Taxonomy Package Specification Approved
The XBRL International Board of Directors has promoted to “Recommendation” status a specification that will make XBRL taxonomies easier to use. The Taxonomy Package Specification defines a standard way of publishing taxonomies that XBRL tools can use to improve the end-user experience when working with XBRL.
Taxonomy Packages include additional information that has traditionally been published in separate documents in a non-structured format (such as Word or PDF). This includes a list of the files (or “entry points”) within the taxonomy that are intended to be referenced by XBRL reports, along with human-readable labels and descriptions.
Other information that can be provided in a Taxonomy Package including the version, publication date, licence information and the details of the publishing entity. As for other XBRL specifications, all human- readable fields can be provided in multiple languages, allowing for localised descriptions.
Adoption of the Taxonomy Package specification will create further opportunities for improving user experience in the future. The Specification Working Group is currently looking at mechanisms for identifying dependencies between taxonomies, for example, where a country-specific taxonomy extends an international taxonomy. This will allow tools to further simplify the use of such taxonomies. If you would like to participate in this effort, or contribute requirements, please contact spec@xbrl.org
The Taxonomy Package specification can be found within our Specification pages here.
