Overview
This is an overview of all supported providers. You can connect to all of these and automate your tests against those data.
Most providers work out of the box; some need additional software — a driver or a redistributable — installed on the machine before CAT can use them. The Driver needed column says which ones, and the page of each provider describes what to install. This is a prerequisite of the provider, not of the CAT tool that runs the tests.
All providers can also serve test and data source definitions, with two exceptions: the tabular-model providers (Dax@1, Dax@2, PowerBI@1, PowerBI@2) — a DAX query returns column names in square brackets (Tests[Test name], [Test name]), which CAT does not match to property names — and Csv@2 and Excel@2, which will be addressed later.
All providers work when you use CAT on MS Windows platform. Those marked with Y were tested also on Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) with no issues found. Y 1 means they were not tested yet, but it is highly likely they work on Linux without problems, because they have no dependencies. “Later” means we’ll provide support for Linux if users will require that.
| Provider | What you can query | Driver needed | Linux | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ClickHouse@1 | ClickHouse server data | no | Y 1 | |
| Csv@1 | CSV files | no | Y 1 | Only very limited SQL constructs |
| Csv@2 | CSV files | no | Y | Advanced SQL, no driver needed. |
| Dax@2 | Tabular models (Power BI, SSAS) | no | Y | Requires queries in DAX / MDX, not SQL |
| Excel@1 | MS Excel xlsx files | no | Y 1 | Only very limited SQL constructs |
| Excel@2 | MS Excel xlsx files | no | Y | Advanced SQL, no driver needed |
| MySql@1 | data from any MySQL compatible DB | no | Y 1 | |
| Odbc@1 | data from an ODBC source | no | later | |
| Oracle@1 | data in ORACLE database | no | Y 1 | |
| Postgres@1 | data in PostgreSQL database | no | Y | |
| PowerBI@2 | Open Power BI desktop file | no | N | Microsoft does not support Power BI Desktop on Linux |
| Snowflake@1 | data in Snowflake | no | Y 1 | |
| SqlServer@2 | data in MS SQL Server database | no | Y | Newer driver, supports e.g., service principals |
| Teradata@1 | data in Teradata database | no | Y 1 | |
| Yaml@1 | data in YAML files | no | Y |
One provider serves many systems — SqlServer@2 connects to Azure SQL Database, Azure Synapse Analytics, MS Fabric Warehouse and Lakehouse and Dataverse as well as to MS SQL Server; anything with an ODBC driver, Databricks for one, goes through Odbc@1. The full list of what CAT can test, with the provider behind each, is on Technologies.
Legacy providers
Still accepted — an existing project file keeps working — but no longer maintained: no new features, no driver updates, and CAT Studio never proposes them. Each page opens with the same notice and names the replacement.
| Provider | Use instead | What you can query | Driver needed | Linux | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CsvOleDB@1 | Csv@2 — for test definitions Csv@1 | CSV files | yes | N | Advanced SQL, but driver needed. |
| Dax@1 | Dax@2 | Tabular models (Power BI, SSAS) | yes | later | Requires queries in DAX, not SQL |
| ExcelOleDB@1 | Excel@2 — for test definitions Excel@1 | MS Excel xlsx files | yes | N | Advanced SQL, driver needed |
| PowerBI@1 | PowerBI@2 | Open Power BI desktop file | yes | N | |
| SqlServer@1 | SqlServer@2 | data in MS SQL Server database | no | Y 1 | Built on System.Data.SqlClient, which Microsoft no longer develops. |