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

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

Connecting to ZenRows Data

Connecting to ZenRows 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.

Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the ZenRows Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\ZenRows.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for ZenRows (see below).

ZenRows API Profile Settings

To use the ZenRows API, you need to obtain an API key from your ZenRows account. Navigate to the ZenRows dashboard at app.zenrows.com and copy your API key from the account settings.

After setting the following connection properties, you are ready to connect:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your ZenRows API key.

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

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

Execute SQL to ZenRows

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 ProductId, ProductName FROM AmazonDiscovery WHERE Query = 'laptop'", 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 ZenRows data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.ProductId, y=df.ProductName, name='ProductId')

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='ZenRows AmazonDiscovery 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 ZenRows 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 ZenRows 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\ZenRows.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;ProfileSettings='APIKey=your_api_key';")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT ProductId, ProductName FROM AmazonDiscovery WHERE Query = 'laptop'", 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.ProductId, y=df.ProductName, name='ProductId')

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='ZenRows AmazonDiscovery Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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