Tutorials & links

ABS Data API list of dataflows is available at: https://data.api.abs.gov.au/rest/dataflow/all?detail=allstubs. If you would like, right click on the result and save the file to your computer. Then you can update the list to a excel friendly format by opening a new workbook in excel. Under the data tab click on "Get Data" and select "From Text/CSV", then locate your saved file. It will take you to a navigator to "Transform data" (see image). 

It will then open the power query and once you are happy with the layout, click on "Close and Load". Then you can save as .xlsx or .csv. 

Please see Updates page for more information on recently added dataflows.

ABS Data API Swagger file (right click and save as). This swagger file can be imported into open source API testing tools such as SoapUI or Postman.

ABS Data API Web Application Description Language (WADL) file: https://data.api.abs.gov.au/rest/application.wadl

Excel

Microsoft Excel allows you to directly consume data from the ABS Data API using the 'From Web' function and Power Query

1. In Microsoft Excel, navigate to the Data tab > Get and Transform Data > From Web
2. Select 'advanced' and specify an API call. To return CSV data with labels, select the HTTP header Accept then enter header: application/vnd.sdmx.data+csv;labels=both
3. Once you select OK Power Query should open, right-click the result and specify that the content is CSV
4. Now you should see the actual data returned and can start applying transformations to get it in the desired format. You can merge, split and remove columns, pivot the table and more.
5. Once transformation is finished, from the Home tab select Close & Load, your data will be loaded into Excel. You can refresh the table with right-click > Refresh, this will draw in the latest data from the API.

Power BI

Microsoft Power BI includes the SIS-CC SDMX connector. This connector will allow you to pull data automatically from the ABS Data API into Power BI for further analysis. To connect to SDMX Web Service data:

1. In Power BI, Select Get Data from the Home ribbon in Power BI Desktop. Select All from the categories on the left > select SIS-CC SDMX > then select Connect.
2. Enter your API call and select the display format (codes, labels, or codes and labels). Then click OK.
3. Select Load to import the data into Power BI or Transform Data to edit the query in Power Query Editor where you can refine the query before loading into Power BI.

More information: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-query/connectors/sisccsdmx

SDMX Plugins are not maintained or affiliated with the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

R

Read RESTful SDMX API into R:

GitHub Resources: https://github.com/mdequeljoe/readsdmx

R SDMX Tutorial: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rsdmx/vignettes/quickstart.html

Python

SDMX for Python data ecosystem: https://pandasdmx.readthedocs.io/en/v1.0