The eXtensible Markup Language, or XML is a method to add structure and context to unstructured information This paper presents some of the latest issues in using XML as a standard for information publishing. We present XBRL (eXtended Business Reporting Language) and possible applications in elaborating financial documents. We also present DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) as a new XML based standard developed by IBM DITA is used for technical information structuring and publishing. In the final part we present a DITA implementation of a procedures manual for a hypermarket.XBRL, XML, DITA, HTML, taxonomy, instance document

Claudiu Chiru

Elena Iatan

Liana Elefterie

English

Research Papers in Economics

XML PUBLISHING SOLUTIONS FOR A COMPANY 
Claudiu Chiru, Liana Elefterie,  Elena Iatan  
Spiru Haret University, Unirii str. 32-34, Constanta 
claudiu_chiru@yahoo.com, office@audit.ro, iatan_e@yahoo.com 
Abstract: The eXtensible Markup Language, or XML is a method to add structure and context to 
unstructured information This paper presents some of the latest issues in using XML as a 
standard  for information publishing. We present XBRL (eXtended Business Reporting 
Language)  and  possible  applications  in  elaborating    financial  documents.  We  also 
present DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) as a new XML based  standard 
developed by IBM DITA is used for technical information structuring and publishing. In 
the  final  part  we  present  a  DITA  implementation  of  a  procedures  manual  for  a 
hypermarket. 
Keywords: XBRL, XML, DITA, HTML, taxonomy, instance document  
1.  Introduction 
XML (EXtensible Markup Language) is an open standard that describes data from the Web. 
XML defines data elements on a Web page and business-to-business documents. XML uses tag 
structure like HTML but, whereas HTML defines how elements are displayed, XML defines what 
those elements contain. HTML uses predefined tags and XML allows tags to be defined by the 
developer of the page. Thus, data items  can be described as database records. XML supports 
business-to-business transactions and has become a standard for electronic data interchange and 
Web services. 
2.  XML Based Languages 
2.1.  XBRL (eXtended Business Reporting Language) 
XBRL (Extended Business Reporting Language) is a communication language that can be 
used to send/receive business or financial information in a standard form. It is based on XML 
technologies  and  is  fast  becoming  a  standard  means  of  communicating  information  between 
businesses and on the Internet. XBRL can be used to efficiently : 
￿  Elaborate reports 
￿  Analyze financial data 
￿  Share financial data 
￿  Verify data 
XBRL is a global effort for building a digital reporting language. This standard makes the 
global communication easier: 
￿  XBRL creates a common vocabulary for financial information description 
￿   Every country has a national chapter but the structure of the documents is the same. 
Many European countries have developed taxonomies for XBRL implementation: 
￿  Belgium-Belgium National Bank 
￿  Denmark-Danish Commerce and Companies Agency (DCCA) 
￿  European  Union  –  European  Committee  of  Central  Balance  Sheet  Data  Offices 
(ECCBSO) 
￿  Germany – DeutscheBank, Bundesbank 2.1.1.  XBRL structure 
The taxonomy 
A XBRL taxonomy [1] is a dictionary of terms built in a hierarchycal structure. The taxonomy 
consists of two important parts: the schema file (or more schemas) and linkbases.  
The schema file contains the elements and their characteristics such as names, ids and other 
attributes. A schema file has an .xsd extension and it is an XML schema file. 
The root element of all schemas is called <schema>. The starting root element is <schema> 
and the ending root element is </schema>. XML documents and XBRL documents as well use 
namespaces.  A  namespace  is  used  to  distinguish  between  elements  of  different  schemas.  A 
namespace is like an Internet address (“http://xbrl.iasb.org/int/fr/ifrs-gp/”) but it’s not. The reason 
for using such names is their uniqueness and so unique elements in the schemas can be identified. 
Elements are in fact business concepts like Assets. In the following example we present a  
concept  named  “Depreciable”.  The  most  important  parts  provided  in  this  example,  from  a 
business perspective, are name, type, balance and PeriodType. 
 
<element id="ci_Depreciable" name="Depreciable" 
type="xbrli:monetaryItemType" substitutionGroup="xbrli:item" 
xbrli:periodType="instant" xbrli:balance="debit" /> 
 
Name is a unique element assigned to the concept, type is the type of the concept (in our case 
is a monetary type), PeriodType makes a distinction between flows and resources.  
Payments, revenues or profit have the PeriodType duration. 
XBRL has also to express the balance nature of the concept: debit or credit. The schema 
document reflects the nature of the concept by using the balance attribute: balance=”debit”. 
Linkbases [1] are the components of the taxonomy that provide relationship between elements 
and link them with external resources.  
The linkbase files are named using the name of the taxonomy followed by an underscore and 
then the type of the linkbase file :”basicCalculation_labels.xml”. In this case the taxonomy file 
name is basicCalculation.xsd.  
The taxonomy linkbase files [1] are: 
￿  labels 
￿  references 
￿  presentations 
￿  calculations 
￿  definitions 
The labels file [1] has the detailed description for all the elements in the taxonomy. There are 
at least four entries for each element if a single language is supported: 
￿  locator entry 
￿  label entry 
￿  arc entry from the taxonomy to the label 
￿  arc entry from the label to the taxonomy 
The  reference  file  [1]  points  to  source  documents  (  documents  issued  by  the  authorities) 
indicating the relevant paragraphs and clauses. 
The presentation file [1] is responsible for displaying the elements on the order in which it 
should appear in the financial statement. 
The  calculation  file  [1]  improves  the  quality  of  the  XBRL  report.  It  has  definitions  of 
validation rules. These validation rules apply to all instance documents that refer to a specific 
taxonomy. 
The definition file [1] creates all the parent-child relationships. 
 Instance documents 
XBRL instance documents are electronic reports created according to the XBRL taxonomy. 
An  instance  document  contains  concepts  with  a  given  value  and  a  context  in  which  those 
concepts are used. 
An instance document defines contexts such as period or measure.  
For example: 
 
<context id="I-2002"> 
- <entity> 
  <identifier 
scheme="http://www.SampleCompany.com">SAMP 
</identifier>  
  </entity> 
- <period> 
  <instant>2002-12-31</instant>  
  </period> 
  </context> 
 
and 
 
<context id="I-2003"> 
- <entity> 
  <identifier 
scheme="http://www.SampleCompany.com">SAMP</identi
fier>  
  </entity> 
- <period> 
  <instant>2003-12-31</instant>  
  </period> 
  </context> 
 
define two instant moments. 
The unit tag defines the type of the monetary item. In our case EURO. 
 
<unit id="U-Monetary"> 
  <measure>iso4217:EUR</measure>  
  </unit> 
 
Element’s definition in the taxonomy: 
 
<element id="ci_ComputerEquipment" name="ComputerEquipment" 
type="xbrli:monetaryItemType" substitutionGroup="xbrli:item" 
xbrli:periodType="instant" nillable="true" /> 
 
The  following  tags  define  the  effective  use  and  the  contexts  of  the  concept 
ComputerEquipment in the instance file. 
  
  <ci:ComputerEquipment contextRef="I-2002" unitRef="U-
Monetary">5313000</ci:ComputerEquipment>  
  <ci:ComputerEquipment contextRef="I-2003" unitRef="U-
Monetary">4169000</ci:ComputerEquipment>   
Fig. 1. The process of creating an instance document 
 
 
 
Fig 2. Fujitsu Taxonomy Creator Screenshot 
 
The  instance  document  may  have  the  same  layout  as  the  original  document.  Reading  an 
instance document is a process that extracts the data out of the document.  
 
2.1.2.  Sending XBRL Balance Sheet Documents to Local Financial Administration 
 
The  process  of  creating  XBRL  balance  sheet  documents  needs  a  taxonomy  and  instance 
documents for every balance sheet. The taxonomy will contain all the concepts needed together 
with  their  attributes  and  relationships. The instance  document  was  created  using  an  instance creator named Fujitsu Instance Creator. The instance document contains values from the original 
document. 
 
 
 
Fig. 3.  XBRL Framework 
 
The above XBRL framework can be used to send financial documents/reports to a financial 
institution. The XBRL documents can be created from Excel files. In this case we have to use a 
conversion software. A good solution might be Rivet’s software Dragon Tag. 
The XBRL instance document can be created, as you had already seen, by using instance 
creator software or some Adobe based solutions like the one provided by Corefilling company. 
Storage and processing data collected from XBRL documents is made by using several ways: 
￿  storage in files 
￿  storage in relational databases ￿  storage in native XML databases 
There are several software vendors for the above storage solutions: Tamino XML server, 
Semansys Tamino XBRL Suite, Xindice.. 
2.2.  Dita (Darwin Information Typing Architecture) 
The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) [2] is an XML-based architecture for 
authoring,  producing,  and  delivering  technical  information.  DITA  includes  topics  like:Task, 
Concept, Reference. A Task topic describes how to accomplish a task. It displays a list of steps 
that the users must follow to produce a specified result. Concept contains definitions, rules and 
guidelines. A Refererence topic describes command syntax, programming instructions, reference 
material.  DITA  is  an  emerging  standard  that  provides  an  outstanding  platform  to  promote 
information interchange, in an orderly fashion, within an enterprise or with other organizations.  
DITA provides several good methodologies for managing an “information supply chain” where 
supplier and consumer can easily interchange topics. DITA provides an excellent infrastructure 
for managing information at a topic level, getting away from document hierarchies that in the past 
have added complexities to interchange.  The DITA architecture, a related DTD and a W3C-
Schema was originally developed by IBM. DITA is now an OASIS standard. 
Using DITA for publishing procedures manuals 
Procedures manuals are a collection of task to accomplish by the emploees of a company. 
Structuring a procedure manual has become an easy task using DITA. Taking advantage of the 
DITA  specification,  the  manuals  can  be  structured  using  DITA  topics:  Task,  Concept  or 
Reference. On the other hand, the manuals may be print for different audience. 
In  this  section  we  are  trying  to  design  a  DITA  structure  for  the  procedures manual  of  a 
hypermarket. 
The DITA Structure of a Procedure Manual for Goods Receiving in a Romanian 
Supermarket 
Creating Content 
We used the XMLMind editor for creating the DITA procedures manual. XMLMind  is a free 
XML editor which has a free DITA plug-in that provides user-friendly templates for standard 
DITA topic types an for DITA map files.  
First, we created the concepts, then the tasks and the references. Each concept or task or reference 
is an xml file. The topics that we have created are: 
Topics 
Concepts 
￿  Receptie marfa 
￿  Comanda 
￿  NIR 
￿  ... 
 
Task 
￿  Lansare comanda 
￿  Verificare existenţa comandă 
￿  Verificarea mărfii la recepţie 
￿  ... 
 
Reference 
￿  Starea comenzii 
￿  Inregistrarea receptiei ￿  Document privind returul/refuzul de marfa 
￿  ... 
 
Audience 
￿  Director magazin 
￿  Sef departament 
￿  Category manager 
￿  Sef raion 
￿  Operator calculator 
￿  Lucrator comercial 
 
After creating these topics we have created the ditamap file. Ditamap is a map file that puts 
together all the files into a single document. The map file describes the sequence and hierarchy of 
the topics and sometimes the relationship between them.  
There can be created as many map files as one need. For example, one map file for a PDF output 
and one map file for the HTML output.  
 
 
 
Fig. 4. Creating a DITA Concept with XMLMind 
 
An important step in creating DITA documents is conditional processing or filtering logic [3]. 
To exclude topics that have certain attributes from the output we have created a ditaval file using 
prop elements with attributes att, val, action. For example: 
 
<prop action=”exclude” att=”audience” val=”director departament”> 
 
will exclude all topics that are related with the “director departament” duties.  
The final step is creating output. The Dita Open Toolkit [3] can build output in HTML format 
or PDF format. The output can be customized using CSS styles or by modifying XSL templates. 
We could create output for every category of audience: director departament, sef receptie marfa, 
... 3.  Conclusion 
XML  is  fast  becoming  “the  language”  for  information  interchange  and  describing 
relationships. There is XML for biology, XML for chemistry,  XML for rights management, 
XML for finance, XML for business rules, XML for publishing, etc. In this paper we tried to 
present some of the latest applications of XML. We have presented XBRL as the language for 
business reporting and DITA a new standard for writing documentation. We also have presented 
some adequate XML solutions for companies. In the near future, together with the Marklogic 
environment  or TextML server we think that companies will implement XML solutions for 
document management as a standard.  
4.  References 
[1] Charles Hoffman (2006), Financial Reporting Using XBRL, Published by Lulu 
[2] Don Ray (2005), Introduction to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, IBM 
corporation 
[3] Louise Kasemeier(2007), Dita for Solo Writers, www.lone-dita.com 
 
 

XML PUBLISHING SOLUTIONS FOR A COMPANY

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