Chart Editor Manual Excel Workbook Manual
Overview
Fully operational in-house tools allow us to construct many charts, analyses, downloads, etc.. Not all of these tools are presented in an external interface. What is available via an external web-interface and Excel download is set out on this and related pages.
The system is in early Beta since it has some bugs, idiosyncrasies and gaps. Which of these are worked on next depends on feedback from testers, and interest from would-be users.
To access the system, please contact us.
Data
Organization
Series
All existing data are organized as time-series. Each time-series is a sequence of dates each with a single-value datum.
Periodicity
The date sequences come in a variety of forms, usually periodic (monthly, quarterly, annually, and several other.)
We have no intra-day time stamps at present.
Series Relationships.
Series are related one to another in a hierarchical arrangement, One series might be the “parent” of a number of series, the sum of whose data may equal the parent’s. Other series might share the same parent. This hierarchy is held explicitly in our database and is used by charting and analysis tools. It enables related to series to be found easily and compared, and for “cross-sectional” charts in which the contributions of a series component series are broken out and displayed.
Every series belongs to one and only one, “Dataset” (see below).
Series Attributes
Within a related set of series there is a set of attributes. These attributes are used by our charting and analysis tools to find relevant and related series.
A series of attributes for a series always includes periodicity, seasonal adjustment and publishing agency. Series typically also include an additional set of relevant attributes such as geographical area, industry, age group etc.
Revisions
Our data series are typically revised with the release of new Datasets (below) by the data publisher. Old versions of the data series are maintained in the database and can be referenced. (NOTE: The charting interface currently does not allow selection of release versions.)
Datasets
Datasets are sets of related data series which are published and revised as a whole.
Revisions and new data points come with a new release of a Dataset.
Datasets are attributed to a publisher, have a release date and release name. For example:
Name: Payroll Survey
Publisher: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Release Name: August 2014
Release Date: Sept 3rd, 2014
Subject Areas
These are loosely defined areas of economic activity defined solely with the aim of organizing Datasets together in related, manageable groupings. A Dataset typically is identified with one subject area, but can belong to more.
Public, Premium and Private Data
We make the distinction between three types of data:
Public is available to all users. It’s provenance is either from the public domain or by arrangement with the publisher.
Premium Data is made available only under a user agreement.
Private Data is data loaded by a user and available only to that user, or other so designated by them.
All three types of data can be co-mingled in charts or workbooks.
[TBI: The ability for a user to load their data into our database for inclusion in charts is not yet available.[
Portfolios & Creating Charts
Creating new charts
At present, any new chart is created by copying an existing chart. The cloned chart can the be edited to meet your specification.
Portfolios
To manage a number of charts, you may defined a number of “portfolios” and assign a chart to one of them. Charts are moved to a portfolio simply by typing the name of a portfolio into the relevant input box. New portfolios are created by entering a new name in such an input box.
Editing Charts & Producing Excel Workbooks
Please refer to these two pages:
Chart Editor Manual Excel Workbook Manual