1 Introduction

All formula assertions specifications ([VALUE ASSERTIONS], [EXISTENCE ASSERTIONS] and [CONSISTENCY ASSERTIONS]) define a standard XML-based syntax for validations on XBRL business reports. The technical nature of an assertion is that the assertion is either "satisfied" or "unsatisfied". From a business perspective, not all assertions express rules which have the same level of importance, and consequently there is a need to be able to attach differing severities in order to classify the severity of an assertion that is unsatisfied.

This specification defines three standard severity levels and the syntax for associating them such that an appropriate severity is applied when an assertion is unsatisfied.

1.1 Background

This specification extends the suite of formula specifications without modifying any existing specifications.

1.2 Relationship to other work

This specification depends upon the XBRL Specification [XBRL 2.1], the XBRL Generic Link Specification [GENERIC LINKS] and the Formula Validation Specification [VALIDATION] which defines assertions. 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.

1.5 Document conventions (non-normative)

1.5.1 Typographic conventions

1.5.1.1 Definition notation

Definitions are highlighted with green text.

1.5.1.2 Footnote notation

Comments which are informative, but not essential to the understanding of the point at hand, are provided in footnotes. All footnotes are non-normative.

1.5.1.3 Element and attribute notation

When referring to a specific element, it will be identified by its namespace prefix and local name. For example, the root element for a specification container element would be referred to as <variable:generalVariable> .

Attributes are also identified by their local name and, where appropriate, their namespace prefix. Attributes are distinguished from elements by prefixing them by an @ symbol. Thus, @id refers to the attribute with the name id.

When referring to any attribute, so long as it has a specific namespace, the local name is replaced by an asterisk ( *). Thus, the notation @xml:* specifies any attribute in the namespace http://www.w3.org/XML/1998/namespace.

1.5.1.4 Error code notation

QNames in parenthetical red text after a "MUST" or "MUST NOT" statement prescribe standardised error codes to be used if the preceding condition is violated.

1.5.2 Formatting conventions

The following highlighting is used for normative technical material in this document:

Example 1: A normative example

Text of the normative example.

The following highlighting is used for non-normative examples in this document:

Example 2: A non-normative example

Text of the helpful example.

Next paragraph of the helpful example.

Example 3 shows the formatting for non-normative examples of poor, discouraged or disallowed usage.

Example 3: An example of poor usage

The example itself.

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
`sev`	`http://xbrl.org/PR/2016-02-09/assertion-severity`
`seve`	`http://xbrl.org/PR/2016-02-09/assertion-severity/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`

2 Severity elements

A severity is one of the three instantiations of resources, <sev:error> , <sev:warning> and <sev:ok> , published in the assertion severity linkbase (A.2).

The name of the severity element conveys the severity level (Error, Warning or OK).

3 Assertion-unsatisfied-severity relationships

An assertion-unsatisfied-severity relationship is a relationship between an assertion and one of the severity resources expressed by an XLink arc.

An assertion-unsatisfied-severity relationship MAY be used to associate an assertion with the severity level that should apply when this assertion is not satisfied.

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

have an arcrole value equal to http://xbrl.org/arcrole/PR/2016-02-09/assertion-unsatisfied-severity;
have an assertion at the starting resource of the arc; and
have a severity resource as the ending resource of the arc.

The arcrole value http://xbrl.org/arcrole/PR/2016-02-09/assertion-unsatisfied-severity is declared in the normative schema for messages.

4 Validation

This specification prescribes certain constraints on the components that may be linked by assertion severity relationships.

The source of an assertion-unsatisfied-severity relationship MUST be an element in the <validation:assertion> or <validation:variableSetAssertion> substitution groups (seve:assertionSeveritySourceError).

The target of an assertion-unsatisfied-severity relationship MUST be one of the severity elements (seve:assertionSeverityTargetError).

An assertion MUST NOT be associated with more than one severity element by an assertion-unsatisfied-severity relationship (seve:multipleSeveritiesForAssertionError).

5 Default Severity

Where an assertion is not associated with a severity element by by an assertion-unsatisfied-severity relationship, processors MUST treat the assertion as if it has a severity of ERROR.

Appendix A Schema and Linkbase

This section contains XML files that form part of this specification. Each document has a standard Publication URL, at which the normative copy of the document is published. A non-normative copy of each document is included in this appendix for convenience.

All references to these documents made for the purposes of DTS Discovery MUST resolve to the Publication URL, after applying XML Base processing (where applicable) and resolving any relative URLs.

It should be noted that the path component of a URL is case-sensitive, and so must match exactly. Further, alternative hosts and schemes that happen to resolve to the same location are not considered equivalent and may not be used. See [URI] for more details on URL equivalence.

The requirement to reference documents by Publication URL does not prevent processors from substituting local copies of the documents for performance or other reasons.

A.1 Assertion Severity schema

The Publication URL for this document is: http://www.xbrl.org/PR/2016-02-09/assertion-severity.xsd.

<link:definition>

assertion severity for unsatisfied evaluations

</link:definition>

<link:usedOn>

gen:arc

</link:usedOn>

</link:arcroleType>

</appinfo>

</annotation>

</schema>

A.2 Assertion Severity linkbase

The Publication URL for this document is: http://www.xbrl.org/PR/2016-02-09/severities.xml.

<gen:link xlink:role="http://www.xbrl.org/2008/role/link" xlink:type="extended">

<sev:error id="ERROR" xlink:label="error" xlink:type="resource"/>

<sev:warning id="WARNING" xlink:label="warning" xlink:type="resource"/>

<sev:ok id="OK" xlink:label="ok" xlink:type="resource"/>

</gen:link>

</link:linkbase>

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)
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)
URI: IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force). "RFC 3986: Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax"
T. Berners-Lee, L. Masinter, and R. Fielding.
(See http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986)
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)
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 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/)

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.

Appendix E Document history

Date	Author	Details
20 March 2014	Richard Ashby	Initial draft based on discussion on the FWG.
07 May 2014	Richard Ashby	Constrained the available severity levels to a strict enumeration defined in the schema.
15 May 2014	Richard Ashby	Added introduction text. Added error codes for validation of source and targets of assertion severity relationships.
26 June 2014	Richard Ashby	Reference three standard severity resources in published linkbase, to prevent authors from instantiating multiple severity elements with the same level but undefined differences in meaning.
11 September 2014	Herm Fischer	Refactor errors `seve:multipleSeveritiesForAssertionSatisfied` and `seve:multipleSeveritiesForAssertionUnsatisfied` to a single error for both relationships `seve:multipleAssertionSeveritiesNotAllowed` and move to validation section.
20 July 2015	Paul Warren	Included linkbase file in specification and updated schema policy. Included validation:variableSetAssertion as an allowed substitution group for the source of assertion severity relationships. Refactored validation section.
23 September 2015	Paul Warren	Removed the ability to apply severities to satisfied assertions.
19 January 2016	Paul Warren	Replaced generic `<sev:severity>` elements with concrete `<sev:error>` , `<sev:warning>` and `<sev:ok>` elements.

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 09 February 2016. 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.

Assertion Severity 1.0

Proposed Recommendation 09 February 2016

Status

Abstract

Table of Contents

Appendices

Table

Examples

Definitions

Error codes