Use Dash to Build to Web Apps on NetSuite Data

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

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

Getting Started

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Connecting to NetSuite Data

Connecting to NetSuite 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.

The User and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid NetSuite user credentials. In addition, the AccountId must be set to the ID of a company account that can be used by the specified User. The RoleId can be optionally specified to log in the user with limited permissions.

See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for more information on connecting to NetSuite.

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

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

cnxn = mod.connect("Account Id=XABC123456;Password=password;User=user;Role Id=3;Version=2013_1;")

Execute SQL to NetSuite

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 CustomerName, SalesOrderTotal FROM SalesOrder WHERE Class_Name = 'Furniture : Office'", 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-netsuiteedataplot'

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 NetSuite data and configure the app layout.

trace = go.Bar(x=df.CustomerName, y=df.SalesOrderTotal, name='CustomerName')

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='NetSuite SalesOrder 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 NetSuite data.

python netsuite-dash.py

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData Python Connector for NetSuite to start building Python apps with connectivity to NetSuite 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.netsuite as mod
import plotly.graph_objs as go

cnxn = mod.connect("Account Id=XABC123456;Password=password;User=user;Role Id=3;Version=2013_1;")

df = pd.read_sql("SELECT CustomerName, SalesOrderTotal FROM SalesOrder WHERE Class_Name = 'Furniture : Office'", cnxn)
app_name = 'dash-netsuitedataplot'

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.CustomerName, y=df.SalesOrderTotal, name='CustomerName')

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='NetSuite SalesOrder Data', barmode='stack')
		})
], className="container")

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