Creating and checking data with the JDBC Request TestStep

If you need a quick way to access and check external SQL-based data, the JDBC Request TestStep is a good place to start. The pro version of the JDBC Request TestStep adds ease-of-use functionality, which is useful for less technical users, but by no means essential if you have a reasonable grasp of SQL and aren't afraid to enter a JDBC connection string (URL). We'll concentrate on using the open source version here.

Getting ready

As the example for this recipe, we'll access a MySQL database, but any JDBC data source would work, although the SQL syntax may vary. To use the JDBC Request TestStep, the main things we'll need are:

• The database or access to it: If you don't already have MySQL, then download the latest version from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/mysql/. The installation instructions for each platform are also provided there.
• The JDBC driver: Please download the MySQL connector from http://dev.mysql...