1 Introduction

Assertions are an important feature of XBRL in certain scenarios in order to warrant a minimum quality of the data exchanged. In those cases, the capability of producing a clear description of a potential error is sometimes as important as the capability of detecting the error itself.

This document specifies the syntax and semantics for messages that can be generated dynamically in the context of the evaluation of an assertion. These messages are based on the generic messages specification [GENERIC MESSAGES].

Messages are conformant with the XBRL Specification [XBRL 2.1]. This document makes no statement about:

the kinds of XLink extended links that may contain them
the assertion that they might be related to by element-messages relationships.

This specification also does not define any XLink extended link roles but defines resource roles for use with messages for satisfied and unsatisfied messages.

1.1 Background

This specification extends the documentation capabilities of the XBRL Specification [XBRL 2.1].

1.2 Relationship to other work

This specification depends upon the XBRL Specification [XBRL 2.1]. This specification depends upon the XBRL Generic Link Specification [GENERIC LINKS]. In the event of any conflicts between this specification and the specifications upon which it depends, this specification does not prevail.

1.3 Language independence

The official language of XBRL International's own work products is English and the preferred spelling convention is UK English.

1.4 Terminology

This specification is consistent with the definitions of any of the terms defined in specifications that it depends on.

Where this document refers to an XML schema, it is referring to an XML document [XML] that contains a declaration of a schema that is compliant with XML Schema [XML SCHEMA STRUCTURES].

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].

1.5 Document conventions (non-normative)

Documentation conventions follow those set out in the XBRL Variables Specification [VARIABLES].

1.6 Namespaces and namespace prefixes

Namespace prefixes [XML NAMES] will be used for elements and attributes in the form ns:name where ns is the namespace prefix and name is the local name. Throughout this specification, the mappings from namespace prefixes to actual namespaces is consistent with Table 1.

The prefix column in Table 1 is non normative. The namespace URI column is normative.

Table 1: Namespaces and namespace prefixes

Prefix	Namespace URI
`valm`	`http://xbrl.org/2010/message/validation`
`xbrlvalme`	`http://xbrl.org/2010/message/validation/error`
`eg`	`http://example.com/`
`fn`	`http://www.w3.org/2005/xpath-functions`
`link`	`http://www.xbrl.org/2003/linkbase`
`xbrli`	`http://www.xbrl.org/2003/instance`
`xfi`	`http://www.xbrl.org/2008/function/instance`
`xbrldi`	`http://xbrl.org/2006/xbrldi`
`xbrldt`	`http://xbrl.org/2005/xbrldt`
`xl`	`http://www.xbrl.org/2003/XLink`
`xlink`	`http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink`
`xs`	`http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema`
`xsi`	`http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance`
`gen`	`http://xbrl.org/2008/generic`
`variable`	`http://xbrl.org/2008/variable`
`iso4217`	`http://www.xbrl.org/2003/iso4217`
va	`http://xbrl.org/2008/assertion/value`
ea	`http://xbrl.org/2008/assertion/existence`
ca	`http://xbrl.org/2008/assertion/consistency`

2 Syntax

This specification only provides a textual declaration of syntax constraints when those constraints are not expressed by the normative schema supplied with this specification.

Explanations of elements and attributes are only supplied when explanations are not already provided in other specifications.

Unless explicitly stated otherwise, a reference to a specific element MUST be read as a reference to that element or to any element in its substitution group.

2.1 Assertion-satisfied-message relationships

An assertion-satisfied-message relationship is a specific case of element-message relationship between an assertion and a message expressed by an XLink arc.

To declare an assertion-satisfied-message relationship an XLink arc MUST:

have an arcrole value equal to http://xbrl.org/arcrole/2010/assertion-satisfied-message
have an assertion at the starting resource of the arc
have a message at the ending resource of the arc

The arcrole value, http://xbrl.org/arcrole/2010/assertion-satisfied-message, is declared in the normative schema for messages.

Assertion-satisfied-message relationships MUST be expressed by generic arcs as indicated by the restrictions imposed by the arcrole declaration in the normative schema.

2.2 Assertion-unsatisfied-message relationships

An assertion-unsatisfied-message relationship is a specific case of element-message relationship between an assertion and a message expressed by an XLink arc.

To declare an assertion-unsatisfied-message relationship an XLink arc MUST:

have an arcrole value equal to http://xbrl.org/arcrole/2010/assertion-unsatisfied-message
have an assertion at the starting resource of the arc
have a message at the ending resource of the arc

The arcrole value, http://xbrl.org/arcrole/2010/assertion-unsatisfied-message, is declared in the normative schema for messages.

Assertion-unsatisfied-message relationships MUST be expressed by generic arcs as indicated by the restrictions imposed by the arcrole declaration in the normative schema.

3 Expansion of validation messages

Those messages whose referred element is an assertion SHOULD be expanded whenever the assertion is evaluated against a data set and its result is:

satisfied, in the case of relationships expressed by XLink arcs whose arcrole value is equal to http://xbrl.org/arcrole/2010/assertion-satisfied-message
not satisfied, in the case of relationships expressed by XLink arcs whose arcrole value is equal to http://xbrl.org/arcrole/2010/assertion-unsatisfied-message

The message expression context to be used in the expansion of these messages depends on the type of assertion, as described in the following sections.

3.1 Expression context of messages in assertion evaluations

This section defines the expression context for messages involved in the evaluation of assertions. Some characteristics are specific of the type of assertion, but the following one applies to all of them:

all parameters in the discoverable taxonomy set MUST be included among in-scope variables. The QName for the variable is the value of the @name attribute in the <variable:parameter> element,
however, any other in-scope variable defined in the following assertion type specific sections that has the same QName as a DTS parameter, overrides the parameter.

3.1.1 Value assertions

The expression context for messages involved in the evaluation of value assertions MUST

have as context item the <xbrli:xbrl> element of the input XBRL instance,
include variables available in the assertion data set of the assertion evaluation among in-scope variables, and
make available through an in-scope variable with the QName va:test-expression the value of the @test attribute of the evaluated assertion.

3.1.2 Consistency assertions

The expression context for messages involved in the evaluation of consistency assertions MUST

have as context item an atomic value equal to the value of the derived fact,
include variables available in the variable set defined by the formula evaluated among in-scope variables,
include any consistency-assertion parameter among in-scope variables, and
make available through in-scope variables the following information:
- QName ca:aspect-matched-facts for the sequence of all aspect matched input facts in the evaluation of the assertion,
- QName ca:acceptance-radius for the value of the acceptance radius in the evaluation of the assertion,
- QName ca:absolute-acceptance-radius-expression for the value of the @absoluteAcceptanceRadius attribute in the consistency assertion, and
- QName ca:proportional-acceptance-radius-expression the value of the @proportionalAcceptanceRadius attribute in the consistency assertion.

3.1.3 Existence assertions

The expression context for messages involved in the evaluation of existence assertions MUST

have as the context item an atomic value equal to the cardinality of the set of all possible different evaluations of the assertion's variable-set,
make available through an in-scope variable with the QName ea:test-expression the value of the @test attribute of the evaluated assertion,
no variable-set variables are available to expressions of an existence assertion, even if only one evaluation occurred, but the parameters of the variable set are available.

Appendix A Normative schema

The following is the XML schema provided as part of this specification. This is normative. Non-normative versions (which should be identical to these except for appropriate comments indicating their non-normative status) are also provided as separate files for convenience of users of the specification.

NOTE: (non-normative) Following the schema maintenance policy of XBRL International, it is the intent (but is not guaranteed) that the location of non-normative versions of these schemas on the web will be as follows:

While any schema is the most current RECOMMENDED version and until it is superseded by any additional errata corrections a non-normative version will reside on the web in the directory http://www.xbrl.org/2008/ - during the drafting process for this specification this directory should contain a copy of the most recent published version of the schema at http://www.xbrl.org/2010/validation-message.xsd.
A non-normative version of each schema as corrected by any update to the RECOMMENDATION will be archived in perpetuity on the web in a directory that will contain a unique identification indicating the date of the update.

<link:definition>

assertion has message for satisfied evaluations

</link:definition>

<link:usedOn>

gen:arc

</link:usedOn>

</link:arcroleType>

<link:definition>

assertion has message for unsatisfied evaluations

</link:definition>

<link:usedOn>

gen:arc

</link:usedOn>

</link:arcroleType>

</appinfo>

</annotation>

</schema>

Appendix B References

CONSISTENCY ASSERTIONS: XBRL International Inc.. "XBRL Value Assertions 1.0"
Victor Morilla, and Geoff Shuetrim.
(See http://www.xbrl.org/Specification/consistencyAssertions/REC-2009-06-22/consistencyAssertions-REC-2009-06-22.html)
EXISTENCE ASSERTIONS: XBRL International Inc.. "XBRL Existence Assertions 1.0"
Victor Morilla, and Geoff Shuetrim.
(See http://www.xbrl.org/Specification/existenceAssertions/REC-2009-06-22/existenceAssertions-REC-2009-06-22.html)
FORMULA: XBRL International Inc.. "XBRL Formulae 1.0"
Phillip Engel, Herm Fischer, Victor Morilla, Jim Richards, Geoff Shuetrim, David vun Kannon, and Hugh Wallis.
(See http://www.xbrl.org/Specification/formula/CR-2008-12-31/formula-CR-2008-12-31.html)
GENERIC LINKS: XBRL International Inc.. "XBRL Generic Links 1.0"
Mark Goodhand, Ignacio Hernández-Ros, and Geoff Shuetrim.
(See http://www.xbrl.org/Specification/gnl/REC-2009-06-22/gnl-REC-2009-06-22.html)
GENERIC MESSAGES: XBRL International Inc.. "XBRL Generic Messages 1.0"
Masatomo Goto, Takahide Muramoto, Hitoshi Okumura, Herm Fischer, Andy Harris, and Victor Morilla.
(See http://www.xbrl.org/Specification/genericMessages/PWD-2009-12-16/genericMessages-PWD-2009-12-16.html)
IETF RFC 2119: IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). "RFC 2119: Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels"
Scott Bradner.
(See http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2119.txt)
VALIDATION: XBRL International Inc.. "XBRL Validation 1.0"
Victor Morilla, and Geoff Shuetrim.
(See http://www.xbrl.org/Specification/validation/REC-2009-06-22/validation-REC-2009-06-22.html)
VALUE ASSERTIONS: XBRL International Inc.. "XBRL Value Assertions 1.0"
Victor Morilla, and Geoff Shuetrim.
(See http://www.xbrl.org/Specification/valueAssertions/REC-2009-06-22/valueAssertions-REC-2009-06-22.html)
VARIABLES: XBRL International Inc.. "XBRL Variables 1.0"
Phillip Engel, Herm Fischer, Victor Morilla, Jim Richards, Geoff Shuetrim, David vun Kannon, and Hugh Wallis.
(See http://www.xbrl.org/Specification/variables/REC-2009-06-22/variables-REC-2009-06-22.html)
XBRL 2.1: XBRL International Inc.. "Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) 2.1"
Phillip Engel, Walter Hamscher, Geoff Shuetrim, David vun Kannon, and Hugh Wallis.
(See http://www.xbrl.org/Specification/XBRL-RECOMMENDATION-2003-12-31+Corrected-Errata-2008-07-02.htm)
XLINK: W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). "XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.0"
Steve DeRose, Eve Maler, and David Orchard.
(See http://www.w3.org/TR/xlink/)
XML: W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fourth Edition)"
Tim Bray, Jean Paoli, C. M. Sperberg-McQueen, Eve Maler, and François Yergeau.
(See http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml/)
XML NAMES: W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). "Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Second Edition)"
Tim Bray, Dave Hollander, Andrew Layman, and Richard Tobin.
(See http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/)
XML SCHEMA STRUCTURES: W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). "XML Schema Part 1: Structures Second Edition"
Henry S. Thompson, David Beech, Murray Maloney, and Noah Mendelsohn.
(See http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlschema-1/)
XPATH 2.0: W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). "XML Path Language (XPath) 2.0"
Anders Berglund, Scott Boag, Don Chamberlin, Mary F. Fernández, Michael Kay, Jonathan Robie, and Jérôme Siméon.
(See http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath20/)

Appendix C Intellectual property status (non-normative)

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).

Appendix D Acknowledgements (non-normative)

This document could not have been written without the contributions of many people including the participants in the Formula Working Group.

Appendix E Document history (non-normative)

Date	Author	Details
09 June 2009	Masatomo Goto	First internal working draft created.
19 November 2009	Herm Fischer	Incorporate changes per FWG meeting discussion. Removed references to assertion-sets. Added evaluation context definitions, to match that of the applicable assertion. Changed to one arcrole for both successful and not successful messages, and separate resource roles for satisfied and unsatisfied message resource.
29 November 2009	Victor Morilla	Changed name of the specification from generic expression message labels to general messages. Previous name was a bit confusing. With the change, the term label defines documentation of DTS objects, whereas messages correspond to documentation of events or results in processes based on information of the DTS. As these processes have a dynamic nature, inline XPath expressions are quite convenient. Namespaces changed to 2010 Included new element `<msg:message>` as resource for messages. Previous specification reused `<label:label>` . But considering that messages have additional syntax restrictions, I have deemed convenient the creation of a different element. Created resource roles for messages: standard, verbose and terse Created the idea of element-message relationship and reorganization of the text of the specification to facilitate future reusing of messages by new specifications. Included parameters in DTS as part of in-scope variables for the expansion of messages. Included the special variable `ca:aspect-matched-facts` to allow access to these facts from XPath expressions. Added error for unmatched right curly brackets. Included suggestion by Andy of allowing structure data in message. Now XPath expressions can appear inside text nodes and attribute values Included examples of a plain text and a complex message. Included `@separator` attribute to be used in expansion of sequences.
08 December 2009	Victor Morilla	Specification renamed to Messages. References to generic messages removed.
13 December 2009	Victor Morilla	Message specificaton splited into generic messages and assertion messages Included new in-scope variables required by Fujitsu
13 December 2009	Victor Morilla	Changed name of the specification to validation messages Changed namespace and prefix accordingly Added paragraph about overriding in-scope variables referencing DTS parameters as suggested by Herm

Appendix F Errata corrections in this document

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 Formula Working Group up to and including 24 October 2011. 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.

Validation messages 1.0

Recommendation 24 October 2011

Status

Abstract

Table of Contents

Appendices

Table

Definitions