DRI-WEFA: Webstract User's Help Page

 

Webstract is the name of the software interface used to access selected economic time series (or "banks") maintained by DRI-WEFA.

University of California, Irvine, users have access to the following banks for academic uses only:

Webstract software must be installed on a machine before it can be used. It can be downloaded from: http://www.dri-wefa.com/softwaredownload/. Click on the ".exe" file under Webstract. Save the file on to your hard drive, then click on it to begin the installation process. Follow the directions on the installation "wizard." Indicate "yes" when it asks to install a desktop icon.

Configuring your browser: After installing Webstract, you would need to configure your browser. Click on Basic Search, then Options. (Webstract may also just prompt you for the information listed below.) Click on DRI Access Codes. Enter your login and password (to get those, see below). For Chargecode, enter anything. Click on "Save as Default" if you want the system to save your login/password data. This way you don't have to enter it every time you use Webstract.

Next, click on Options again and on Internet Connection Options. Select the appropriate option listed.

Finally, click on Options again and Registration. Fill in the items.

For searching and retrieval, consult: Webstract Guide. The search instructions begin on page 5 of the document (page 9 on your pdf screen). You can ignore the installation instructions in that guide, but follow the installation instructions give here on this web page instead.

Access is restricted at UCI to UCI students, faculty and staff, and all onsite users, for academic purposes. You would need a UCInetID. If you have activated your UCInetID already, use a browser that is not configured for the UCI proxy, and click: here. If you need information on how to acquire a UCInetID, go to: UCInetID Information

Technical support for installing Webstract is available from DRI. UCI users can call DRI's technical support line at 1-800-933-3374 from 5 am to 3 pm west coast time. Identify yourself as a UCI Library user. UCI has an instutional subscription to Webstract.

This help page will enable you to retrieve one or more time series of data but does not exhaust the capabilities of the system.

For your convenience, Webstract has been installed on PC #19 at the Multimedia Resources Center, 1st Floor, UCI Main Library.

Once Webstract is installed on your PC (or if you use the MRC PC), just click on the icon on the PC where Webstract has been mounted. When the title appears, click on the start button and select 'Basic Search'. Note: 'Category Seach' and 'Equity Researcher' are not available to UCI users.

Start with Search

Type any words you need to search. There should be spaces between words.

Choose ‘Use All Words’ if the specified words are connected by ‘And’.
Choose ‘Use Any Words’ if the specified words are connected by ‘Or’.
Choose ‘Use Exact Phrase’ if the exact specified phrase is needed.
Choose ‘Seriesname Entry’ if you know the series name.

A list of items that match your search will be shown. To navigate through the list, click on the single arrow key for next page or previous page, double arrow key for the first page or the last page. For more information about the series, mark the box of ‘Show Detail’ at the top of the screen.

Select series by highlighting the series and clicking on ‘Add Selection(s) to Order’.

The selected item will be removed from the list and the number of selected items is shown at the upper right corner of the screen. You can highlight several series and add them at the same time.

Note: Our subscription provides access to only the databases listed above but an unrestricted search retrieves matches from all DRI databases. To search only one of those databases for example, International Financial Statistics:

Click on Database Selections.
Click on Macro Economic Data.
Highlight International Financial Statistics-IMF.
Click on Search. Search will run only in IFS.

Retrieve Data

Click on the Layout button in the menu bar. Descriptions of the selected series will appear on the right side of the screen.

Click on Destination on the left side of the screen to specify where returned data will go.

If downloading the data, you can specify you own file name by clicking the button at the bottom. You can also choose the way of separating values.(e.g., space separated values.)

Click on Interval & Freq. to specify the frequency and interval for returned data. (Not all series are available for all frequencies. Be sure to check the frequency as described in the section on Data Request below).

There are two options for specifying the interval.

First option: Type the starting year and chose an ending period among current period, previous period and specific date(You need to type the date using either time series notation(yyyy:pp) or a calendar date.

Second option: Choose the number of periods to current period or previous period.

Destination, interval and frequency will be shown at the upper right corner of the screen.

Click on Format .

Select the data format including the order of data, labels, format for date labels and some extra options by dragging and dropping. The result of extra options will be shown after the list of data when you display the data.

Click on Data Request.

Information about the selected series. This is the same display as the one which can be seen in the first visit to ‘Layout Specs’. Any of the items can be deleted by highlighting and clicking the "Delete" button in the menu bar.

To look at the data, click on "Retrieve" button at the top of the screen.

To see how to convert the frequency or change the converting method, click on 'Data Request' and 'Adjust Series' at the bottom of the 'specification' window . Adjust series options shows series documentation and access option which include the frequencies available and the destination frequency you selected in Interval & Freq. of Specification window. To see more detail about converting methods click on 'Explain' button.

Click on ‘Retrieve’ button at the top of the screen to retrieve the series in the specified format.

International Financial Statistics Extra Hints

To translate series names from the printed International Financial Statistics, insert L at the beginning of the series number, substitute & for the dots in the printed version, ignore italics and include the country number. Series 76e.d for Colombia becomes L76E&D@C233 with & replacing . and the country code for Colombia following the @.

To retrieve the same series for each country, as in the summary pages in IFS. For example: retrieve money market rate series (60B) for each country.

Select International Monetary Fund from the bank list.
Click on Search
Click on Advanced Search
Click on "seriesname search" at bottom of resulting screen
Enter series followed only by "C" (leave out any country number) ,e.g. L60B@C for money market rates for all available countries.
Click on Enter.
Select Prefix Search: All seriesnames with same beginning
Click on Search.
Select each desired series and Add Selection(s) to order
Proceed as usual.

Documentation

Documentation manuals for the various data "banks" are shelved alongside the back wall behind the Reference Desk at the UCI Main Library, first floor.

Note: To translate series names from the International Financial Statistics, you will need to substitute & for the dots in the printed version and include the country number. Series 76e.d for Colombia becomes L76E&D@C233 with & replacing . and the country code for Colombia following the @.

 

Adapted with permission from a University of Michigan Library, Numeric Data Services document.
Send comments and feedback to dtsang@uci.edu

To return or go to the UCI Social Science Data Archives page, click here: SSDA.