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

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

Connecting to SAP ByDesign Data

Connecting to SAP ByDesign 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.

Set the following connection properties to connect to SAP ByDesign.

• Url: Set this to the Url of your SAP ByDesign site. For example, https://test.sapbydesign.com
• User: Set this to the username of your account.
• Password: Set this to the password of your account.
• CustomService or AnalyticsService: Only one of these must be specified. If you have a custom service you want to retrieve data from, specify CustomService. If you want to retrieve the reports of a analytical service, specify AnalyticsService.
  If neither is specified, 'cc_home_analytics.svc' will used as a default for the AnalyticsService property. If you are not sure what service to specify, you can always query the Services view to list available services.

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("URL=https://my999999.sapbydesign.com;User=username;Password=password;CustomService=servicename;")

Execute SQL to SAP ByDesign

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 ID, ProductCategoryID FROM [Inventory Balance] WHERE ProductCategoryID = '1234567'", 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-sapbydesignedataplot'

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 SAP ByDesign data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.ID, y=df.ProductCategoryID, name='ID')

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='SAP ByDesign [Inventory Balance] 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 SAP ByDesign data.

python sapbydesign-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

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

cnxn = mod.connect("URL=https://my999999.sapbydesign.com;User=username;Password=password;CustomService=servicename;")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT ID, ProductCategoryID FROM [Inventory Balance] WHERE ProductCategoryID = '1234567'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-sapbydesigndataplot'

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.ID, y=df.ProductCategoryID, name='ID')

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='SAP ByDesign [Inventory Balance] Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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