XBRL International Dimensions Specification updated as Candidate Recommendation 2

28 March 2006

XBRL International has updated its Dimensions 1.0 Specification, releasing Candidate Recommendation 2.  This contains a number of detailed edits and clarifications based on feedback on the initial Candidate Recommendation released at end December 2005.  It is expected to be approved soon as a formal XBRL International Recommendation, after which its content will remain stable. 

The Dimensions Specification is a modular, optional extension to the XBRL 2.1 Specification allowing XBRL taxonomy authors to define and restrict dimensional information for instance authors to use in the segment and scenario elements of the context element of XBRL instance documents.

A typical example of its use is the ability to define regional and product dimensions for basic fact elements such as sales – although its potential uses go far beyond this simple case.  The specification provides an important extension of the ability of XBRL to represent easily and efficiently the dimensional information which exists in business reporting.  It offers a generalised mechanism to define dimensional metadata and to reference it in XBRL instances.  

The architecture of the Dimensions Specification is such that any XBRL artefacts (instances and their Discoverable Taxonomy Sets) that conform to this specification also conform to the XBRL 2.1 Specification.  They may thus be processed without error by any processor that is capable of correctly processing XBRL artefacts, even if those processors are unaware of this modular extension.  It is also designed in such a way that it makes maximum use of components of the XBRL 2.1 Specification [XBRL] so as to require a minimum amount of retooling of applications for implementation.  

It satisfies XBRL International’s dimensional taxonomy requirements, which are available on Specification Requirements.

See the FAQ for more information on the Dimensions Specification and Specifications – Recommendations for the full Specification and supporting information.

Feedback on the Specification is welcome.  XBRL members may provide this direct to the International Specification Working Group.  Non-members should send comments to spec@xbrl.org.

Announced by

Peter Calvert

XBRL International

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