How can I change the language (to english) in Oracle SQL Developer?

139
votes

I am running a non-english Windows 7 system, and apparently Oracle SQL Developer (version 3.0.04.34, 64-bit) tries to auto-guess my preferred language based on the OS. Is there any way to change the language to english?

I've tried the tip found at http://misteratmisis.com/infotech/how-change-oracle-sql-developer-interface-japanese-english, namely adding the VM options

AddVMOption -Duser.language=en
AddVMOption -Duser.country=US

to file ide.conf in directory

/ide/bin

within the SQL Developer installation directory, as suggested, but that didn't help.

Solution (edited on 13.09.2012):

I decided to try again the solution proposed by Alex K. and this time it worked, namely adding

AddVMOption  -Duser.language=en

to the file sqldeveloper.conf file located in sqldeveloper\bin\ folder. I presume that it did work now but not before, because meanwhile I have changed my UAC (user access control) settings in Windows 7 so that I am administrator by default. What happened before was probably that even though the changes appeared to be there, the configuration file read by the program was another one (shadow copy).

Solution for Mac OS X (added on 26.02.2016):

Edit file at

/Applications/SQLDeveloper.app/Contents/Resources/sqldeveloper/sqldeveloper/bin/sqldeveloper.conf

and add the line

AddVMOption  -Duser.language=en

(Tested with SQL Developer 4.1.3.20)

7
configurationoracle-sqldeveloper
Apparently somebody voted to close this as off-topic. I considered briefly asking this at superuser.com, but as Oracle SQL Developer is a tool primarily used by developers I think this question is most relevant here. As stated in SO FAQ, questions about "software tools commonly used by programmers" should be welcome on SO, so I can't imagine this question being off-topic. However, if this question could be improved I welcome any suggestions. – simon
it worked like a breeze! simon you are da man! – Pierluigi Vernetto
Adding: AddVMOption -Duser.language=en to file: /ide/bin did not work for me either until I started sqldeveloper with administrator rights. – Piotr

7 Answers

147
votes

Try to set user.language and user.country properties in sqldeveloper.conf file located in sqldeveloper\bin folder (%APPDATA%\sqldeveloper\<version>\product.conf for more recent versions) .
Sample for set french language:

IncludeConfFile ../../ide/bin/ide.conf

SetJavaHome D:\jdk1.6.0_25

AddVMOption  -Doracle.ide.util.AddinPolicyUtils.OVERRIDE_FLAG=true

AddVMOption -Dsun.java2d.ddoffscreen=false

AddVMOption -Dwindows.shell.font.languages=
AddVMOption -Duser.language=fr
AddVMOption -Duser.country=FR
AddVMOption  -XX:MaxPermSize=128M

AddVMOption -Doracle.jdbc.mapDateToTimestamp=false  
IncludeConfFile  sqldeveloper-nondebug.conf

To switch off language try to remove its support by editing oracle.translated.locales option in ide.boot file (located in ide\bin folder).
For example, if I want to 'break' french language support this option will be:

oracle.translated.locales = de,es,it,ja,ko,pt_BR,zh_CN,zh_TW

The original value was:

oracle.translated.locales = de,fr,es,it,ja,ko,pt_BR,zh_CN,zh_TW

The configuration above (sqldeveloper.conf file) will be wrong after remove french support and the french language does not appear as GUI localization.

75
votes

You can also set language at runtime

sqldeveloper.exe --AddVMOption=-Duser.language=en

to avoid editing sqldeveloper.conf every time you install new version.

46
votes

You can also configure directly on the file ..sqldeveloper\ide\bin\ide.conf:

Just add the JVM Option:

AddVMOption -Duser.language=en

The file will be like this:

enter image description here

6
votes

Or use the menu: Tools->Preferences->Database->NLS and change language and territory. enter image description here

5
votes

With SQL Developer 4.x, the language option is to be added to ..\sqldeveloper\bin\sqldeveloper.conf, rather than ..\sqldeveloper\bin\ide.conf:

# ----- MODIFICATION BEGIN -----
AddVMOption -Duser.language=en
# ----- MODIFICATION END -----
4
votes

Before installation use the Control Panel Region and Language Preferences tool to change everything (Format, Keyboard default input, language for non Unicode programs) to English. Revert to the original selections after the installation.

0
votes

On MAC High Sierra (10.13.6)

cd /Users/vkrishna/.sqldeveloper/18.2.0

nano product.conf

on the last line add

AddVMOption -Duser.language=en

Save the file and restart.

=======================================

If you are using standalone Oracle Data Modeller

find ~/ -name "datamodeler.conf"

and edit this file

cd /Users/vkrishna//Desktop/OracleDataModeler-18.2.0.179.0756.app/Contents/Resources/datamodeler/datamodeler/bin/

Add somewhere in the last 

AddVMOption -Duser.language=en

save and restart, done!