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

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

Connecting to CockroachDB Data

Connecting to CockroachDB 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.

Set the following to connect to CockroachDB.

• Server: The host name or IP address of the server.
• Port: The port number of the CockroachDB server. If not specified, the default port is 26257.
• Database: The name of the Cockroach database. If not specified, you connect to the user's default database.
• User: The Cockroach DB user account used to authenticate.
• Password: The password used to authenticate the user.

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("User=root;Password=root;Database=system;Server=localhost;Port=26257")

Execute SQL to CockroachDB

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 ShipName, ShipCity FROM Orders WHERE ShipCountry = '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-cockroachdbedataplot'

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 CockroachDB data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.ShipName, y=df.ShipCity, name='ShipName')

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='CockroachDB Orders 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 CockroachDB data.

python cockroachdb-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

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

cnxn = mod.connect("User=root;Password=root;Database=system;Server=localhost;Port=26257")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT ShipName, ShipCity FROM Orders WHERE ShipCountry = 'USA'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-cockroachdbdataplot'

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.ShipName, y=df.ShipCity, name='ShipName')

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='CockroachDB Orders Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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