Use Dash to Build Web Apps on Salesforce Marketing Data via CData Connect AI

The rich ecosystem of Python modules lets you get to work quickly and integrate your systems more effectively. With the CData Connect AI Python SDK, the pandas module, and the Dash framework, you can build Salesforce Marketing-connected web applications for Salesforce Marketing data. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI and use pandas and Dash to build a simple web app for visualizing Salesforce Marketing data.

The Connect AI Python SDK (cdata-connect-ai) is a DB-API 2.0 (PEP 249) compliant client, so pandas can read query results directly from the SDK connection object. There is no driver to install per source: connect with a Personal Access Token and build your app.

Connect to Salesforce Marketing in Connect AI

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "Salesforce Marketing" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Salesforce Marketing.

   Authenticating to the Salesforce Marketing Cloud APIs

   Set the User and Password to your login credentials, or to the credentials for a sandbox user if you are connecting to a sandbox account.

   Connecting to the Salesforce Marketing Cloud APIs

   By default, the data provider connects to production environments. Set UseSandbox to true to use a Salesforce Marketing Cloud sandbox account.

   The default Instance is s7 of the Web Services API; however, if you use a different instance, you can set Instance.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab and update the user-based permissions.

Generate a Personal Access Token (PAT)

The Python SDK authenticates to Connect AI with your account email and a Personal Access Token (PAT). It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each application to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the Settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create.
4. The PAT is only visible at creation, so copy it and store it securely.

Install Required Modules

Install the SDK (with the pandas extra), Dash, and Plotly using the pip utility:

pip install "cdata-connect-ai[full]"
pip install dash
pip install plotly

Build a Web App on Salesforce Marketing Data in Python

Once the required modules are installed, you are ready to build the web app. Code snippets follow, but the full source code is available at the end of the article.

First, import the modules, then connect to Connect AI with your account email and PAT and read Salesforce Marketing data into a DataFrame. Identifiers are three-part: <Connection>.<Schema>.<Table>, where the connection name defaults to the source name (for example, SFMarketingCloud1).

import dash
from dash import dcc, html
import pandas as pd
import plotly.graph_objs as go
import cdata_connect_ai

conn = cdata_connect_ai.connect(
    username="[email protected]",
    password="<your_pat>",
)

df = pd.read_sql(
    "SELECT Id, Status "
    "FROM [SFMarketingCloud1].[SFMarketingCloud].[Subscriber] "
    "WHERE EmailAddress = '[email protected]'",
    conn,
)

conn.close()

Configure the App and Layout

With the query results stored in a DataFrame, build a bar graph from the Salesforce Marketing data and configure the app layout.

app = dash.Dash(__name__)
app.title = 'CData Connect AI + Dash'

trace = go.Bar(x=df['Id'], y=df['Status'], name='Id')

app.layout = html.Div(
    children=[
        html.H1("CData Connect AI + Dash", style={'textAlign': 'center'}),
        dcc.Graph(
            id='example-graph',
            figure={
                'data': [trace],
                'layout': go.Layout(title='Salesforce Marketing Subscriber Data', barmode='stack'),
            },
        ),
    ],
    className="container",
)

Set the App to Run

With the connection, app, and layout configured, you are ready to run the app.

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

Now, use Python to run the web app and a browser to view the Salesforce Marketing data.

python sfmarketingcloud-dash.py

More Information and Free Trial

Now you can build interactive Dash web apps on live Salesforce Marketing data using the CData Connect AI Python SDK. For more information on connecting to Salesforce Marketing (and hundreds of other data sources), visit the Connect AI page. Sign up for a free trial and start building web apps on live Salesforce Marketing data in Python.

Full Source Code

import dash
from dash import dcc, html
import pandas as pd
import plotly.graph_objs as go
import cdata_connect_ai

conn = cdata_connect_ai.connect(
    username="[email protected]",
    password="<your_pat>",
)

df = pd.read_sql(
    "SELECT Id, Status "
    "FROM [SFMarketingCloud1].[SFMarketingCloud].[Subscriber] "
    "WHERE EmailAddress = '[email protected]'",
    conn,
)

conn.close()

app = dash.Dash(__name__)
app.title = 'CData Connect AI + Dash'

trace = go.Bar(x=df['Id'], y=df['Status'], name='Id')

app.layout = html.Div(
    children=[
        html.H1("CData Connect AI + Dash", style={'textAlign': 'center'}),
        dcc.Graph(
            id='example-graph',
            figure={
                'data': [trace],
                'layout': go.Layout(title='Salesforce Marketing Subscriber Data', barmode='stack'),
            },
        ),
    ],
    className="container",
)

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