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

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

Connecting to SharePoint Data

Connecting to SharePoint 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 URL property to the base SharePoint site or to a sub-site. This allows you to query any lists and other SharePoint entities defined for the site or sub-site.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid SharePoint user credentials when using SharePoint On-Premise.

If you are connecting to SharePoint Online, set the SharePointEdition to SHAREPOINTONLINE along with the User and Password connection string properties. For more details on connecting to SharePoint Online, see the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("User=myuseraccount;Password=mypassword;Auth Scheme=NTLM;URL=http://sharepointserver/mysite;SharePointEdition=SharePointOnPremise;")

Execute SQL to SharePoint

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 Name, Revenue FROM MyCustomList WHERE Location = 'Chapel Hill'", 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-sharepointedataplot'

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 SharePoint data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.Name, y=df.Revenue, name='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='SharePoint MyCustomList 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 SharePoint data.

python sharepoint-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

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

cnxn = mod.connect("User=myuseraccount;Password=mypassword;Auth Scheme=NTLM;URL=http://sharepointserver/mysite;SharePointEdition=SharePointOnPremise;")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT Name, Revenue FROM MyCustomList WHERE Location = 'Chapel Hill'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-sharepointdataplot'

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.Name, y=df.Revenue, name='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='SharePoint MyCustomList Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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