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Development data in your pocket

Sameer Vasta's picture

UPDATE: The DataFinder iPhone app is now live! Download it from the app store by clicking here.

If you've ever needed a quick fix of GDP (or any other such data) to go, the new DataFinder app should help.

We're still waiting on approval from the iTunes store, but we submitted the DataFinder application for approval a few weeks ago and hope that it will be available in early April. Fingers crossed. Once it is available, you'll be able to access, graph, and share World Bank data whenever you need it, right on your iPhone.

The DataFinder app taps into a subset of the World Development Indicators that are currently available in the API. (Expect more in the next release of the app.) Users can choose indicators, countries, and time spans, and have data charted right on their phone. The charts (as well as CSV exports of the data) can be saved to the phone, emailed to friends, and used anywhere an image can be embedded, print and on the web.

A few screenshots below:

DataFinder iPhone App

DataFinder iPhone App

DataFinder iPhone App

We'll be sure to let you know when the app is actually available on the iTunes store.

Oh, and for those of you that may be wondering: why an iPhone app? The app is just one little project that is part of our efforts to share more Bank data, and also make Bank information more accessible on mobile devices. We're working on other data initiatives, and looking very closely at the mobile web experience in addition to device-specific apps. The iPhone app was a way for us to experiment using the resources we had in-house — so don't worry, there'll be more coming, for different platforms, soon.

Let us know what you think we should be working on next!

Comments

Submitted by saka on
The software is great but I can use indicators only from A to C in iPhone. What is the problem?

Is the scrolling on the indicators not working? Does the search for indicators function work? If you can email me some screenshots, I'd love to try and troubleshoot the issue. Thanks! http://blogs.worldbank.org/insidetheweb/users/sameer-vasta/contact

Saka, We've identified the issue on our end and have already pushed out a fix. We're just waiting for Apple to approve the new version, and it should all be fixed. Keeping our fingers crossed that they do it soon. Thanks for your feedback, and for your patience!

Submitted by Matt on
The app is great so far except for only being able to search A-C, but i wondering if it would be possible to be able to compare two different indicators in a graph? Thanks

Submitted by Matt on
hey I love the new app, and it is so useful, but whenever i use multi-country blocs, like "high income" or "low income" it has trouble loading always says error and reloading it doesn't work even though i have a strong connection to the internet. Using any other single country works perfectly fine. Also one more idea is if you are able to use two indicators instead of one, like comparing GNI/capita vs. carbon emissions/capita, and then countries would show up as points on a scatterplot. That would be incredibly useful, maybe for datafinder 2.0. Thanks!!

To everyone that's asking: the update has been sent to Apple about a month ago, we're still waiting for them to approve it for the store. We'll keep following up with them. Thanks for all the feedback!

Submitted by Ryan Hahn on
I checked the app store a couple days ago, and the update to the Datafinder app was there. Works fine now!

Submitted by saka on
Mr. Sameer, I tried version 1.2 which is published on 8th June. The problem data handling after "D" has been fixed. Thank you for providing good application.

Submitted by Youness on
Is there any application providing acces to the data using Ovi Store or another application for smart phones like Nokia N97...?

Submitted by Mia on
I just downloaded the iphone Datafinder app, but unfortunately the app repeatedly quits when I try to Select any Indicators. After I choose "select indicators", I see the message "Loading Indicators", but after a few seconds, the app quits. I was able to add countries, however. I am on iOS 4, so probably your app needs to be fixed to run on the new OS.

Submitted by Raj Krishnan on
Hi Sameer, When are we getting iPad version of this "World Bank Data Finder" iPhone app? Currently it seems to be not working on iPad. When you touch the "Select Indicator", it closes the app while it starts loading the selections.The iPad OS version I checked is 3.2.2.

Submitted by Lewman on
Tried version 1.2. However, app kept crashing while retrieving Indicators for selection. Is this a known issue? Really can't wait to see this baby working. Thanks for this app!

Submitted by Rogier van den Brink on
I just downloaded it, feeling great that the Bank was moving into this market. But it immediately crashed as I clicked on Indicators. Churn, churn, crash. And did you notice our pathetic 1.5 rating? :(

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