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

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

Connecting to Epicor Kinetic Data

Connecting to Epicor Kinetic 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 successfully connect to your ERP instance, you must specify the following connection properties:

• Url:the URL of the server hosting your ERP instance. For example, https://myserver.EpicorSaaS.com
• ERPInstance: the name of your ERP instance.
• User: the username of your account.
• Password: the password of your account.
• Service: the service you want to retrieve data from. For example, BaqSvc.

In addition, you may also set the optional connection properties:

• ApiKey: An optional key that may be required for connection to some services depending on your account configuration.
• ApiVersion: Defaults to v1. May be set to v2 to use the newer Epicor API.
• Company: Required if you set the ApiVersion to v2.

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("Service=Erp.BO.CustomerSvc;ERPInstance=MyInstance;URL=https://myaccount.epicorsaas.com;User=username;Password=password;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")")

Execute SQL to Epicor Kinetic

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 CustNum, Company FROM Customers WHERE CompanyName = 'CompanyName'", 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-epicorkineticedataplot'

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 Epicor Kinetic data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.CustNum, y=df.Company, name='CustNum')

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='Epicor Kinetic Customers 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 Epicor Kinetic data.

python epicorkinetic-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

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

cnxn = mod.connect("Service=Erp.BO.CustomerSvc;ERPInstance=MyInstance;URL=https://myaccount.epicorsaas.com;User=username;Password=password;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT CustNum, Company FROM Customers WHERE CompanyName = 'CompanyName'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-epicorkineticdataplot'

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.CustNum, y=df.Company, name='CustNum')

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='Epicor Kinetic Customers Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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