How to Visualize ConstantContact Data in Python with pandas

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 & Matplotlib modules, and the SQLAlchemy toolkit, you can build ConstantContact-connected Python applications and scripts for visualizing ConstantContact data. This article shows how to use the pandas, SQLAlchemy, and Matplotlib built-in functions to connect to ConstantContact data, execute queries, and visualize the results.

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

Connecting to ConstantContact Data

Connecting to ConstantContact 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 ConstantContact Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\ConstantContact.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for Profile (see below).

ConstantContact API Profile Settings

ConstantContact uses OAuth-based authentication.

First, you will need to register an OAuth application with ConstantContact. You can do so from the ConstantContact API Guide (https://v3.developer.constantcontact.com/api_guide/index.html), under "MyApplications" > "New Application". Your Oauth application will be assigned a client id (API Key) and you can generate a client secret (Secret).

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

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuth.
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to manage the process to obtain the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to the client_id that is specified in you app settings.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client_secret that is specified in you app settings.
• CallbackURL: Set this to the Redirect URI you specified in your app settings.

Follow the procedure below to install the required modules and start accessing ConstantContact through Python objects.

Install Required Modules

Use the pip utility to install the pandas & Matplotlib modules and the SQLAlchemy toolkit:

pip install pandas
pip install matplotlib
pip install sqlalchemy

Be sure to import the module with the following:

import pandas
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from sqlalchemy import create_engine

Visualize ConstantContact Data in Python

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

engine = create_engine("api:///?Profile=C:\profiles\ConstantContact.apip&Authscheme=OAuth&OAuthClientId=your_client_id&OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret&CallbackUrl=your_callback_url")

Execute SQL to ConstantContact

Use the read_sql function from pandas to execute any SQL statement and store the resultset in a DataFrame.

df = pandas.read_sql("SELECT Id, EmailAddress FROM Contacts WHERE CompanyName = 'Acme, Inc.'", engine)

Visualize ConstantContact Data

With the query results stored in a DataFrame, use the plot function to build a chart to display the ConstantContact data. The show method displays the chart in a new window.

df.plot(kind="bar", x="Id", y="EmailAddress")
plt.show()

Free Trial & More Information

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

Full Source Code

import pandas
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
from sqlalchemy import create_engin

engine = create_engine("api:///?Profile=C:\profiles\ConstantContact.apip&Authscheme=OAuth&OAuthClientId=your_client_id&OAuthClientSecret=your_client_secret&CallbackUrl=your_callback_url")
df = pandas.read_sql("SELECT Id, EmailAddress FROM Contacts WHERE CompanyName = 'Acme, Inc.'", engine)

df.plot(kind="bar", x="Id", y="EmailAddress")
plt.show()