Unit 5: Creating a Dashboard

Defining the Dashboard's Purpose and Audience

Finding SDMX Data

Here is a shortlist of public SDMX APIs to help you get the data you require.

Bank for International Settlements (BIS)
https://stats.bis.org/api-doc/v2/#/Data%20queries/
European Central Bank (ECB)
https://data.ecb.europa.eu/help/getting-data-web-services-sdmx
Eurostat
https://wikis.ec.europa.eu/display/EUROSTATHELP/API+-+Getting+started+with+SDMX2.1+API
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
https://betadata.imf.org/en/Resource-Pages/IMF-API
International Labour Organisation (ILO)
https://sdmx.ilo.org/index.html
OECD
https://www.oecd.org/en/data/insights/data-explainers/2024/09/api.html
World Bank
https://datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/1886701-sdmx-api-queries
UNICEF
https://data.unicef.org/sdmx-api-documentation/
UNSD
https://unstats.un.org/unsd/api/

Note: A catalogue of SDMX APIs is being published on sdmx.io - watch the Data Science section on sdmx.io for more information.

Click the icon to download a job aid listing these resources.

Create a Dashboard using YAML

Below we will look at the steps with the YAML code to build a dashboard , using as an example, a Labour Statistics Dashboard named ex_labour_statistics_dashboard.yaml

Step 1: Identify Data and Indicators

Find the data

Find the best available data from an SDMX API.
For global population statistics, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) is a good resource.

Identify indicators of interest

Earlier we identified labour market indicators of interest.

Core Labour Market Indicators available from the ILO

Unemployment Rate by sex and age: DF_UNE_DEAP_SEX_AGE_RT
Labour Force Participation Rate by sex and age: DF_EAP_DWAP_SEX_AGE_RT
Employment-to-Population Ratio by sex and age: DF_EMP_DWAP_SEX_AGE_RT
Job Creation & Losses: no data found
Wage Growth: no data found
Underemployment Rate: DF_TRU_DEMP_SEX_AGE_RT

Note on SDMX API

This course does not aim to go into details on SDMX API data. Here is a simple refresher to interpret the API call:

Click the

to find out what the highlighted code means.

Code

                                        https://sdmx.ilo.org/rest/data/
                                        DF_POP_XWAP_SEX_AGE_NB/CAN+FRA+DEU+ITA+JPN+GBR+USA.A.POP_XWAP_NB.SEX_T.AGE_AGGREGATE_TOTAL"
                                    

Step 2: Add Charts to Your Dashboard

Create a YAML file

Create a new YAML file
Name it appropriately (in this example: ex_labour_statistics_dashboard.yaml)
Specify the Title and Footer information

Code

--- DashID: ex_labour_statistics_dashboard Rows: -

                                                    Row: 0 chartType: TITLE Title: "Dashboard on Labour Statistics" Subtitle: "A sample dashboard the ILO SDMX API"
                                                

                                                    Row: 0 chartType: FOOTER Title: "Copyright xyz. No adaptation or use is permitted without prior consent." Subtitle: "The views expressed are those of the authors."
                                                

Add a chart

The chart is added to the first row of the YAML file.

Click the to find out what the highlighted code means.

Click the icon to view the dashboard generated by the code.

Code

                                                    Row: 1
                                                    chartType: VALUE
                                                    Title: Subtitle: "Youth unemployment rate, World, Total"
                                                    Unit: "%"
                                                    UnitShow: "Yes"
                                                    UnitIcon: "bi bi-people-fill h1" unitLoc: SUFFIX Decimals: 2 LabelsYN: No legendConcept: REF_AREA legendLoc: xAxisConcept: TIME_PERIOD
                                                    yAxisConcept: OBS_VALUE
                                                    downloadYN: "Yes" dsdLink: "https://sdmx.ilo.org/rest/datastructure/ILO/DF_SDG_0852_SEX_AGE_RT/1.0?detail=full" metadataLink:
                                                    "https://sdmx.ilo.org/rest/dataflow/ILO/DF_SDG_0852_SEX_AGE_RT/1.0?detail=full" DATA:
                                                    "https://sdmx.ilo.org/rest/data/DF_SDG_0852_SEX_AGE_RT/X01.A.SDG_0852_RT.SEX_T.AGE_YTHADULT_Y15-24?lastNObservations=1"
                                                

Add a second chart.

Add a chart to the second row of the YAML file.
NOTE: UnitShow is not present in the YAML file because we do not
want to show the actual values.

Click the to find out what the highlighted code means.

Click the icon to view the dashboard generated by the code.

Code

                                                    Row: 2
                                                    chartType: BAR
                                                    Title: Working Age Population, Total, BRICS countries Subtitle: "auto" Decimals: 0 LabelsYN: No legendConcept: REF_AREA legendLoc: BOTTOM
                                                    xAxisConcept: REF_AREA
                                                    yAxisConcept: OBS_VALUE
                                                    downloadYN: "Yes" dsdLink: "https://sdmx.ilo.org/rest/datastructure/ILO/DF_POP_XWAP_SEX_AGE_NB/1.0?detail=full" metadataLink:
                                                    "https://sdmx.ilo.org/rest/dataflow/ILO/DF_POP_XWAP_SEX_AGE_NB/1.0?detail=full" DATA:
                                                    "https://sdmx.ilo.org/rest/data/DF_POP_XWAP_SEX_AGE_NB/BRA+RUS+IND+CHN+ZAF.A.POP_XWAP_NB.SEX_T.AGE_AGGREGATE_TOTAL?lastNObservations=1"
                                                

Add a third chart.

Add a chart to the third row of the YAML file.

Click the to find out what the highlighted code means.

Click the icon to view the dashboard generated by the code.

Code

                                                    Row: 3
                                                    chartType: BAR
                                                    Title: Working Age Population, Total, G7 countries Subtitle: "auto" Unit: "%" Decimals: 0 LabelsYN: No legendConcept: REF_AREA legendLoc: BOTTOM
                                                    xAxisConcept: TIME_PERIOD
                                                    yAxisConcept: OBS_VALUE
                                                    downloadYN: "Yes" dsdLink: "https://sdmx.ilo.org/rest/datastructure/ILO/DF_POP_XWAP_SEX_AGE_NB/1.0?detail=full" metadataLink:
                                                    "https://sdmx.ilo.org/rest/dataflow/ILO/DF_POP_XWAP_SEX_AGE_NB/1.0?detail=full" DATA:
                                                    "https://sdmx.ilo.org/rest/data/DF_POP_XWAP_SEX_AGE_NB/CAN+FRA+DEU+ITA+JPN+GBR+USA.A.POP_XWAP_NB.SEX_T.AGE_AGGREGATE_TOTAL"
                                                

Click the arrows to navigate the steps.

Click each tab to learn more.

Step 3: Finalize Your Dashboard

Load the YAML file

Load the dashboard

Verify the API URL

Adjust colours

Load the YAML file into SDMX-DG by moving the labour_statistics_dashboard.yaml into the SDMX-DG yaml/ directory.

Click the icon to download a job aid listing the steps to build your dashboard.

Sdmx.ILO.org	Give me all data from the api:
DF_POP_XWAP_SEX_AGE_NB	Working age population statistics dataflow
CAN+FRA+DEU+ITA+JPN+GBR +USA.A.POP_XWAP_NB.SEX_T .AGE_AGGREGATE_TOTAL	A period "." separates each dimension concept. Dimension values are optional but if provided, they act as a dataset filter. In this example, the filters are: Reference Area: "CAN+...+USA" (ie. the G7 countries) Frequency: "A" (annual) Measure: "POP_XWAP_NB" (working age population) Sex: "SEX_T" (total) Age: "AGE_AGGREGATE_TOTAL" (total)

chartType: VALUE yAxisConcept: OBS_VALUE	For this chart, the goal is to show a single value for the youth unemployment rate.
Unit: "%"	We want to display the percent (%) symbol to illustrate that the value represents a percentage.
UnitShow: "Yes"	We want the value to be displayed on the chart:

Unit 5: Creating a Dashboard

Finding SDMX Data

Create a Dashboard using YAML

Find the data

Identify indicators of interest

Core Labour Market Indicators available from the ILO

Note on SDMX API

Welcome to SDMX AI assistant

SDMX AI assistant

How the assistant can help you

Understand SDMX standards

Navigate the website

Explore SDMX tools

Access documentation

Why was the answer unhelpful?