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Changelog

Source: NEWS.md

BFS 0.8.0

CRAN release: 2026-10-20

The main change: new functions for the Swiss Stats Explorer (SSE), which replaces STAT-TAB. The old SSE functions are deprecated, but they still work. Please read “Breaking changes” before you update.

Breaking changes

  • SSE labels (data change). bfs_get_sse_metadata() and bfs_get_sse_data() gave wrong labels, or failed, when some codes of a codelist have no name in the requested language:
    • if only one code had a name, this label was used for all the codes. For example, in DF_SSV_POL_LEG with language = "de", “fr” or “it”, all 181 cities were labelled “Gesamtwert für Schweizer Städte” / “Total des villes suisses”;
    • if no code, or several codes (but not all), had a name, the functions stopped with the error “Tibble columns must have compatible sizes”.
    Each code now gets its own label, with a fallback to another language. The values don’t change. But if you filter, group, pivot or join on these labels (variable_value_type = "text", the default of bfs_get_sse_data()), your results can change.
  • bfs_get_asset_metadata() accepts only one language. An error is given for several languages, e.g. language = c("fr", "de"). Before, the API used only the first one. The default value c("de", "fr", "it", "en"), e.g. forwarded by a wrapper function, still works and uses “de”.
  • New class and message for API errors. See “Errors when an API is not available” below. If your code tests class(e)[1], use inherits() instead.
  • R >= 4.0.0 is required (needed by tools::R_user_dir() and httr2), as well as httr2 >= 1.0.0 and purrr >= 1.0.0.

New Swiss Stats Explorer functions

  • bfs_sse_datasets() lists the datasets of the Swiss Stats Explorer, bfs_sse_dimensions() gives their dimensions and values, and bfs_sse_data() downloads their data. They are a thin wrapper of the SDMX REST API: they use only what the SDMX standard defines and leave the rest to the API (latest version, labels in a language, checks of the codes), so they keep working if the API changes its internals.
  • Compared to bfs_get_sse_metadata() and bfs_get_sse_data(), they:
    • are faster: the data is downloaded in the SDMX-CSV format, with the labels given by the API (about 5 times faster and 6 times less memory for 344,000 values);
    • stop on filters that would not filter the data, before downloading anything: an unknown dimension, TIME_PERIOD, a dimension given twice, an empty vector of codes or NA;
    • can use any version of a dataset with version (by default the latest, chosen by the API), so a data pipeline keeps the same structure. The data always has the same version as the dimensions used to build the query;
    • get only the first or last periods of each series with first_n and last_n (the SDMX parameters firstNObservations and lastNObservations), e.g. last_n = 1 for the latest value;
    • always name the columns with the dimension ids. They return the codes and the labels (labels = "both", the default, as two codes can have the same label), only the codes or only the labels, and optionally the attributes such as OBS_STATUS (attributes = TRUE);
    • give more information:
      • the description of each dataset (description column of bfs_sse_datasets()), to search the datasets by their content;
      • the label of each dimension from its SDMX concept (e.g. “Country of origin”), and the values of all the constraints of a dataset;
      • the parent of each value in its codelist (parent column of bfs_sse_dimensions()), e.g. the district of a commune and the canton of a district, to select all the communes of a canton;
    • return TIME_PERIOD as text, as given by the API;
    • cache nothing, so a new version or new data is used at once;
    • give errors with a class: bfs_no_records, bfs_sse_filter_error, bfs_sse_argument_error, bfs_sse_dataset_error, bfs_sse_query_error (a query refused by the API, with its message, e.g. a wrong period or a too long URL), bfs_sse_format_error and bfs_http_error;
    • need all their arguments after dataset to be named. An argument of the old functions gives an error that names the new argument (e.g. number_bfs is now dataset, query is now filters).

Deprecated functions

  • bfs_get_sse_metadata() and bfs_get_sse_data() are deprecated (lifecycle::deprecate_soft()). They warn when called from your code or from the tests of a package, not when called inside another package. They are kept for the data pipelines using them and get only bug fixes (see “Breaking changes” and “Bug fixes and improvements”). The new article “Moving to the new Swiss Stats Explorer functions” explains the differences and how to move your code.

Errors when an API is not available

  • All the functions using the BFS APIs now give an error of class bfs_http_error if the API is not available (e.g. HTTP 429 Too Many Requests, timeout, server error). This includes the data downloads of bfs_get_data() and bfs_get_data_comments() and the file download of bfs_download_asset().
    • The original error classes and fields are kept (e.g. httr2_http_429, http_429 or curl_error_couldnt_connect), so existing error handlers still work, e.g. tryCatch(..., httr2_http_429 = function(e) httr2::resp_retry_after(e$resp)).
    • The message starts with “The BFS API is not available.”, followed by the original message and the original error (“Caused by error in …”), so it has several lines.
    • The first class is bfs_http_error: test the class with inherits() instead of class(e)[1]. conditionCall(e) is NULL, the original call is in conditionCall(e$parent).
  • bfs_get_sse_data() gives a bfs_http_error only for HTTP 429 and server errors. A query refused by the API (other HTTP 4xx, e.g. a wrong period) gives the same error as before, “HTTP error: ”, without a class.

Bug fixes and improvements

Swiss Stats Explorer (old functions)

  • bfs_get_sse_data() no longer fails with the error “Tibble columns must have compatible sizes” if an observation has fewer dimensions than the others.
  • The list of SSE dataflows is cached for the R session, so bfs_get_sse_data() and bfs_get_sse_metadata() send one request fewer after the first call. If a dataset is not in the cached list, the list is downloaded again, so a dataset published since the first call is found. But a long-running R session (e.g. a Shiny app) keeps using the version of a dataset it saw first: call bfs_clear_cache() to use a new version, or use the new functions, which cache nothing. bfs_get_sse_data() also sends one request fewer for the metadata.

Data catalog and assets

Base maps, geodata and cache

  • New bfs_clear_cache() to delete the cached base maps and SSE dataflows.
  • bfs_get_base_maps():
    • no longer leaves an empty cache folder if the download fails, nor a partly extracted cache folder if the extraction fails;
    • creates the cache folder if it doesn’t exist yet;
    • uses the cached base maps when there is no internet connection;
    • no longer keeps the zip file once extracted;
    • gives a clear error if geom is missing.
  • bfs_download_geodata() creates the output_dir folder correctly and gives a clear error if collection_id is missing.
  • bfs_get_catalog_geodata() retries the metadata requests of the collections. It gives a message listing the collections whose metadata could not be retrieved (NA metadata), instead of hiding them.

Documentation

  • New “Get started” vignette: which API to use for which data, and the move from STAT-TAB to the Swiss Stats Explorer. The BFS is replacing STAT-TAB, and its PXWeb API used by bfs_get_data(), bfs_get_metadata() and bfs_get_data_comments().
  • Rewritten documentation: clearer help pages with examples for all functions, a shorter README and new guides (Swiss Stats Explorer, data catalog and PXWeb datasets, tables and files, geodata and base maps, API errors and rate limits).
  • Roxygen markdown is turned on, so the links and the formatting of the help pages are now rendered.
  • Examples calling the BFS APIs only run in interactive sessions.
  • Fix the size of register_kt_seeanteile (41 rows, 3 columns) in its documentation.
  • The internal functions bfs_get_sse_url() and get_xml_name() no longer have help pages.
  • pkgdown site: new look with a dark mode, a “Get started” tab, the articles in their own tabs and a link to its llms.txt. It is built and published by GitHub Actions on each release, and the built site (docs/) is no longer tracked in git.

Tests

  • Skip all the tests calling the BFS APIs on CRAN (skip_on_cran()), as the PXWeb API can rate-limit the CRAN check machines.
  • New offline tests (mocked HTTP responses), which also run on CRAN.

BFS 0.7.2

CRAN release: 2026-07-03

BFS 0.7.1

CRAN release: 2026-02-05

BFS 0.7.0

CRAN release: 2025-11-03

  • Add new functions to access the data and metadata of the new Swiss Stats Explorer API.

BFS 0.5.2

CRAN release: 2023-08-11

  • remove “rstac” and “sf” R package dependencies to make the package lighter and easier to install. When using the functions bfs_download_geodata() and bfs_get_base_maps(), the user will be asked to install “rstac” and “sf” if they are not installed locally. Tests using these dependencies are skipped in CRAN and CI.
  • removing bfs_download_geodata() automated tests will reduce API calls on “data.geo.admin.ch” server.

BFS 0.5.13

CRAN release: 2025-04-29

  • fix CRAN NOTE: remove native pipes for older R version compatibility.

BFS 0.5.12

CRAN release: 2024-12-09

BFS 0.5.11

CRAN release: 2024-11-27

BFS 0.5.10

CRAN release: 2024-09-27

BFS 0.5.9

CRAN release: 2024-09-26

BFS 0.5.8

CRAN release: 2024-02-23

  • All functions return NULL if no internet connection.
  • Tests skipped if no internet connection.

BFS 0.5.6

CRAN release: 2024-01-08

BFS 0.5.5

CRAN release: 2023-09-20

  • fix encoding bug in bfs_get_base_maps() #12
  • add fs R package dependency
  • add unit tests
  • remove unnecessary messages when calling bfs_get_catalog_*()
  • use tools instead of rappdirs
  • improve docs related to query dimensions

BFS 0.5.4

CRAN release: 2023-09-13

  • using only magrittr pipe to allow older R versions, fix #11

BFS 0.5.3

CRAN release: 2023-08-18

BFS 0.5.2

CRAN release: 2023-08-11

BFS 0.5.1

CRAN release: 2023-06-08

  • BREAKING CHANGE: fix BFS version 0.5 broke bfs_get_data(). Fix now #10 by removing “all” default argument to query.

BFS 0.5

CRAN release: 2023-06-08

BFS 0.4.8

CRAN release: 2023-05-31

  • BREAKING CHANGE: reorder arguments in functions for consistency
  • bfs_get_catalog_tables() now gets full catalog, fixing #5
  • bfs_get_catalog_tables() has new functions to filter datasets directly
  • use “httr2” instead of “jsonlite” for better console messages
  • improve README, docs and sticker.

BFS 0.4.7

CRAN release: 2023-05-19

  • add new function bfs_get_metadata()
  • fix bug duplicated column names with as_tibble(. .name_repair = "minimal")

BFS 0.4.5

CRAN release: 2023-02-27

BFS 0.4.4

CRAN release: 2022-12-14

BFS 0.4.3

CRAN release: 2022-09-07

BFS 0.4.2

BFS 0.4.1

CRAN release: 2021-10-09

BFS 0.3.1

CRAN release: 2021-05-10

  • fix issue #3 with pull request #1

BFS 0.3.0

CRAN release: 2021-03-23

BFS 0.2.6

  • Added a NEWS.md file to track changes to the package.
  • Added bfs_get_catalog() function, that scraps the RSS feed