How to Visualize SAP Netweaver Gateway Data in Python with pandas

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 Netweaver Gateway, the pandas & Matplotlib modules, and the SQLAlchemy toolkit, you can build SAP Netweaver Gateway-connected Python applications and scripts for visualizing SAP Netweaver Gateway data. This article shows how to use the pandas, SQLAlchemy, and Matplotlib built-in functions to connect to SAP Netweaver Gateway data, execute queries, and visualize the results.

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

Connecting to SAP Netweaver Gateway Data

Connecting to SAP Netweaver Gateway 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.

SAP Gateway allows both basic and OAuth 2.0 authentication. You can use basic authentication to connect to your own account, or you can use OAuth to enable other users to retrieve data from your service with their accounts. In addition to authenticating, set the following connection properties to access SAP Gateway tables.

• Url: Set this to the URL of your environment, or to the full URL of the service. For example, the full URL might appear as: https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com/sap/opu/odata/IWBEP/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/. In this example, the environment URL would just be: https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com.
• Namespace: Set the appropriate Service Namespace. In the example above, IWBEP is the namespace. It is optional if the full URL to the service is specified.
• Service: Set this to the service you want to retrieve data from. In the example above, the service is GWSAMPLE_BASIC. It is not required if the full URL is specified.

Authenticate via Basic Authentication

In basic authentication, you use your login credentials to connect. Set the following properties:

• User: This is the username you use to log in to SAP Gateway.
• Password: This is the password you use to log in to SAP Gateway.

Authenticate via OAuth Authentication

You can connect to SAP Gateway using the embedded OAuth connectivity (without setting any additional authentication connection properties). When you connect, the OAuth endpoint opens in your browser. Log in and grant permissions to complete the OAuth process. See the OAuth section in the online Help documentation for more information on other OAuth authentication flows.

Follow the procedure below to install the required modules and start accessing SAP Netweaver Gateway through Python objects.

Install Required Modules

Use the pip utility to install the pandas & Matplotlib modules and the SQLAlchemy toolkit:

pip install pandas
pip install matplotlib
pip install sqlalchemy

Be sure to import the module with the following:

import pandas
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from sqlalchemy import create_engine

Visualize SAP Netweaver Gateway Data in Python

You can now connect with a connection string. Use the create_engine function to create an Engine for working with SAP Netweaver Gateway data.

engine = create_engine("sapgateway:///?User=user&Password=password&URL=https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com/sap/opu/odata/IWBEP/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/&InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH&OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")

Execute SQL to SAP Netweaver Gateway

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

df = pandas.read_sql("SELECT ProductID, Quantity FROM SalesOrderLineItems WHERE Quantity = '15'", engine)

Visualize SAP Netweaver Gateway Data

With the query results stored in a DataFrame, use the plot function to build a chart to display the SAP Netweaver Gateway data. The show method displays the chart in a new window.

df.plot(kind="bar", x="ProductID", y="Quantity")
plt.show()

Free Trial & More Information

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

Full Source Code

import pandas
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from sqlalchemy import create_engin

engine = create_engine("sapgateway:///?User=user&Password=password&URL=https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com/sap/opu/odata/IWBEP/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/&InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH&OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")
df = pandas.read_sql("SELECT ProductID, Quantity FROM SalesOrderLineItems WHERE Quantity = '15'", engine)

df.plot(kind="bar", x="ProductID", y="Quantity")
plt.show()