Keeping Raw Data Behind a Flask Dashboard

I checked the network responses behind a dashboard and found more data than the charts needed. Some routes returned full records even when the interface only displayed totals.

Give the chart its own response

Hiding a field in the interface leaves it in the response. Anyone with access to the page can inspect that response, including rows the chart never displays.

I gave each view a narrower response. The sales summary groups orders by month and returns the order count and gross revenue. Flask sends those values as a chart series, without the individual orders.

Scope before grouping

The SQL filters by account and date before grouping. That order matters: aggregating everyone's rows and filtering the result afterward can include another account's totals.

The route shows a session user; the query expects an account ID. Resolving which account that user may access is a separate authorization check. These excerpts don't show that mapping.

Keep filter values out of the SQL string

The category query uses named parameters for the account, category, and date range. The database driver binds those values without treating them as query syntax.

Those values still need validation: valid dates, a sensible range, and a category the endpoint accepts. Parameter binding handles SQL syntax; it doesn't decide whether a request makes sense. The shown helper doesn't include those checks.

For this view, the response can stay small: month, order count, and gross revenue. A future drill-down would need its own scoped endpoint rather than adding all the source rows back to the summary.