Mike Benner

Severed The Cord Completely

Apr 12 by Michael Benner

That's right, I have officially gotten "Off The Windows". I had one program left that I was using in Parallels. Any guesses? Yup, the beast that is MS SQL 2005. While I have been making the move toward mySQL, legacy systems still need maintaining. So after digging around I found SQL Explorer for Eclipse. It took a bit to get it installed, so I am posting the steps here to help others looking to bring MS SQL into Eclipse.

First you need to download a few things to get prepared.

1. Eclipse 3.3.2
2. SQL Explorer Plugin (You can also use the Eclipse Update Site http://eclipsesql.sourceforge.net/, but it didn't work for me)
3. MSSQL 2005 JDBC 1.2

Install Eclipse by following the instructions provided.

Extract SQL Explorer and copy the contents of the plugins directory to the plugins directory of Eclipse and then repeat with the Features folder.

Next you will need Windows. Extract the JDBC drivers downloaded from MS (if you don't have access to Windows you can get the JDBC by clicking download at the bottom of this post). Copy sqljdbc.jar to the Eclipse/Plugins/net.sourceforge.sqlexplorer_X.X.X/libs folder.

Now open up Eclipse. Go to "Window->Preferences" and choose SQL Explorer from the list of options. Then JDBC Drivers. Click on Microsoft MS SQL JDBC Driver and select "Edit". Under "Extra Class Path" locate the sqljdbc.jar ou just copied to Eclipse and then click OK.

Now when you go to create a "New Connection" the MSSQL JDBC Driver will be available during configuration. The example path should be

That will do it. Now you can connect to your MSSQL servers, view your tables, schema, views and other import info as well as execute statement against it in the SQL Editor. So far this has worked great for me, the speed is good and the only thing lacking is the ability to "Design" and Inline Edit data in tables, but that is just me being lazy anyway.

Enjoy your "Windows Free" Mac, I know I am.

Here is the JDBC Jar

Comments (3)                | 854 Views | Tags: Mac OSX, SQL, Eclipse

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It's all lies! .. heh.. sorry to see you depart the Microsoft Brand.

# Posted By Scott Barnes | 4/13/08 1:30 AM

What about IE? I'm on mac too, except I need to test my apps in IE all the time.

# Posted By Ben | 4/13/08 1:10 PM

@Scott: Vista killed it professionally for me. But I still use Vista Ultimate with my 360's to power all the media at my house. So MS is now were Apple wanted to be and Apple is were MS wanted to be, kind of ironic really.

@Ben: I still have Parallels with XP, Vista and even Hardy Heron, but that is for replicating systems, bugs and testing. In my daily life I no longer need to boot up XP to do my primary function. I have not been in Windows for a week now and that is a good feeling.

Also, this post was not meant to bash MS. It was more about the freedom of not having to use multiple OSes to do my job. While I am a "Mac Fanboy" as stated above MS currently controls my music, tv, gaming, etc. A Vista Ultimate machine with 4 cable inputs feeding my whole house and I love it and think it runs rings around iTunes and AppleTV.

# Posted By Mike Benner | 4/13/08 3:08 PM

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