What's new in PxWebApi version 2

[Jan Bruusgaard]

I have previously worked with SSB's external APIs. I do some work on it in my spare time as a retiree. 
Here is a brief overview of what is new in the new version of PxWebApi v2.

Most important is the GET URL support. This makes the API easier to integrate.

Better masking characters. You can now mask individual characters with ? , in addition to the existing * for multiple characters. E.g.: 202?M12 - only December numbers for the 2020s.

New filters

• from() – retrieve data from and including a starting point
• range([,]) – define a specific interval, e.g. from municipal list
• to() - up to and including (inclusive)
• bottom() - opposite of the existing top()

More flexible data retrieval

• Fetch predefined datasets without specifying parameters
• More metadata in JSON-stat2, including footnotes (also applies to version 1)
• Metadata in the API is can now be shown as JSON-stat2
• Codelists in metadata. Available via Codelists 

Layout control for CSV and XLSX
New parameters give full control and flexibility over what goes in rows and columns. This makes CSV and XLSX much more usable.

View options

• UseCodes – show only codes
• UseTexts – show only text
• UseCodesAndTexts – show both codes and text
• IncludeTitle – include table title

Structure control

• stub – determine which variables should be displayed in the front column
• heading – determine variables in the table header

Tip: Place all variables in stub to get a pivot-friendly table

CSV separator

• SeparatorTab – tabulator
• SeparatorSpace – space
• SeparatorSemicolon – semicolon

Example:
    outputformat=csv
    outputformatparams=separatorsemicolon,usecodesandtexts
    heading=ContentsCode
    stub=VareGrupper2,Tid

Other news
More metadata in JSON-stat 2, such as footnotes. Also applies to API v1
HTML output is new in the API, but has room for improvement.
There is also a new format for using http POST.

Its also good to know that it seems like the  GET URL is not case sensitive.

Known limitations
Static URLs
URLs generated in Statbank are static and do not automatically include future figures. It is necessary to edit it manually to get updated figures. Use e.g. filter from() or top(). In version 1 it was possble to "select all" by eliminating the time variable. This is not possible in v2.  

URL length limitation
Maximum length of URL: ~2000 characters. This can be problematic for short-term statistics with long time series. For monthly statistics, the limit goes a little before the Financial Crisis, if they are not corrected.

Statistics Norways R-package PxWebApiData is also updated to handle V2 URLs

I have created some simple Jupyter notebooks for using PxWebApi v2 with Python in my Github repo.

See also Statistics Norway's user guide for the new API.

[Stefan Jul Gunnersen]

Hi Jan,

Thank you very much for the description - very helpful to get an overview.

Even better was the link to https://www.ssb.no/en/api/statbank-pxwebapi-user-guide - I did not know about that one and it will come in handy very soon so thank you. 

Maybe all such documentation (like the above and the link to SSB PxWebApi guide) should be available at a central website such as https://www.pxtools.net

Kind regards,

Stefan Jul Gunnersen

IT developer at Statistics Denmark and working on a new StatBank that may (or may not - no conclusion yet) be based on PxWebApi and PxWeb2