Connecting MySQL Database to SQL Developer

If you're one of those few people struggling to connect MySQL database (local or remote) to SQL*Developer, then this post is for you.

Step 1: Download the connector from Oracle/MySQL website.

Here is a link to the connector. You can actually download without registering on the website (MySQL allows this). However, if you are already a registered Oracle user, your credentials are also useable on this website.

Step 2: Locate the "jar" file

After the download, click on "Run" and the jar file will be automatically placed in the MySQL folder under Program Files directory.

Look under

C:\Program Files (x86)\MySQL



jar file is C:\Program Files(x86)\MySQL\MySQLConnectorJ\mysql-conector-java-5.1.28-bin.jar

Step 3: launch SQL Developer



Step 4: Configure the connector

The first step here is to click on "Tools" under the main menu



Second step is to click on "preferences"



Third step is to click on "database" and select "Third Party JDBC Driver"



Click on "Add entry" and locate the jar file in "C:\Program Files(x86)\MySQL\MySQLConnectorJ\mysql-conector-java-5.1.28-bin.jar"

Click "OK"

From the main page, click on the connect icon.

Step 5: Click on the "connect" icon (in green) and fill in the required login information


Connection name: Any name you want to call the connection
Username: This is the user account on the MySQL server, i.e. root ('root'@'localhost')
Password: user's password
Hostname: you can leave this as localhost or replace with the name of the host server. If this is a remote server, replace with IP address or hostname of the remote server.
Port: Leave this as 3306 (default). If your port number has been changed from default, you can replace with the value


Step 6: Connect to MySQL database


You can "Test Connection" before you save the credentials.

Thanks for reading and happy 2014!