How to Visualize Browserless Data in Python with pandas

The rich ecosystem of Python modules lets you get to work quickly and integrate your systems more effectively. With the CData API Driver for Python, the pandas & Matplotlib modules, and the SQLAlchemy toolkit, you can build Browserless-connected Python applications and scripts for visualizing Browserless data. This article shows how to use the pandas, SQLAlchemy, and Matplotlib built-in functions to connect to Browserless data, execute queries, and visualize the results.

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

Connecting to Browserless Data

Connecting to Browserless 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.

Browserless uses HTTP API token authentication. Your Browserless API token is sent as the token query parameter on every request. You can generate or view your token in the Browserless dashboard at https://account.browserless.io/.

Using ApiKey Authentication

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your Browserless API token.

Example connection string:

Profile=C:\profiles\Browserless.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings="ApiKey=your_api_token";

Follow the procedure below to install the required modules and start accessing Browserless through Python objects.

Install Required Modules

Use the pip utility to install the pandas & Matplotlib modules and the SQLAlchemy toolkit:

pip install pandas
pip install matplotlib
pip install sqlalchemy

Be sure to import the module with the following:

import pandas
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from sqlalchemy import create_engine

Visualize Browserless Data in Python

You can now connect with a connection string. Use the create_engine function to create an Engine for working with Browserless data.

engine = create_engine("api:///?Profile=C:\profiles\Browserless.apip&AuthScheme=APIKey&ProfileSettings="ApiKey=your_api_token"")

Execute SQL to Browserless

Use the read_sql function from pandas to execute any SQL statement and store the resultset in a DataFrame.

df = pandas.read_sql("SELECT ,  FROM Map WHERE Url = 'https://www.example.com'", engine)

Visualize Browserless Data

With the query results stored in a DataFrame, use the plot function to build a chart to display the Browserless data. The show method displays the chart in a new window.

df.plot(kind="bar", x="", y="")
plt.show()

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData API Driver for Python to start building Python apps and scripts with connectivity to Browserless data. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.

Full Source Code

import pandas
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from sqlalchemy import create_engin

engine = create_engine("api:///?Profile=C:\profiles\Browserless.apip&AuthScheme=APIKey&ProfileSettings="ApiKey=your_api_token"")
df = pandas.read_sql("SELECT ,  FROM Map WHERE Url = 'https://www.example.com'", engine)

df.plot(kind="bar", x="", y="")
plt.show()