Gérard Salou, Xavier Sosnovsky Improving the visualisation of statistics The use of SDMX-ML as input for dynamic graphs Gérard Salou, Xavier Sosnovsky European Central Bank Brussels, 2009-02-19

Agenda Objectives of the developments The 1st phase - Initial applications (2007) The 2nd phase - The need for an SDMX-based visualisation framework (2008) The 3rd phase - The ECB inflation dashboard (2008) The road ahead

Objectives of the development Further improve our communication on statistics Improve data visualisation in order to facilitate understanding of statistics Leverage IT usage: new web technologies as well as users’ computers.

The situation in 2007 Two interactive visualisation applications (using Adobe Flash) published on the ECB web site in 2007: Bilateral exchange rates (2007-04) Euro area yield curves (2007-07) Data published in SDMX-ML v2 Compact format

Exchange rates: Improvements Most popular section on the ECB website. Improved both data accessibility and visualisation. More information (latest observation, growth rates) Hovering functionality that shows the value for each observation Possibility to view data for predefined periods Possibility to define own period (period slider) Possibility to switch base currency

Basic calculations Change base Values Zoom Zoom and slide

Euro area yield curves Second Adobe Flex application in production since July 2007.

Multiple choices Zoom Animation Table view

Animation parameters

Advantages and disadvantages Improved communication towards the public (improved visualisation, accessibility and understanding of data). Very popular (rather high usage). But "ad hoc" applications (structure of data is "hard coded" into the application). Inefficient, low code reusability and scalability issue. => Need for a generic reusable visualisation framework

Solution? An SDMX visualisation framework Develop libraries that can be used to build visualisation tools for statistical data and metadata Written in ActionScript 3 (Flex/Flash applications) Based on the SDMX information model v. 2 11

Why SDMX? Based on the SDMX standard: ISO standard (ISO/TS 17369), sponsored by 7 international institutions (including the ECB) SDMX information model describes all artefacts needed Already in use in all layers of the ECB Statistical environment Supports for various XML formats (SDMX-ML)

SDMX framework: Basic organisation Data SDMX-ML data files (data sets, series, observations, etc) SDMX-ML data structure definitions (concepts, code lists, data structure definitions, etc) ECB SDMX Framework Applications Application 1 Application 2 Application 3 Application 4 SDMX-ML Readers Read Translate SDMX Information model Use View Access Users Visual display 13

SDMX framework in a nutshell 3 layers: The readers: Reads the Data Structure Definitions and the data files (SDMX-ML Compact and Structure formats, v. 2) The model: translation of the extracted data into objects of the SDMX Information Model The views: visualisation of the objects of the SDMX information model (charts, tables, metadata panels, etc)

Why open source? Rapid, robust development Reduced institutional costs More thorough code review Better code support 15

Logistics and License ECB, NY FED, BOC Code hosted and publicly available on Google Code Strict commit policy and change management procedures BSD license Roles Leadership roles (Project Manager, Project Advisor and Project Architect) Committers: three individuals Contributors: contributions are welcome from all Users: the code is available to all 16

The Plan for 2009 Test code with data from sources other than ECB Add readers for additional SDMX formats Remove hard coded concepts Move style information to its own library Create high level developer documentation Improve test coverage 17

ECB inflation dashboard Visual display of key ECB statistics Analytical dashboard, to support data analysis Offers context, history and compare functionalities Support interaction (e.g.: data drill-down) Customisable http://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/prices/hicp/html/inflation.en.html

ECB inflation dashboard

Generalisation: ECB website and SDW Generalise the use of this technology to other sections of the ECB website (e.g.: effective exchange rates, HCIs, Eurosystem joint dissemination sections, etc.) Replace charts of the ECB Statistical Data Warehouse with similar interactive visualisation tools Add new statistical domains to the ECB dashboard

Links to experiment with… Inflation dashboard (test environment): http://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/prices/hicp/html/inflation.en.html Foreign exchange rates: http://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/exchange/eurofxref/html/eurofxref-graph-usd.en.html Euro area yield curve: http://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/money/yc/html/index.en.html SDMX Browser: http://stats.ecb.europa.eu/stats/dtf_test/browser.html (test data file: http://stats.ecb.europa.eu/stats/dtf_test/hci.xml) Flex-CB project: http://flex-cb.googlecode.com/