Effortless Real-Time Data Monitoring

When you require information without ETL

Context:

Leveraging Embedded Tools for Real-Time Data

Have you ever needed to track a subject, but simply didn’t have the time to constantly update and check all the necessary information? I faced a similar challenge a few months ago.

We were tasked with monitoring the development of the Covid-19 pandemic worldwide on a daily basis. However, we lacked the tools to access and process the information with the level of detail and frequency we needed, while also keeping track of the usual economic indicators we were monitoring.

This is where the internet can be a game-changer. When you find the right source, in the right place, it becomes incredibly easy to consolidate information and keep your audience informed about current developments without unnecessary effort.

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OWID

Our World in Data: A Lifesaver for Real-Time Tracking of Covid-19

OurWorldinData (OWID) did an outstanding job of tracking the pandemic in real-time. Thanks to them, we were able to embed their information directly into our trackers, allowing us to see what’s happening across the world without spending any extra time on the tedious process of Extracting, Transforming, and Loading (ETL) an increasing variety of data. For example, the graph below shows the Oxford Stringency Index across various countries, and we’re not loading any data ourselves. We’re simply using an embedded iframe from OWID’s website.

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iFrames

What Is It and How Does It Work?

In essence, an iframe (short for “inline frame”) allows you to embed another HTML document within your current web page, creating a “page within a page.” This feature is commonly used to display content such as videos, maps, or forms from another website without redirecting your audience elsewhere. In our case, we embedded a specific view from OWID website—just one of many useful resources available in real-time.

Here is a look to the underlying iframe object presented above:

<div
  class="l-page"
  style="display: flex; justify-content: center; 
align-items: center; margin: 20px 0; overflow: hidden;"
>
  <iframe
    src="https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/covid?country=USA~ITA~CAN~DEU~GBR~FRA&hideControls=true&Metric=Stringency+index&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+population=true&tab=chart"
    loading="lazy"
    style="width: 68%; height: 600px; border: 0px none;"
    allow="web-share; clipboard-write"
  >
  </iframe>
</div>

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Minimal Dashboards

With Minimal Effort

These kinds of tools are incredibly helpful for organizing information in a dashboard format. By doing so, you can get a quick overview of developments on a given topic, saving time and effort. That’s exactly how we kept track of the pandemic without investing unnecessary resources into data extraction or management. The image below illustrates how we organized and tracked the data effectively back then.

In summary, this approach is invaluable when your primary goal is staying informed and thinking strategically about the next steps in your analysis. By leveraging external resources like OWID and embedding them into dashboards, we were able to gain significant insights with minimal effort, allowing us to focus on what truly matters without getting bogged down by complex data workflows.