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

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

Connecting to Microsoft Exchange Data

Connecting to Microsoft Exchange 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.

Specify the User and Password to connect to Exchange. Additionally, specify the address of the Exchange server you are connecting to and the Platform associated with the server.

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("User='myUser@mydomain.onmicrosoft.com';Password='myPassword';Server='https://outlook.office365.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx';Platform='Exchange_Online';")

Execute SQL to Microsoft Exchange

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 GivenName, Size FROM Contacts WHERE BusinnessAddress_City = 'Raleigh'", 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-exchangeedataplot'

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 Microsoft Exchange data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.GivenName, y=df.Size, name='GivenName')

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='Microsoft Exchange Contacts 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 Microsoft Exchange data.

python exchange-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

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

cnxn = mod.connect("User='myUser@mydomain.onmicrosoft.com';Password='myPassword';Server='https://outlook.office365.com/EWS/Exchange.asmx';Platform='Exchange_Online';")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT GivenName, Size FROM Contacts WHERE BusinnessAddress_City = 'Raleigh'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-exchangedataplot'

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.GivenName, y=df.Size, name='GivenName')

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='Microsoft Exchange Contacts Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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