Copyright © 2012, XBRL International Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Circulation of this Public Working Draft is unrestricted. Other documents may supersede this document. Recipients are invited to submit comments to spec@xbrl.org, and to submit notification of any relevant patent rights of which they are aware and provide supporting documentation.
1 Introduction
1.1 Terminology
2 Requirements
2.1 Constant memory processing
2.2 Identification of conformant documents
2.3 Validation of conformant documents
2.4 Backwards compatibility
A References
B Intellectual property status (non-normative)
C Acknowledgements (non-normative)
D Document history
E Errata corrections in this document
This document defines requirements for a modular extension to the XBRL v2.1 Specification [XBRL 2.1] that enables efficient, stream-based processing of very large XBRL instance documents. The background to this module is described in the Working Group Note, "Notes on the Processing of Large XBRL Instances".
The key words MUST, MUST NOT, REQUIRED, SHALL, SHALL NOT, SHOULD, SHOULD NOT, RECOMMENDED, MAY, and OPTIONAL, in this specification, are to be interpreted as described in [IETF RFC 2119].
The key words concept, context, fact, footnote, instance and unit. in this document are to be interpreted as described in the XBRL Specification [XBRL 2.1].
The solution MUST enable an XBRL instance document to be read a single time, in document order, in such a way that each XBRL fact in the document can be fully understood using a processing approach that has memory usage that is independent of the number of facts, contexts, units and footnotes that appear in the document. The solution MAY provide additional functionality that allows processing with memory usage that is independent of only a subset of these facets.
In this context, "fully understood" means that the processor has access to the union of the information defined in a fact, its associated context, its associated unit (if any) and its associated footnotes (if any). In the case of footnotes, the processor MUST also be able to determine that it has access to all footnotes for the fact. This is not an issue for contexts (as there must be exactly one for each fact), or for units (as there must be at most one for each fact, and it is possible to determine from the fact whether or not it has units).
The solution MUST provide a mechanism that allows instance documents to declare their conformance with the solution in a manner that can be quickly obtained by a consuming processor. This is to allow consumers to demand that submitters conform to the solution, and to quickly reject documents that do not.
The solution MUST describe validation rules and associated error codes to be applied to an instance document that declares itself to be conformant with the solution.
XBRL instance documents that conform to the solution MUST be valid XBRL v2.1 instance documents. This ensures that, performance issues aside, they can be consumed by existing, XBRL v2.1 conformant tools.
As the XBRL Dimensions v1.0 specification [DIMENSIONS] is built using XBRL v2.1 [XBRL 2.1] syntax, this backwards compatibility automatically extends to instance documents using the XBRL Dimension specification.
Similarly, XBRL Formula v1.0 [FORMULA] processors, and other processors built to consume XBRL v2.1 instance documents, will be able to consume documents conforming to this solution, but it is not a requirement that this specification enables Formula processing to be possible using constant memory.
This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing the copyright notice or references to XBRL International or XBRL organizations, except as required to translate it into languages other than English. Members of XBRL International agree to grant certain licenses under the XBRL International Intellectual Property Policy (www.xbrl.org/legal).
This document and the information contained herein is provided on an "AS IS" basis and XBRL INTERNATIONAL DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
The attention of users of this document is directed to the possibility that compliance with or adoption of XBRL International specifications may require use of an invention covered by patent rights. XBRL International shall not be responsible for identifying patents for which a license may be required by any XBRL International specification, or for conducting legal inquiries into the legal validity or scope of those patents that are brought to its attention. XBRL International specifications are prospective and advisory only. Prospective users are responsible for protecting themselves against liability for infringement of patents. XBRL International takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it has made any effort to identify any such rights. Members of XBRL International agree to grant certain licenses under the XBRL International Intellectual Property Policy (www.xbrl.org/legal).
This document could not have been written without the contributions of many people.
| Date | Author | Details |
|---|---|---|
| 22 October 2012 | Paul Warren |
Initial draft. |
| 18 December 2012 | Paul Warren |
Included reference to Formula processing in backwards compatibility section. |
This appendix contains a list of the errata that have been incorporated into this document. This represents all those errata corrections that have been approved by the XBRL International Base Specification and Maintenance Working Group up to and including 06 March 2013. Hyperlinks to relevant e-mail threads may only be followed by those who have access to the relevant mailing lists. Access to internal XBRL mailing lists is restricted to members of XBRL International Inc.
No errata have been incorporated into this document.