I am now experiencing the same issue though for JDeveloper. The simplier question is how to import external jar files into your project. There is an additional step that just importing the jar files into the library. For JDeveloper, you are required to assign the Library (which contains the jar files) to the project.

Go to:
Tools -- Manage Libraries...

You will then be presented with a new window entitled 'Manage Libraries'

On the left-hand side, click on the User folder to highlight it, then click new... thus opening a new window.

Provide the library with a name of your choice then click highlight Class Path and then click on the Add Entry... button.

Select all the external jars you wish to include and click OK

Once you've done that, you will see the external jars associated to your Library (in my example, I have selected 3 jar files).

Click Ok to return to the 'manager Libraries' screen and click OK

Within your JDeveloper IDE, right click on your project and click on Project Properties. Click on Libraries and Classpath, then click on add library... and select the library.

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