SQL Developer objects not showing DDL

Question

Greetings! First time posting here on the Oracle forums, so hopefully I can be as specific as possible :)
I'm having an issue with displaying the SQL that makes up an object, specifically a VIEW.
Here is the scenario:
I log on as an IT user - WDSQUERY (this account can be used my multiple folks for querying in different schemas). I navigate down to other users and expand that node. I find the schema I want to use, ALCHEMY, and expand that node.
It now places me in the ALCHEMY realm we'll call it. I should be able to see all the different objects owned by this schema (assuming permissions are set up). I click on the 'VIEWS' node to expand all the view objects. I can see the data and columns. What I cannot see is the SQL that generates that view, and I have no idea why.
Co-worker of mine uses Toad, and he can do the exact same scenario (same user id, goes to same schema, etc.), however when he clicks on the 'Script' tab, it will generate the SQL that builds that view. Which leads me to believe this isn't a permission issue, because he's on the exact same user_ID.
Is there some option I don't have checked somewhere in SQL Developer? The current work around for this is that I simply query the DBA_VIEWS where owner = 'ALCHEMY', and then pull out the name/text of the view I want. But....still this is just one of those things I want to know why it isn't working.
Here are the little ORA codes I'm getting when trying to view the SQL code of the VIEW:
ORA-31603: object "PO_LINE" of type VIEW not found in schema "ALCHEMY"
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_SYS_ERROR", line 105
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_METADATA", line 2806
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_METADATA", line 4333
ORA-06512: at line 1
Any help would be GREATYLY appreciated!

Answer 1

Hi,
If you can see the objects in the 'Other Users' schema, then I would imagine your user_ID has the SELECT ANY DICTIONARY system privilege. Seeing the data and DDL requires additional privileges, however. I haven't looked deeply enough to be absolutely sure, but there are two or three methods that SQL Developer uses:
1) If you have SELECT ON <other user_ID>.<viewname> object privilege, then you can see both data and DDL.
2) Otherwise if you have EXECUTE ON DBMS_METADATA you can see the DDL (except it may depend on other privileges too(?)).
Sorry I don't have time to dig deeper into DBMS_METADATA. It works on some of my connection users but not others. And, of course, privileges like SELECT ON DBA_VIEWS always give one an unfair advantage.
Hope this helps,
Gary Graham
SQL Developer Team