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

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

Connecting to Sage Cloud Accounting Data

Connecting to Sage Cloud Accounting 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.

You can connect to Sage Business Cloud Accounting using the embedded OAuth connectivity. When you connect, the OAuth endpoint opens in your browser. Log in and grant permissions to complete the OAuth process. See the OAuth section in the online Help documentation for more information on other OAuth authentication flows.

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")")

Execute SQL to Sage Cloud Accounting

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 contact_name, total_amount FROM SalesInvoices WHERE sent = 'TRUE'", 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-sagebcaccountingedataplot'

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 Sage Cloud Accounting data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.contact_name, y=df.total_amount, name='contact_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='Sage Cloud Accounting SalesInvoices 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 Sage Cloud Accounting data.

python sagebcaccounting-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData Python Connector for Sage Cloud Accounting to start building Python apps with connectivity to Sage Cloud Accounting 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.sagebcaccounting as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

cnxn = mod.connect("InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH;OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT contact_name, total_amount FROM SalesInvoices WHERE sent = 'TRUE'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-sagebcaccountingdataplot'

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.contact_name, y=df.total_amount, name='contact_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='Sage Cloud Accounting SalesInvoices Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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