Connector Details
Type
Virtual machines, Single VM , BYOL
Runs on
Google Compute Engine
Last Update
24 October, 2024
Category
FRED Series API Connector
Overview
The Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED) Series API provides a RESTful interface to programmatically access a wide range of economic data series curated by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. You can fetch series metadata, observations, categories, releases, tags, related tags, vintage dates, and recent updates. The API supports JSON and XML
Integration Overview
The FRED Series API offers these main integration points:
Supported Integration Action Points
- Get Series Metadata – core info for a series (title, units, frequency, last updated).
- Get Series Observations – time series values (historical & current) for a series.
- Get Series Categories – categories a given series belongs to.
- Get Series Release – release that first published the series.
- Search Series – keyword search over all series.
- Search Series Tags / Related Tags – refine searches with tags and find related tags.
- Get Series Tags – tags attached to a specific series.
- Get Series Updates – list series ordered by most recent observation updates.
- Get Series Vintage Dates – see when historical values were revised.
Base URL: https://api.stlouisfed.org/fred
Formats: JSON (default) or XML via file_type=json|xml
Auth: API key in query string (api_key)
Detailed Integration Documentation
Get Series Metadata
| Operation ID | getSeries |
| Method & Path | GET /series |
| Purpose | Retrieve metadata for a specific economic data series (e.g., title, units, frequency). |
| Input (Query Params) |
|
| Output |
|
| Workflow Example | Call /series?series_id=GNPCA to show metadata on a series details page. |
Get Series Categories
| Operation ID | getSeriesCategories |
| Method & Path | GET /series/categories |
| Purpose | Fetch all categories to which a series belongs. |
| Input |
|
| Output | List of categories (id, name, parent id, etc.). |
| Workflow Example | Use the categories to build navigation or filtering facets around a series. |
Get Series Observations
| Operation ID | getSeriesObservations |
| Method & Path | GET /series/observations |
| Purpose | Retrieve time series values (observations) for a series, optionally filtered by date range. |
| Input |
|
| Output | Array of observations with date and value. |
| Workflow Example | Display a chart: call observations for GNPCA from observation_start=2000-01-01 to today. |
Get Series Release
| Operation ID | getSeriesRelease |
| Method & Path | GET /series/release |
| Purpose | Get the release that first published a series. |
| Input |
|
| Output | Release metadata (id, name, link, dates, etc.). |
| Workflow Example | Show users which release a series belongs to, and link to the release page. |
Search Series
| Operation ID | searchSeries |
| Method & Path | GET /series/search |
| Purpose | Keyword search for series. |
| Input |
|
| Output | Series array matching the query. |
| Workflow Example | Build a search bar that queries /series/search?search_text=gdp. |
Search Series Tags
| Operation ID | searchSeriesTags |
| Method & Path | GET /series/search/tags |
| Purpose | Get tags associated with results of a series keyword search. |
| Input |
|
| Output | List of tags (e.g., “GDP”, “Real”, “Quarterly”) with counts/metadata. |
| Workflow Example | After a user searches, show tag chips to help refine the query. |
Search Related Series Tags
| Operation ID | searchRelatedSeriesTags |
| Purpose | Return tags related to a series search to assist discovery. |
| Input Details |
|
| Output | Related tags with metadata. |
| Workflow Example | Suggest related tags to broaden/narrow the user’s search filters. |
Get Series Tags
| Operation ID | getSeriesTags |
| Purpose | Retrieve tags attached to a specific series. |
| Input Details |
|
| Output | List of tags with attributes (group id, popularity, etc.). |
| Workflow Example | Display tags on the series details page to help navigation. |
Get Series Updates
| Operation ID | getSeriesUpdates |
| Method & Path | GET /series/updates |
| Purpose | List series sorted by most recent observation updates. |
| Input Details |
|
| Output | Series array with last observation update dates. |
| Workflow Example | Build a “Recently Updated Series” widget for your dashboard. |
Get Series Vintage Dates
| Operation ID | getSeriesVintageDates |
| Method & Path | GET /series/vintagedates |
| Purpose | Retrieve the dates when historical values of a series were revised or published (“vintages”). |
| Input Details |
|
| Output | Array of vintage dates. |
| Workflow Example | Show a revision timeline to compare vintages in real-time vs. historical releases. |
Workflow Creation with the Connector
Example Workflow: Build an Economic Dashboard
| Step 1: Find a Series | Use /series/search to search for “GDP” or any keyword. |
| Step 2: Inspect Metadata & Tags | Call /series?series_id=... and /series/tags?series_id=... to show details and attach topic tags. |
| Step 3: Visualize Observations | Fetch time series via /series/observations and chart the values. |
| Step 4: Track Revisions | Use /series/vintagedates to display which dates had revised data. |
| Step 5: Monitor Updates | Use /series/updates to show what’s changing most recently. |
Pricing
iSolution logo - white - transparent 250 px