Data Providers
A “Data Provider” designates the specific database, file-type, or other data source that Mercury can use to retrieve data for your reports. When you create a Connection to a particular data source, you choose the Data Provider. See Admin > Connections for complete details about Connections.
Mercury has an actively expanding list of supported data providers. Check with your IT Administrator to confirm that your data provider is supported or to make arrangements for Mercury to include it in a future release..
Below is a list of data providers currently supported.
- Actian - originally known as Btrieve, then Pervasive/P-SQL, and currently Actian/Zen, this is a transactional SQL database platform. It is used by Sage 50 Accounting (formerly Peachtree).
- Business Central – for connecting to Dynamics 365 Business Central Online. (You’ll need to know your Microsoft TenantID and your BC Environment-name.)
- Crystal - for running Crystal Reports from within Mercury. When installing Mercury, be sure to check the box that says, “Include support for Crystal Reports”. If you forget to do that, you can re-run the installation.
- Folder Datasource - Gathers data from multiple text files. Uses a hierarchy of folders to represent data tables. Each folder can contain multiple data files. If new files appear over time, they are automatically incorporated into the "tables". So, for example, one of your company's divisions might deposit a new CSV data file every month, and it would seamlessly become part of your data. (Since each folder represents a "table", all files within a given folder must have the same structure.) See also "Text File Source" below.
- MySQLClient - for MySQL / MariaDB.
- ODBC - any ODBC-compliant data source. You must have the appropriate ODBC drivers installed on your PC.
- SqlClient - for Microsoft SQL Server.
- SQLite - for SQLite databases. The "demo" reports distributed with Mercury use SQLite, and the drivers are automatically included with the Mercury installation.
- SSRS - for running SQL Server Reporting Services reports from within Mercury.
- Text File Source - Multiple files in a folder are treated as a “database”, with each data-file acting like a “table”. Using standard SQL, you can write relational queries that join these files. You can also create a query that produces more than one result, allowing you to create master/detail reports based on your text files.
The main differences between "Text File Source" and "Folder Datasource":
- In the Text File Source, only one Folder is involved, and the file structures don't have to be the same.
- The Text File Source only knows about the files you describe. If a new file (with a different name) shows up in the folder, it will NOT automatically be recognized.
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