Database connections

By configuring a database connection, you can create database queries and add them as steps in your mabl tests. This article explains how to:

• Connect to a database
• Add an environment override
• Delete a database connection

Supported database types

mabl supports connections to the following database types:

• MySQL
• Microsoft SQL Server
• PostgreSQL
• MariaDB
• MongoDB
• Oracle

If your team has a use case that requires connecting to a different database type, let us know in the mabl Product Portal.

Connect to a database

Before adding a connection, gather the properties required to connect to your database. Typically, this information takes the form of a connection string, also known as a URI or URL, that contains the connection properties, including the IP address of the host or server, the port number, database name, username, and password.

To add a new database connection, go to Configuration > Database connections in the mabl app. Click on + Create database connection to get started.

Sample database connection

Give your database connection a name, and select the database type. In the Connection properties section, enter the information from your database’s connection string in the corresponding field:

• Hostname/IP: for Microsoft SQL server, this may include an instance name, such as hostnameSQLEXPRESS
• Port: mabl automatically populates the default port number for the selected database type, but you can update this value as needed.
• Database name: this may be referred to as the “Service Name” or “SID” in Oracle, or the “authentication database” in MongoDB
• Credential: for extra security, we recommend saving the username and password as cloud credentials.
• mabl Link Agent override: optional setting to configure a connection to an internal database

Advanced connection properties

MongoDB databases

For MongoDB databases, you may configure the following optional connection properties:

• Authentication source - specify an alternate authentication database to use when opening the connection.
• Authentication mechanism - specify the authentication mechanism method to use for connection to the server.
• Use mongodb+srv connection protocol - use mongodb+src:// instead of the default mongodb:// connection protocol
• Use direct connection - force dispatch all operations to the host specified in the connection URI

Learn more about MongoDB connection options here.

Microsoft SQL Server databases

If your database queries require mabl Link to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server hosted in Azure Cloud, make sure the Azure SQL Server connection is set to proxy.

Add an environment override

If your team manages similar or identically structured databases in different environments, you can configure connection properties for specific environments by adding environment overrides.

• When a test containing a database query step is run in an environment that you have added as an override, the step will use the connection properties defined in the associated environment override.
• When that same step is run in an environment that is not configured as an environment override, it will use the default connection properties.

For example, you could configure your default connection properties to your dev database and add environment overrides for staging and production. If the test runs in your staging or production environment, it uses the connection properties defined in the associated environment overrides. If the test runs in any other environment besides staging or production, it defaults to your dev database.

To add an environment override, select the environment that should use different connection properties and click on + Add environment override.

Configuring an environment override

Enter the connection properties required for the database. If it is a private database, make sure to use mabl Link or allowlist IPs to ensure mabl can access the database.

Click on Test connection to check the connection.

Delete a database connection

Click on the trash icon to remove a database connection.