Use Dash to Build to Web Apps on Dotmailer Data

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

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

Connecting to Dotmailer Data

Connecting to Dotmailer 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.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the Dotmailer Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\Dotmailer.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Dotmailer (see below).

Dotmailer API Profile Settings

Create an API user in the Dotdigital platform under Setup > Access > API Users > New User. Your RegionId can be found in your account URL (e.g.,

r1

r1.dotdigitalgroup.com

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("Profile=C:\profiles\Dotmailer.apip;ProfileSettings='User=your_api_username;Password=your_api_password;RegionId=your_region_id';")

Execute SQL to Dotmailer

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 Name, Type FROM Account WHERE Type = 'ApiUserRecord'", 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-apiedataplot'

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 Dotmailer data and configure the app layout.

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

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='Dotmailer Account 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 Dotmailer data.

python api-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData API Driver for Python to start building Python apps with connectivity to Dotmailer 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.api as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

cnxn = mod.connect("Profile=C:\profiles\Dotmailer.apip;ProfileSettings='User=your_api_username;Password=your_api_password;RegionId=your_region_id';")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT Name, Type FROM Account WHERE Type = 'ApiUserRecord'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-apidataplot'

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

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='Dotmailer Account Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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