Use Dash to Build to Web Apps on Exact Online 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 Exact Online, the pandas module, and the Dash framework, you can build Exact Online-connected web applications for Exact Online data. This article shows how to connect to Exact Online with the CData Connector and use pandas and Dash to build a simple web app for visualizing Exact Online data.

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

Connecting to Exact Online Data

Connecting to Exact Online 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.

Exact Online uses the OAuth authentication standard. You can use the embedded OAuth credentials or you can register an OAuth app with Exact to obtain your own. In addition to the OAuth values, provide the Region. If Division is not set, the default Division is determined.

See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for more information.

After installing the CData Exact Online Connector, follow the procedure below to install the other required modules and start accessing Exact Online 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 Exact Online 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.exactonline as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

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

cnxn = mod.connect("Region='United States';Division=5512;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")")

Execute SQL to Exact Online

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 Name, CreditLinePurchase FROM Accounts WHERE IsCompetitor = 'False'", 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-exactonlineedataplot'

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 Exact Online data and configure the app layout.

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

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='Exact Online 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 Exact Online data.

python exactonline-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData Python Connector for Exact Online to start building Python apps with connectivity to Exact Online 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.exactonline as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

cnxn = mod.connect("Region='United States';Division=5512;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT Name, CreditLinePurchase FROM Accounts WHERE IsCompetitor = 'False'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-exactonlinedataplot'

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.Name, y=df.CreditLinePurchase, name='Name')

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='Exact Online Accounts Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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