs fixes and known issue (listed in the release notes), see the OTN pages for SQL Developer.

In my next blog I'll tell you more about the updates on the Exchange. In the meantime, download and try out 2.1.1.

An ongoing request in SQL Developer is to have the ability to update the font size in a Data Grid. In the all the releases up to and including SQL Developer 2.1, you can't change the font in the data grid, you can control the full IDE font and the font for the editors, but that's it. Well SQL Developer 2.1.1 has an update to that.

I wrote about changing fonts when we first started SQL Developer, so I'm going to recap the functionality before adding the 2.1.1 tidbit.
The thing about the fonts in SQL Developer is that they essentially controlled through the underlying framework or IDE. (now more commonly referred to as the Fusion Client Platform). So to change the font for the full product, that is the Navigators, Menus, Dialogs and so on, you need to shutdown the product update the font for the IDE, which is locates the ide.properties file in the system folder.

This system folder is created the first time you start SQL Developer and, by default, is located in the C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\SQL Developer\system2.1.1.64.38\ folder. Once you have located your system folder, find the sub folder o.sqldeveloper.11.1.1.64.38 (this is the latest SQL Developer 2.1.1 patch, but you can browse the the version of the product you are working with). Edit the ide.properties file and uncomment the FontSize propert. So change
# Ide.FontSize=11 to your font size of choice, for example;

Ide.FontSize=16

Restart SQL Developer.

Notice that this does not affect the SQL Worksheet and Data Grids. Once you are back in SQL Developer select Tools > Preferences. Expand the Code Editor node in the tree and select Font. Changing this font setting increases the size of the font for any of the code editors. In SQL Developer 2.1.1, changing this font size also affect the output of the SQL Worksheet script output and the Data Grids.

Of course, there are lots of folk who just want the Editors and Data Grids to be resized, in which case, you don't need to edit the ide.properties file.

This has been a much request feature on our Exchange, I hope the update helps those of you who have been looking for this support.