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

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

Connecting to SAP Ariba Source Data

Connecting to SAP Ariba Source 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.

In order to connect with SAP Ariba Source, set the following:

• API: Specify which API you would like the provider to retrieve SAP Ariba data from. Select the Supplier, Sourcing Project Management, or Contract API based on your business role (possible values are SupplierDataAPIWithPaginationV4, SourcingProjectManagementAPIV2, or ContractAPIV1).
• DataCenter: The data center where your account's data is hosted.
• Realm: The name of the site you want to access.
• Environment: Indicate whether you are connecting to a test or production environment (possible values are TEST or PRODUCTION).

If you are connecting to the Supplier Data API or the Contract API, additionally set the following:

• User: Id of the user on whose behalf API calls are invoked.
• PasswordAdapter: The password associated with the authenticating User.

If you're connecting to the Supplier API, set ProjectId to the Id of the sourcing project you want to retrieve data from.

Authenticating with OAuth

After setting connection properties, you need to configure OAuth connectivity to authenticate.

• Set AuthScheme to OAuthClient.
• Register an application with the service to obtain the APIKey, OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret.

  For more information on creating an OAuth application, refer to the Help documentation.

Automatic OAuth

After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

APIKey: The Application key in your app settings. OAuthClientId: The OAuth Client Id in your app settings. OAuthClientSecret: The OAuth Secret in your app settings.

When you connect, the provider automatically completes the OAuth process:

1. The provider obtains an access token from SAP Ariba and uses it to request data.
2. The provider refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.
3. The OAuth values are saved in memory relative to the location specified in OAuthSettingsLocation.

After installing the CData SAP Ariba Source Connector, follow the procedure below to install the other required modules and start accessing SAP Ariba Source 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 SAP Ariba Source 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.saparibasource as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

You can now connect with a connection string. Use the connect function for the CData SAP Ariba Source Connector to create a connection for working with SAP Ariba Source data.

cnxn = mod.connect("API=SupplierDataAPIWithPagination-V4;APIKey=wWVLn7WTAXrIRMAzZ6VnuEj7Ekot5jnU;Environment=SANDBOX;Realm=testRealm;AuthScheme=OAuthClient;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")")

Execute SQL to SAP Ariba Source

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 SMVendorID, Category FROM Vendors WHERE Region = 'USA'", 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-saparibasourceedataplot'

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 SAP Ariba Source data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.SMVendorID, y=df.Category, name='SMVendorID')

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='SAP Ariba Source Vendors 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 SAP Ariba Source data.

python saparibasource-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData Python Connector for SAP Ariba Source to start building Python apps with connectivity to SAP Ariba Source 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.saparibasource as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

cnxn = mod.connect("API=SupplierDataAPIWithPagination-V4;APIKey=wWVLn7WTAXrIRMAzZ6VnuEj7Ekot5jnU;Environment=SANDBOX;Realm=testRealm;AuthScheme=OAuthClient;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT SMVendorID, Category FROM Vendors WHERE Region = 'USA'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-saparibasourcedataplot'

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.SMVendorID, y=df.Category, name='SMVendorID')

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='SAP Ariba Source Vendors Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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