Exporting and Importing Settings
Sometimes it may be necessary to migrate all your settings for DbVisualizer and import them in second DbVisualizer installation. This is very handy if you are migrating from one machine to another, or if you want to setup an exact copy on your home computer, or if you would like to share your settings with other users. Another key reason is for backup purposes. Loosing all database connection configurations can be really frustrating.
Export Settings
The Export Settings feature is available from the File->Export Settings main window menu choice.
The default settings ensures that all settings are exported, but you can selectively exclude certain items. Once you've made the adjustments you want, press OK and the settings will be saved in the specified file. The structure of this JAR file is the same as the content in your DbVisualizer preferences directory. Note that when you export a Connection it may be wise to export the Driver Definition it uses if you have some specific configurations done for the driver. This ensures that the connection works as specified (if Driver Definition is not exported, the import will try to assign a matching driver).
The Relative File Paths option will transform all path definitions in the exported file to be relative to the DbVisualizer installation directory and your personal settings directory. This is useful if you will import the settings on another machine or share it with other users. Note that the DbVisualizer version importing relative file paths must be 7.1 or later to work properly (importing in earlier versions than 7.1 will not fail but path information will be erroneous for things such as drivers, favorites, etc.)
If Master Password is enabled for DbVisualizer and passwords are not excluded in the export you must specify an export password. The export password is used to protect the passwords that are exported. This export password is used later when importing the settings.
You should not use your master password as the export password.
Import Settings
The Import Settings dialog is launched from the File->Import Settings main window menu choice.
Import Settings is used to import settings as previously exported with Export Settings. Import examines the content of the specified file and present the choices available.
Use the Import To list to set where the imported database connections will appear in the objects tree.
Note how some of the databases and folders are pre-selected. DBVisualizer will automatically pre-select databases and folders depending on differences between the current connection settings and the imported connection settings. In this example, the icon decorations for the pre-selected connections show that the Oracle connection already exist but the imported settings are different, and that the DbVisualizer Demo DB and MySQL 8 connections exists only in the imported settings. All the other connections exists with the same settings as in the imported settings.
If the imported data has been exported with an export password you will be prompted to enter it. You can optionally click Cancel to clear the passwords for all the connections.
Note: if the Driver Definition you import already exist, it will be reused and not imported.