Use Dash to Build to Web Apps on Microsoft Dataverse Data

The rich ecosystem of Python modules lets you get to work quickly and integrate your systems more effectively. With the CData Python Connector for Microsoft Dataverse, the pandas module, and the Dash framework, you can build Microsoft Dataverse-connected web applications for Microsoft Dataverse data. This article shows how to connect to Microsoft Dataverse with the CData Connector and use pandas and Dash to build a simple web app for visualizing Microsoft Dataverse data.

With built-in, optimized data processing, the CData Python Connector offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Microsoft Dataverse data in Python. When you issue complex SQL queries from Microsoft Dataverse, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Microsoft Dataverse and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Connecting to Microsoft Dataverse Data

Connecting to Microsoft Dataverse data looks just like connecting to any relational data source. Create a connection string using the required connection properties. For this article, you will pass the connection string as a parameter to the create_engine function.

You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. Below are the minimum connection properties required to connect.

• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
• OrganizationUrl: Set this to the organization URL you are connecting to, such as https://myorganization.crm.dynamics.com.
• Tenant (optional): Set this if you wish to authenticate to a different tenant than your default. This is required to work with an organization not on your default Tenant.

When you connect the Common Data Service OAuth endpoint opens in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions. The OAuth process completes automatically.

After installing the CData Microsoft Dataverse Connector, follow the procedure below to install the other required modules and start accessing Microsoft Dataverse through Python objects.

Install Required Modules

Use the pip utility to install the required modules and frameworks:

pip install pandas
pip install dash
pip install dash-daq

Visualize Microsoft Dataverse Data in Python

Once the required modules and frameworks are installed, we are ready to build our web app. Code snippets follow, but the full source code is available at the end of the article.

First, be sure to import the modules (including the CData Connector) with the following:

import os
import dash
import dash_core_components as dcc
import dash_html_components as html
import pandas as pd
import cdata.cds as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

You can now connect with a connection string. Use the connect function for the CData Microsoft Dataverse Connector to create a connection for working with Microsoft Dataverse data.

cnxn = mod.connect("OrganizationUrl=https://myaccount.crm.dynamics.com/InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")")

Execute SQL to Microsoft Dataverse

Use the read_sql function from pandas to execute any SQL statement and store the result set in a DataFrame.

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT AccountId, Name FROM Accounts WHERE Name = 'MyAccount'", cnxn)

Configure the Web App

With the query results stored in a DataFrame, we can begin configuring the web app, assigning a name, stylesheet, and title.

app_name = 'dash-cdsedataplot'

external_stylesheets = ['https://codepen.io/chriddyp/pen/bWLwgP.css']

app = dash.Dash(__name__, external_stylesheets=external_stylesheets)
app.title = 'CData + Dash'

Configure the Layout

The next step is to create a bar graph based on our Microsoft Dataverse data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.AccountId, y=df.Name, name='AccountId')

app.layout = html.Div(children=[html.H1("CData Extension + Dash", style={'textAlign': 'center'}),
	dcc.Graph(
		id='example-graph',
		figure={
			'data': [trace],
			'layout':
			go.Layout(title='Microsoft Dataverse Accounts Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

Set the App to Run

With the connection, app, and layout configured, we are ready to run the app. The last lines of Python code follow.

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run_server(debug=True)

Now, use Python to run the web app and a browser to view the Microsoft Dataverse data.

python cds-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData Python Connector for Microsoft Dataverse to start building Python apps with connectivity to Microsoft Dataverse data. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.

Full Source Code

import os
import dash
import dash_core_components as dcc
import dash_html_components as html
import pandas as pd
import cdata.cds as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

cnxn = mod.connect("OrganizationUrl=https://myaccount.crm.dynamics.com/InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT AccountId, Name FROM Accounts WHERE Name = 'MyAccount'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-cdsdataplot'

external_stylesheets = ['https://codepen.io/chriddyp/pen/bWLwgP.css']

app = dash.Dash(__name__, external_stylesheets=external_stylesheets)
app.title = 'CData + Dash'
trace = go.Bar(x=df.AccountId, y=df.Name, name='AccountId')

app.layout = html.Div(children=[html.H1("CData Extension + Dash", style={'textAlign': 'center'}),
	dcc.Graph(
		id='example-graph',
		figure={
			'data': [trace],
			'layout':
			go.Layout(title='Microsoft Dataverse Accounts Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app.run_server(debug=True)