How to use SQLAlchemy ORM to access Outlook Data in Python

The rich ecosystem of Python modules lets you get to work quickly and integrate your systems effectively. With the CData API Driver for Python and the SQLAlchemy toolkit, you can build Outlook-connected Python applications and scripts. This article shows how to use SQLAlchemy to connect to Outlook data to query Outlook data.

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

Connecting to Outlook Data

Connecting to Outlook 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.

Using OAuth Authentication

Microsoft Graph API uses OAuth 2.0 for authentication. You must register an application in the Microsoft Azure Portal to obtain OAuth credentials (Client ID and Client Secret).

Obtaining OAuth Credentials

1. Log in to the Azure Portal.
2. Navigate to Azure Active Directory > App registrations.
3. Click New registration to create a new application.
4. Enter an application name and select the appropriate account types.
5. Set the Redirect URI to your application's callback URL (e.g., http://localhost:33333 for desktop apps).
6. Click Register to create the application.
7. On the application overview page, copy the Application (client) ID - this is your OAuthClientId.
8. Navigate to Certificates & secrets and create a new client secret.
9. Copy the client secret value - this is your OAuthClientSecret.
10. Navigate to API permissions and add the required Microsoft Graph API permissions:
    • Mail.Read - For accessing email messages
    • Contacts.Read - For accessing contacts
    • Calendars.Read - For accessing calendar events
    • Tasks.Read - For accessing To Do tasks
    • offline_access - For obtaining refresh tokens
11. Click Grant admin consent to grant these permissions.

Connecting with OAuth

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

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. The CData API Profile for Outlook will automatically walk through the OAuth process in order to obtain the access token.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to the Application (client) ID from Azure Portal.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret value from Azure Portal.
• TenantId: Set this to your Azure AD tenant identifier (GUID or domain name like 'contoso.onmicrosoft.com').
• CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app registration (e.g., http://localhost:33333 for desktop apps).

Example connection string

Profile=C:\profiles\Outlook.apip;AuthScheme=OAuth;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthClientId=your_client_id;OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret;TenantId=your_tenant_id;CallbackUrl=http://localhost:33333;

Follow the procedure below to install SQLAlchemy and start accessing Outlook through Python objects.

Install Required Modules

Use the pip utility to install the SQLAlchemy toolkit and SQLAlchemy ORM package:

pip install sqlalchemy
pip install sqlalchemy.orm

Be sure to import the appropriate modules:

from sqlalchemy import create_engine, String, Column
from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base
from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker

Model Outlook Data in Python

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

NOTE: Users should URL encode the any connection string properties that include special characters. For more information, refer to the SQL Alchemy documentation.

engine = create_engine("api:///?Profile=C:\profiles\Outlook.apip&AuthScheme=OAuth&InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH&OAuthClientId=your_client_id&OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret&TenantId=your_tenant_id&CallbackUrl=http://localhost:33333")

Declare a Mapping Class for Outlook Data

After establishing the connection, declare a mapping class for the table you wish to model in the ORM (in this article, we will model the CalendarGroupCalendars table). Use the sqlalchemy.ext.declarative.declarative_base function and create a new class with some or all of the fields (columns) defined.

base = declarative_base()
class CalendarGroupCalendars(base):
	__tablename__ = "CalendarGroupCalendars"
	 = Column(String,primary_key=True)
	 = Column(String)
	...

Query Outlook Data

With the mapping class prepared, you can use a session object to query the data source. After binding the Engine to the session, provide the mapping class to the session query method.

Using the query Method

engine = create_engine("api:///?Profile=C:\profiles\Outlook.apip&AuthScheme=OAuth&InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH&OAuthClientId=your_client_id&OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret&TenantId=your_tenant_id&CallbackUrl=http://localhost:33333")
factory = sessionmaker(bind=engine)
session = factory()
for instance in session.query(CalendarGroupCalendars).filter_by(CalendarGroupId="group_id"):
	print(": ", instance.)
	print(": ", instance.)
	print("---------")

Alternatively, you can use the execute method with the appropriate table object. The code below works with an active session.

Using the execute Method

CalendarGroupCalendars_table = CalendarGroupCalendars.metadata.tables["CalendarGroupCalendars"]
for instance in session.execute(CalendarGroupCalendars_table.select().where(CalendarGroupCalendars_table.c.CalendarGroupId == "group_id")):
	print(": ", instance.)
	print(": ", instance.)
	print("---------")

For examples of more complex querying, including JOINs, aggregations, limits, and more, refer to the Help documentation for the extension.

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 Outlook data. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.