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

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

Connecting to ShipStation Data

Connecting to ShipStation 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.

Use the BASIC Authentication standard to connect.

1. Login to your ShipStation account
2. Click on the settings icon in the upper right corner. A column menu will show up on the left
3. Click Account -> API Settings
4. On the API Settings page, note the API Key and API Secret.

Authenticating to ShipStation

• APIKey: Set this to the API key from the API settings page.
• APISecret: Set this to the Secret key from the API settings page.

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("APIKey='YourAPIKey';APISecret='YourAPISecret'")

Execute SQL to ShipStation

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 Id, Color FROM Tags WHERE CustomerId = '1368175'", 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-shipstationedataplot'

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 ShipStation data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.Id, y=df.Color, name='Id')

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='ShipStation Tags 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 ShipStation data.

python shipstation-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

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

cnxn = mod.connect("APIKey='YourAPIKey';APISecret='YourAPISecret'")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT Id, Color FROM Tags WHERE CustomerId = '1368175'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-shipstationdataplot'

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.Id, y=df.Color, name='Id')

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='ShipStation Tags Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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