After an Autonomous Database has been created, the first step toward developing applications that use the database is to define the database structure.

In general, you define the structure of the database in one of two ways:

• Manually "from scratch"

  You use a database tool like Oracle SQL Developer or SQL*Plus to connect to the database and define the database's tables, views, triggers, types, sequences and so on. For information about various tools you can use and how to connect them to an Autonomous Database, see Oracle Tools for Database Access.

• By loading structure (and data) from an existing Oracle Database

  You use Oracle Data Pump to export from an existing Oracle Database, upload the export files to cloud storage, and then import the uploaded files into the Autonomous Database. For detailed instructions, see Load Data Using Oracle Data Pump.

Regardless of which technique you use, you should review Oracle Database Features in Dedicated Autonomous Database Deployments to learn about using Oracle Database features and options in Autonomous Databases.