To further enhance developer productivity and simplify Oracle Database development, Oracle announced the availability of Oracle SQL Developer Release 2.1, the latest release of the free database development and migration tool.

Oracle SQL Developer Release 2.1 introduces two key capabilities - PL/SQL Unit Testing and Data Modeler Viewer - in addition to enhancements to the software overall.

The new unit-testing framework enables developers to build and share unit tests and test suites that can be run in batch mode and from command line against different databases. PL/SQL Unit Testing offers database developers prebuilt capabilities with which to develop and run regression tests for their database code, resulting in higher quality database development while reducing the need for writing scripts for unit testing.

The addition of PL/SQL Unit Testing sets Oracle SQL Developer apart from many other database development tools, according to Mike Hichwa, vice president of Software Development, Oracle. "We know virtually every Oracle Database customer uses PL/SQL, and having a robust unit testing framework will allow our customers to reduce cost and improve the quality of their releases."

Oracle SQL Developer Release 2.1 also features a Data Modeler Viewer, read-only access to the recently introduced Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler. This enables developers, data modelers, IT architects and others to use the tool to open and browse data models built with the standalone Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler as well as graphically view their schema objects by dragging tables onto a model diagram. A key benefit of the new Data Modeler Viewer feature of Oracle SQL Developer is that users can rely on this single tool to browse third-party database tables and their foreign key relationships on a diagram, and then use the tool to migrate data and objects to an Oracle Database-helping reduce the costs, effort and risks associated with moving third-party databases to Oracle.

This release also introduces Migration Workbench support for Teradata and IBM DB2 UDB for Linux, Unix and Windows.

Oracle SQL Developer Release 2.1 is downloadable from the Oracle Technology Network.