Interactive data supports organizations to communicate effectively with their stakeholders and partners on the Internet and the World Wide Web. XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a key enabling technology for interactive data. XBRL links organizations and knowledge consumers in a variety of information value chains. XBRL is now in use in many countries and important settings. This book provides, for the first time, an in-depth analysis of XBRL. Thorough and up-to-date, this book explains the most popular constructs in XML, on which XBRL builds, and XBRL. The book provides business and policy makers, technologists and information engineers with an essential toolkit to understand the complete implementation of XBRL.

The book begins with an overview of the business case for interactive data and XBRL. There is an introduction to XML and XBRL and the design and construction of XBRL taxonomies including extensions and multi-dimensional XBRL implementations. It provides a detailed analysis of the interaction of instance documents and taxonomies. The book also provides a synopsis of the most current XBRL technologies.