Use Dash to Build to Web Apps on Short.io Data

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

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

Connecting to Short.io Data

Connecting to Short.io 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 API Key Authentication

Short.io uses API Key authentication. To obtain your API key:

1. Log in to your Short.io account
2. Navigate to Settings > Integrations & API > API
3. Click Create API Key and copy your API key

After obtaining the API key, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your Short.io API key obtained from Settings > Integrations & API > API.

Example connection string:

Profile=C:\profiles\ShortIo.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';

Available Tables

The Short.io profile provides access to the following tables:

• Domains - Short.io domains associated with the authenticated account
• Links - Short links for a domain
• LinkExpand - Expand a short link by domain and path
• LinksByOriginalUrl - Retrieve multiple short links matching a given original destination URL
• Folders - Link folders within a specific domain
• LinkPermissions - Permission records for a specific link within a domain
• CountryTargeting - Country-based redirect targeting rules for a specific short link
• RegionTargeting - Region-based redirect targeting rules for a specific short link
• Regions - List of available regions/states for a given country code
• DomainStatistics - Aggregated click and traffic statistics for a Short.io domain
• LinkStatistics - Aggregated click and traffic statistics for a specific Short.io link

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("Profile=C:\profiles\ShortIo.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';")

Execute SQL to Short.io

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 ,  FROM Domains WHERE  = ''", 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-apiedataplot'

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 Short.io data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df., y=df., 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='Short.io Domains 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 Short.io data.

python api-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData API Driver for Python to start building Python apps with connectivity to Short.io 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.api as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

cnxn = mod.connect("Profile=C:\profiles\ShortIo.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT ,  FROM Domains WHERE  = ''", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-apidataplot'

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., y=df., 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='Short.io Domains Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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