Difference between revisions of "XBRL Linkbase"

Revision as of 12:00, 12 October 2021

Definition

XBRL Linkbase. XBRL technical term for a relationships file. Linkbases are XML documents (files) which follow the XLink specification. They are designed to give information about the XBRL elements in a taxonomy (and in the case of the footnote linkbase, in an instance document).

Linkbases are a collection of Links, which themselves are a collection of locators, arcs, and potentially resources. A linkbase is composed of links between two XBRL concepts defined in a taxonomy (such as in the presentation linkbase, which organizes concepts in a taxonomy in a way that is understandable for a human reader), or links between one XBRL concept and a resource related to it (such as in the label linkbase, which links concepts in an XBRL taxonomy to one or more labels — descriptions assigned to the concept for different purposes or in different languages).

XBRL linkbases defined in the XBRL specification:

Locators are elements that essentially reference a concept and provide an arbitrary label for it. In turn, arcs are elements indicating that a concept links to another concept by referencing the labels defined by the locators. Some arcs link concepts to other concepts. Other arcs link concepts to resources, the most common of which are human-readable labels for the concepts. The XBRL 2.1 specification defines five different kinds of linkbases.

Presentation Linkbase

This linkbase associates concepts with other concepts so that the resulting relations can guide the creation of a user interface, rendering, or visualization.

Business reports are in general prepared in the form of tables or statements or other structures. The presentation linkbase stores information about relationships between elements in order to properly organize the taxonomy content. This allows the elements to be arranged in a structure that is appropriate to represent the hierarchical relationships in particular business data.

These groupings can be performed in many ways. For example, a typical Balance Sheet contains Assets, Equity and Liabilities. Assets consist of Current Assets and Non-current Assets. Current Assets are split in Inventories, Receivables and so on. The presentation linkbase, using parent-child relations organizes elements in this way and helps users find concepts they are interested in.

The main drawback of a tree-like (hierarchical) structure in a presentation linkbase is that it only allows the presentation of flat lists of elements, while financial statements also contain more sophisticated reports such as Changes in Equity or Movements in Property, Plant and Equipment . The XBRL Consortium is currently working on rendering solutions that would provide for the automatic creation of such reports.

XBRL's Global Ledger Framework (XBRL GL) is the only set of taxonomies that is developed and recommended by XBRL International.

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-=== Definition Linkbase ===
-This linkbase associates concepts with other concepts using a variety of arc roles to express relations such as is-a, whole-part, etc. Arc roles can be created by those who create XBRL taxonomies or commonly used arc roles can be added to the XBRL Link Role Registry (LRR).
-The definition linkbase provides taxonomy creators with the opportunity to define different kinds of relations between elements. There are four standard types of relationships supported by the definition linkbase.
-The first one is referred to as '''general-special'''. It distinguishes between concepts that have more generic or more specific meaning. For example, ZIP code is the US representation of Postal Code which is used worldwide. Therefore, to indicate that connection, taxonomy creators define Postal Code as a general term to which there is more specialised concept ZIP code.
-Second available relation type is '''essence-alias'''. By using it, taxonomy creators are able to indicate that two concepts have similar meaning. For example, some airlines may want to use the term Planes to describe their main component of their PPE while other would prefer Aircraft. To state that meaning of these two is the same and that they can be used interchangeably, taxonomy creators may connect them using "essence-alias" arcrole.
-The third standard type of relation is called '''requires-element'''. As its name indicates, taxonomy builders use it to force instance creators to enter the value of one element, if they provide the content of another. For instance, a regulator may want to require disclosures on a particular component of Assets if it appears on the Balance Sheet. In order to achieve that, the definition linkbase defines "requires-element" relationship between them (for example, Property, Plant and Equipment, Net and Property, Plant and Equipment Disclosures).
-The fourth relation is '''similar-tuples'''. It resembles "essence-alias" relation but is applied for tuples. It connects two tuples that are equivalents in terms of definition (documentation from label linkbase or reference in reference linkbase) but are diverse from XML perspective i.e., do not have identical content models, for example contain different elements. One of the reasons that this type of relation was introduced is the prohibition of schema redefinition which prevents changes in a tuple's content model.
 === Presentation Linkbase ===