How to use SQLAlchemy ORM to access WordPress Data in Python



Create Python applications and scripts that use SQLAlchemy Object-Relational Mappings of WordPress data.

The rich ecosystem of Python modules lets you get to work quickly and integrate your systems effectively. With the CData Python Connector for Wordpress and the SQLAlchemy toolkit, you can build WordPress-connected Python applications and scripts. This article shows how to use SQLAlchemy to connect to WordPress data to query, update, delete, and insert WordPress data.

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

Connecting to WordPress Data

Connecting to WordPress 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.

To connect to WordPress, set the URL property and other authentication properties. WordPress supports Basic (User and Password) and OAuth2.0 authentication, though Basic is recommended for a testing environment only. To connect with OAuth you will need to register an app with WordPress.

See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

Follow the procedure below to install SQLAlchemy and start accessing WordPress through Python objects.

Install Required Modules

Use the pip utility to install the SQLAlchemy toolkit and SQLAlchemy ORM package:

pip install sqlalchemy pip install sqlalchemy.orm

Be sure to import the appropriate modules:

from sqlalchemy import create_engine, String, Column from sqlalchemy.ext.declarative import declarative_base from sqlalchemy.orm import sessionmaker

Model WordPress Data in Python

You can now connect with a connection string. Use the create_engine function to create an Engine for working with WordPress data.

NOTE: Users should URL encode the any connection string properties that include special characters. For more information, refer to the SQL Alchemy documentation.

engine = create_engine("wordpress:///?Url=http://www.yourwordpresshost.com&InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH&OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt")

Declare a Mapping Class for WordPress Data

After establishing the connection, declare a mapping class for the table you wish to model in the ORM (in this article, we will model the Categories table). Use the sqlalchemy.ext.declarative.declarative_base function and create a new class with some or all of the fields (columns) defined.

base = declarative_base() class Categories(base): __tablename__ = "Categories" Id = Column(String,primary_key=True) Name = Column(String) ...

Query WordPress Data

With the mapping class prepared, you can use a session object to query the data source. After binding the Engine to the session, provide the mapping class to the session query method.

Using the query Method

engine = create_engine("wordpress:///?Url=http://www.yourwordpresshost.com&InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH&OAuthSettingsLocation=/PATH/TO/OAuthSettings.txt") factory = sessionmaker(bind=engine) session = factory() for instance in session.query(Categories).filter_by(Id="1"): print("Id: ", instance.Id) print("Name: ", instance.Name) print("---------")

Alternatively, you can use the execute method with the appropriate table object. The code below works with an active session.

Using the execute Method

Categories_table = Categories.metadata.tables["Categories"] for instance in session.execute(Categories_table.select().where(Categories_table.c.Id == "1")): print("Id: ", instance.Id) print("Name: ", instance.Name) print("---------")

For examples of more complex querying, including JOINs, aggregations, limits, and more, refer to the Help documentation for the extension.

Insert WordPress Data

To insert WordPress data, define an instance of the mapped class and add it to the active session. Call the commit function on the session to push all added instances to WordPress.

new_rec = Categories(Id="placeholder", Id="1") session.add(new_rec) session.commit()

Update WordPress Data

To update WordPress data, fetch the desired record(s) with a filter query. Then, modify the values of the fields and call the commit function on the session to push the modified record to WordPress.

updated_rec = session.query(Categories).filter_by(SOME_ID_COLUMN="SOME_ID_VALUE").first() updated_rec.Id = "1" session.commit()

Delete WordPress Data

To delete WordPress data, fetch the desired record(s) with a filter query. Then delete the record with the active session and call the commit function on the session to perform the delete operation on the provided records (rows).

deleted_rec = session.query(Categories).filter_by(SOME_ID_COLUMN="SOME_ID_VALUE").first() session.delete(deleted_rec) session.commit()

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData Python Connector for Wordpress to start building Python apps and scripts with connectivity to WordPress data. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.

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