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

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

Connecting to Zoho Books Data

Connecting to Zoho Books 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.

Zoho Books uses the OAuth authentication standard. To authenticate using OAuth, create an app to obtain the OAuthClientId, OAuthClientSecret, and CallbackURL connection properties. See the OAuth section of the Getting Started guide in the Help documentation for an authentication guide.

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=myOAuthClientSecret;CallbackURL=https://localhost:33333;OrganizationId=MyOrganizationId;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")")

Execute SQL to Zoho Books

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 InvoiceId, InvoiceNumber FROM INVOICES WHERE CustomerName = 'NewTech Industries'", 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-zohobooksedataplot'

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 Zoho Books data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.InvoiceId, y=df.InvoiceNumber, name='InvoiceId')

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='Zoho Books INVOICES 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 Zoho Books data.

python zohobooks-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

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

cnxn = mod.connect("OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=myOAuthClientSecret;CallbackURL=https://localhost:33333;OrganizationId=MyOrganizationId;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT InvoiceId, InvoiceNumber FROM INVOICES WHERE CustomerName = 'NewTech Industries'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-zohobooksdataplot'

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.InvoiceId, y=df.InvoiceNumber, name='InvoiceId')

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='Zoho Books INVOICES Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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