Darllenwch y dudalen hon yn Gymraeg.
We are working on a new and improved platform for StatsWales to keep up with technological updates and user needs. As a consequence, and as explained in our previous blog, our OData service will not be available from the end of August.
This post provides an update on the temporary arrangements we are putting in place to replace OData until the new StatsWales service is in place in 2025.
What will happen and how it will affect you
The StatsWales platform allows people to find, view and download data about Wales.
One of the ways that people access data from this platform is through a service called OData. This allows people to access and use data in an automated, programmatic way using what’s known as an API – an Application Programming Interface.
As explained in our previous blog post, the current OData service will stop working at the end of August 2024, and we are putting in place temporary arrangements so users can continue to access data programmatically from StatsWales in the meantime. These arrangements should be in place for datasets published from 1 September onwards, and will be in place until the new StatsWales service is live.
A temporary way to access the same data
The interim solution will provide users with a link for each dataset where you can download similar data to that which was available via the OData service. The data will be made available through a main csv file (zipped due to size), with associated smaller files of dimension and metadata information.
We have provided a test example of the replacement files along with further technical detail on how to use them in place of OData.
The OData replacement files will be made available through a static URL for each dataset, meaning that the link will not change with each dataset update. The URLs will also be in a standardised format across datasets, for example:
https://statswales.gov.wales/Download/File?file=SCHS0262.zip
These replacement files will be available from September onwards whenever a dataset is updated. Many datasets are updated quarterly or annually. Once the OData service has ceased at the end of August, if you try to refresh any existing OData links you have this may result in an error in any apps or dashboards which use this data.
Further help
The rest of the StatsWales site is not affected by this change and you will still be able to find, view and download data from the site in the other usual ways, in addition to the new files which replace OData.
If you have any general queries related to the temporary solution, or need further support please contact us through stats.info.desk@gov.wales