Connect to Oracle

Add Oracle's JDBC driver once, then connect with an Easy Connect URL that names the database service.

Driver	Not bundled: download Oracle's JDBC driver JAR and copy it into `drivers`.
Type to choose in `ADD CONNECTION` or `CONFIG`	`Oracle`
URL format	`jdbc:oracle:thin:@//<host>:<port>/<service name>`
Example	`jdbc:oracle:thin:@//dbhost:1521/orclpdb.example.com`
Where the URL format comes from	Oracle JDBC Developer's Guide: Data Sources and URLs, checked October 17, 2026
Verified with BroadSQL	Not verified with BroadSQL by the BroadSQL team: the URL format comes from Oracle's documentation.

Steps

Download the Oracle JDBC driver from Oracle's JDBC downloads page (choose a JAR for your Java version; BroadSQL runs on Java 21) and copy it into drivers. Restart BroadSQL.
SHOW DRIVERS; must list the Oracle driver.
ADD CONNECTION FIN_QA; (or CONFIG; on Windows), type Oracle, URL jdbc:oracle:thin:@//dbhost:1521/orclpdb.example.com, then your Oracle user and password.
PING FIN_QA;, then CONNECT FIN_QA;.

Service name (recommended): jdbc:oracle:thin:@//<host>:<port>/<service name>, the Easy Connect form of Oracle's documentation. Ask your DBA for the service name; it is not always the database name.
TNS alias: jdbc:oracle:thin:@<alias>?TNS_ADMIN=<folder of tnsnames.ora> uses an entry of your tnsnames.ora file.
Encryption (TCPS) and other forms: see Oracle's Data Sources and URLs, which also lists which older forms are deprecated.

A DDL statement (CREATE, ALTER, DROP) commits the open transaction on Oracle. In a Production Environment, the confirmation question says so.
BroadSQL asks Oracle whether changes are pending through DBMS_TRANSACTION. An account without access to it gets a warning when the connection closes; the changes are rolled back, as on every database.
SET PASSWORD does not change an Oracle password: change it in Oracle, then update BroadSQL with EDIT CONNECTION.
To work in another schema than the login user's, add ALTER SESSION SET CURRENT_SCHEMA=<schema> to the connection's login script (ADD LOGIN SCRIPT LINE, or the Login Scripts tab of CONFIG). Unqualified table names then refer to that schema in SQL, DESCR and the other metadata commands. COMPARE TABLE STRUCTURE ... WITH <connection> runs the login script of the other connection too, so an unqualified name is looked up in each connection's own schema; qualify it (TOTO.COMPONENT) to compare one given schema on both sides.

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