Look and Feel
Customizing SQL Developer
In addition to the standard Look and Feels shipped with your Java Runtime Environment SQL Developer supports pluggable 3rd party Look and Feels. The following section presents a selection of Look and Feels that can be used with SQL Developer.
If a 3rd party Look and Feel archive provides services information SQL Developer automatically registers all Look and Feels contained in that archive.
If an archive does not support automatic registration you must specify the Look and Feel class names manually. Change to the services folder in the plugins directory and open the javax.swing.LookAndFeel file. Specify one class name per line. Usually you can find the class name information in the Look and Feel vendor's documentation.
After restarting SQL Developer you can activate the new installed Look and Feels using the Appearance tab in the Settings dialog.
- JGoodies Looks
- Metouia
- Kunststoff
- Office 2003, Office XP & Visual Studio 2005
- PGS
- Alloy (commercial)
- Synthetica (requires Java 5)
- Other Look and Feels
JGoodies Looks
The JGoodies Windows Look&Feel focuses on a precise emulation on Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000 in the following areas: menus, icons, colors, borders, fonts, font sizes, insets and widget dimensions.
It honors the screen resolution (96dpi vs. 120 dpi) to adjust sizes, insets, and widget dimensions.
Installation
Copy the JAR file to the plugins folder.
Metouia
Metouia is an enhanced Metal Look&Feel with a tuned color theme, different control borders and a slight usage of gradients as known from the Kunststoff Look&Feel.
Installation
Copy the JAR file to the plugins folder and append the following line to the javax.swing.LookAndFeel file in the plugins/services folder:
net.sourceforge.mlf.metouia.MetouiaLookAndFeel
Kunststoff
The Kunststoff Look&Feel is an extension to the the Metal Look&Feel. This makes it very compact in size and ensures that all the great features provided by the Metal Look&Feel do not get lost.
Installation
Copy the JAR file to the plugins folder and append the following line to the javax.swing.LookAndFeel file in the plugins/services folder:
com.incors.plaf.kunststoff.KunststoffLookAndFeel
Office 2003, Office XP & Visual Studio 2005
The OfficeLnFs project provides three different Look and Feels known from the following Microsoft applications: Office 2003, Office XP and Visual Studio 2005.
Note: In order to use these Look and Feels, your application must be running on a Windows system.
Installation
Copy the JAR file to the plugins folder and append the following lines to the javax.swing.LookAndFeel file in the plugins/services folder:
org.fife.plaf.Office2003.Office2003LookAndFeel org.fife.plaf.OfficeXP.OfficeXPLookAndFeel org.fife.plaf.VisualStudio2005.VisualStudio2005LookAndFeel
PGS
The PgsLookAndFeel is a nice looking Look and Feel for Swing.
It aims be a very modern cross-platform LookAndFeel with nice features and much interaction for users.
Installation
Copy the JAR file to the plugins folder and append the following line to the javax.swing.LookAndFeel file in the plugins/services folder:
com.pagosoft.plaf.PgsLookAndFeel
Alloy (commercial)
The Alloy Look and Feel is a commercial Look and Feel and tries to close the gap to the latest native GUIs without sacrificing performance or functionality.
Installation
Copy the JAR file to the plugins folder and append the following line to the javax.swing.LookAndFeel file in the plugins/services folder:
com.incors.plaf.alloy.AlloyLookAndFeel
Synthetica (requires Java 5)
Installation
Copy the JAR file to the plugins folder and append the following line to the javax.swing.LookAndFeel file in the plugins/services folder:
de.javasoft.plaf.synthetica.SyntheticaStandardLookAndFeel
Other Look and Feels
More look and feels can be found at www.javootoo.com.