Database Edition Role

It's been a busy week, and I haven't had time to write about comparing and merging offline database schemas as promised.  I'll try to get to that next week.  In the meantime, here's a handy tip:

When JDeveloper starts up for the first time you will see a role selection dialog.  If you're just using the product for database development, then choose the "Database Edition" role.  This just loads the extensions that you will need for working with databases.  With this role selected the tool will start up faster and take up less memory.

You can also change the role by going to Tools > Preferences and selecting the Role:

Note that if you change the role, JDeveloper will need to restart.