1. Xavier Sosnowska Luxemburg, 2007-11-13
Rich internet applications for the visualisation of statistics on the European Central Bank web site: the use of Flex 2 and the ECB SDMX-ML browser
Xavier Sosnowska
Luxemburg,

2. Objectives Improve understanding of statistics:
Improve data visualisation
Improve data accessibility
Adopt “story-telling" approach

3. ECB applications using Flex
Currently, two applications make use of Flex:
Bilateral exchange rates ( )
Euro area yield curves ( )
Using data published in SDMX-ML v2 Compact format

4. Exchange rates (1): 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
Data available in SDMX-ML Compact format (compressed and uncompressed) for easy processing

5. Exchange rates (2): Further developments
Change the frequency
Compare currencies developments
Add a data table and a calendar view

6. Euro area yield curves
Second Flex application put in production. Released July 2007.

7. Development of building blocks
Move away from ad-hoc developments, to speed up development time. 3 layers:
The readers: possibility to parse data files in the SDMX-ML Compact and Structure formats
The model: translation of the extracted data into artefacts of the SDMX Information Model
The views: visualisation of the data (charts, tables, metadata panels, etc)

8. Possible uses SDMX browser SDMX Web services client
Tool to view most popular ECB statistics (“story-telling” approach)
Charts on the Statistical Data Warehouse