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

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

Connecting to Azure DevOps Data

Connecting to Azure DevOps 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.

Obtaining a Personal Access Token

To generate one, log in to your Azure DevOps Organization account and navigate to Profile -> Personal Access Tokens -> New Token. The generated token will be displayed.

If you wish to authenticate to Azure DevOps using OAuth refer to the online Help documentation for an authentication guide.

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("AuthScheme=Basic;Organization=MyAzureDevOpsOrganization;ProjectId=MyProjectId;PersonalAccessToken=MyPAT;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")")

Execute SQL to Azure DevOps

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, BuildNumber FROM Builds WHERE Reason = 'Manual'", 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-azuredevopsedataplot'

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 Azure DevOps data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.Id, y=df.BuildNumber, 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='Azure DevOps Builds 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 Azure DevOps data.

python azuredevops-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

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

cnxn = mod.connect("AuthScheme=Basic;Organization=MyAzureDevOpsOrganization;ProjectId=MyProjectId;PersonalAccessToken=MyPAT;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT Id, BuildNumber FROM Builds WHERE Reason = 'Manual'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-azuredevopsdataplot'

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.BuildNumber, 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='Azure DevOps Builds Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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