Eurostat Online Help for Data Browser
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  • API Catalogue - How to use the RSS feeds

What is the RSS? Why is it used?

RSS (Rich Site Summary) is a type of web feed that allows users to access updates to online content in a standardized, computer-readable format.

In the context of the API, RSS provides the users with a very simple way to be automatically informed about the last changes carried out to data products and code lists published by Eurostat.

How to access the RSS feed?

The URL to be used to gain access to the RSS feed depends on:

  • the agency (example: Eurostat).

  • the language. There is one RSS feed for each supported language:

    • English

    • German

    • French

Here are the URL’s of the RSS feeds:

How and when are the RSS files built?

The RSS files are built automatically, on each data release. They list all the changes that have been disseminated.

They include information about:

  • The datasets' operations processed within the 7 last days (these are events whose category is data, see below):

    • Creation of a dataset

    • Update of a dataset

    • Deletion of a dataset

  • The data structure’s operations processed within the 7 last days (these are events whose category is datastructure, see below)

  • The code lists' operations processed within the 7 last days (these are events whose category is code list, see below):

    • Creation of a new code/position in a code list

    • Removal of a code/position from a code list

What are the structure and contents of an RSS feed file?

Each RSS file is built with the following structure:

  • The header: This first part contains the general information about the RSS file itself

  • The items: This second part contains all the information related to the last updates

Fields available in Header part

  • xml: XML version: version 1.0, encoding is UTF-8

  • version: Version of the RSS file (2.0)

  • channel: File contains only one channel. Inside of it, the following information will be present:

    • title: Title of the RSS file (Eurostat - Data and Data Structure updates)

    • link: URL to the RSS file

    • description: Description of the RSS feed

    • language: Code of the language of the RSS file. Existing codes are:

      • en: English

      • de: German

      • fr: French

    • copyright: Copyright information

    • pubDate: Timestamp of the last update of the RSS file (under the following format: yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss, example: 2018-09-25 12:45:18)

    • image

      • link: See link above

      • title: See title above

Fields available in an Items part

Inside the RSS file, items are sorted in this specific order:

  • Descending date of change

  • Product type

    • Code lists

      • Deleted

      • New

      • Updated

    • Datasets (data or structure change)

      • Deleted

      • New

      • Updated

  • Each sub-category at point 2 is then sorted alphabetically.

Each item indicates an update of the information contained in our database. Each item mentions the following fields:

  • title: Title of the item consisting of Identifier and Type:

    • Identifier: The ID of teh item in UPPER CASE

    • Type: The type of the event

  • description: The title of the item (in the selected language)

  • category: The type of event according to the related type and nature of the change:

    • DELETED_CODE_LIST

    • NEW_CODE_LIST

    • UPDATED_CODE_LIST

    • DELETED_DATASET

    • NEW_DATASET

    • UPDATED_DATASET_STRUCTURE: in case only UPDATE_STRUCTURE annotation has changed

    • UPDATED_DATASET_DATA: in case only UPDATE_DATA annotation has changed

    • UPDATED_DATASET_STRUCTURE_DATA: in case both UPDATE_STRUCTURE and UPDATE_DATA annotations have changed

  • pubDate: The date and time of the release (under the following format: yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss, example: 2018-09-25 12:45:18.17)

  • link: The URL providing direct access to download this item using the API:

    • For a dataset: URL of the Data Browser Product page of the related dataset

    • For a code list: API TSV download link of the related code list in the language set in the URL of the RSS feed

The case of the renaming of a code list code, dimension or dataset will be reported in the RSS feed as two separate events:

  1. Deletion of the old name

  2. Insertion of the new name

What tools can be used to operate the RSS files?

Users need to subscribe to a feed using an RSS feed reader, or aggregator, in addition to their web browser. This will check for updates and notify the users when updates have been disseminated.

There is a range of different news readers available and new versions are appearing all the time. The mechanics of subscribing differ for each feed reader, but the one which will be selected by the user will provide appropriate instructions.

Once the user downloaded and installed a reader, he should follow instructions provided by the reader to add the desired RSS URLs provided in the first section of this page.

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