Use Dash to Build to Web Apps on Workable Data

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Create Python applications that use pandas and Dash to build Workable-connected web apps.

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 Workable-connected web applications for Workable data. This article shows how to connect to Workable with the CData Connector and use pandas and Dash to build a simple web app for visualizing Workable data.

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

Connecting to Workable Data

Connecting to Workable 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

Workable uses API key authentication to control access to the API. To obtain an API Key:

  1. Log in to your Workable account.
  2. Navigate to Settings > Integrations > API Access Tokens.
  3. Click "Generate API Token".
  4. Copy the generated token.

After obtaining your API Key, set the following connection properties:

  • AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
Set the following in the ProfileSettings connection property:
  • APIKey: Set this to your Workable API Key.
  • Subdomain: Set this to your Workable account subdomain. For example, if your Workable URL is acmeinc.workable.com, then the Subdomain is 'acmeinc'.

Example Connection String

Profile=C:\profiles\Workable.apip;ProfileSettings='AuthScheme=APIKey;APIKey=my_api_key;Subdomain=acmeinc';

After installing the CData Workable Connector, follow the procedure below to install the other required modules and start accessing Workable 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 Workable 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 Workable Connector to create a connection for working with Workable data.

cnxn = mod.connect("Profile=C:\profiles\Workable.apip;ProfileSettings='AuthScheme=APIKey;APIKey=my_api_key;Subdomain=acmeinc';")

Execute SQL to Workable

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 Accounts 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 Workable 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='Workable Accounts 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 Workable 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 Workable 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\Workable.apip;ProfileSettings='AuthScheme=APIKey;APIKey=my_api_key;Subdomain=acmeinc';")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT ,  FROM Accounts 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='Workable Accounts Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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

Ready to get started?

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