The daily toolkit
Beyond Oracle’s own tools, experienced Oracle Cloud PaaS developers rely on a specific set of utilities that dramatically improve productivity.
Postman
Already covered in detail elsewhere, but worth naming as the single most important external tool. Every Oracle Cloud developer should have:
- A Fusion REST API collection with pre-configured OAuth
- Environment files for each client environment
- Saved requests for frequently-used endpoints (worker lookup, PO status check, etc.)
The team should maintain a shared Postman workspace so everyone benefits from each other’s saved requests.
SQL Developer (Oracle-provided, free)
For working with ATP databases, stored procedures, and debugging SQL:
- Database browser: explore Fusion ATP schema objects
- PL/SQL debugger: step through stored procedures with breakpoints
- Execution plan viewer: optimise slow queries
- Data export: extract results to CSV/Excel for analysis
Bruno (modern Postman alternative)
An open-source API client that stores collections as plain text files in your Git repository — unlike Postman, collections are directly version-controlled without sync dependencies.
Oracle Cloud Shell
A browser-based Linux terminal in OCI console. Useful for:
- OCI CLI commands without local installation
- Quick file operations on Object Storage
- Testing connectivity from inside OCI network
XSLT fiddle tools
OIC’s XSLT mapper can be hard to debug visually. Use online XSLT testing tools (e.g. xsltfiddle.liberty-development.net) to test your transformation logic with sample XML before embedding in OIC — much faster iteration.
Notepad++ with Oracle syntax
For editing SQL and PL/SQL outside SQL Developer. Notepad++ with the Oracle SQL language definition provides syntax highlighting, bracket matching, and multi-line editing that’s faster for quick edits than SQL Developer.
Google Sheets for data mapping
For documenting field mappings between source and target systems, Google Sheets beats Word tables. Columns: Source System, Source Field, Source Type, Target System, Target Field, Target Type, Transformation Logic, Notes. Shareable with clients for review and approval.
Chrome DevTools for VBCS
The Network tab and Console are your primary VBCS debugging tools. Bookmark the DevTools shortcut (F12). The Application tab shows local storage where VBCS stores some state. The Performance tab profiles slow page renders.
Timer and time tracking
Consulting rates are often hourly. Use any time tracker (Toggl, Clockify, or a simple spreadsheet) to log time per integration/feature. Accurate time logs enable better project estimates on future work.