Use Dash to Build to Web Apps on Dynamics 365 Business Central 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 Dynamics 365 Business Central, the pandas module, and the Dash framework, you can build Dynamics 365 Business Central-connected web applications for Dynamics 365 Business Central data. This article shows how to connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central with the CData Connector and use pandas and Dash to build a simple web app for visualizing Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

With built-in, optimized data processing, the CData Python Connector offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data in Python. When you issue complex SQL queries from Dynamics 365 Business Central, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Dynamics 365 Business Central and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Connecting to Dynamics 365 Business Central Data

Connecting to Dynamics 365 Business Central 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.

To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must provide the User and AccessKey properties.

To obtain the User and AccessKey values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the User and AccessKey connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

To connect to data, specify OrganizationUrl. If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the Company to indicate which company you would like to connect to. Company does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

After installing the CData Dynamics 365 Business Central Connector, follow the procedure below to install the other required modules and start accessing Dynamics 365 Business Central 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 Dynamics 365 Business Central 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.d365businesscentral as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

You can now connect with a connection string. Use the connect function for the CData Dynamics 365 Business Central Connector to create a connection for working with Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

cnxn = mod.connect("OrganizationUrl=https://myaccount.financials.dynamics.com/;")

Execute SQL to Dynamics 365 Business Central

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 accountid, Name FROM Accounts WHERE Name = 'MyAccount'", 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-d365businesscentraledataplot'

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 Dynamics 365 Business Central data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.accountid, y=df.Name, name='accountid')

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='Dynamics 365 Business Central Accounts 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 Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

python d365businesscentral-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData Python Connector for Dynamics 365 Business Central to start building Python apps with connectivity to Dynamics 365 Business Central 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.d365businesscentral as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

cnxn = mod.connect("OrganizationUrl=https://myaccount.financials.dynamics.com/;")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT accountid, Name FROM Accounts WHERE Name = 'MyAccount'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-d365businesscentraldataplot'

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.accountid, y=df.Name, name='accountid')

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='Dynamics 365 Business Central Accounts Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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