Validating XBRL Instances

Overview

In addition to parsing XBRL instances, Gepsio also validates the instance's contents according to the XBRL specification. Gepsio can report on whether or not the loaded instance is valid according to the specification, and, if the instance is invalid, can offer information about the errors.

The XbrlDocument class maintains a Boolean property called IsValid which will, after an XBRL instance is loaded, describe whether or not the loaded document is valid according to the specification. If the value of IsValid is true, then the instance is valid. If the value of IsValid is false, then the instance is invalid.

If the document instance is invalid, then you can examine an XbrlDocument property called ValidationErrors to get more information about why the loaded instance is invalid. The ValidationErrors property is a list of objects of type JeffFerguson.Gepsio.ValidationError. The ValidationError class maintains a string property called Message which describes the validation error.

If Gepsio determines that a document instance is invalid, it still provides the same object model that it provides for a valid instance. Code should still be able to traverse the document's fragments, schemas, facts, and other entities, provided that the necessary level of information could still be loaded. If IsValid evaluates to false for a loaded document instance, code does not need to assume that there is no object model information is available. The only issue is that, depending on the type of errors that were encountered during validation, some of the information in the object model may be inaccurate or incorrect.

Complete Examples

C#

using JeffFerguson.Gepsio;
using System;

namespace ValidityChecks
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var xbrlDoc = new XbrlDocument();
            xbrlDoc.Load(@"..\..\JeffFerguson.Gepsio.Test\XBRL-CONF-2014-12-10\Common\300-instance\301-01-IdScopeValid.xml");
            CheckValidity(xbrlDoc);
        }

        static void CheckValidity(XbrlDocument doc)
        {
            if(doc.IsValid == true)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Congratulations! This document is valid according to the XBRL specification.");
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("This document is invalid according to the XBRL specification.");
                foreach(var validationError in doc.ValidationErrors)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(validationError.Message);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

VB.NET

Imports System
Imports JeffFerguson.Gepsio

Module Program
    Sub Main(args As String())
        LoadValidInstance()
        LoadInvalidInstance()
    End Sub

    Private Sub LoadValidInstance()
        Dim xbrlDoc = New XbrlDocument()
        xbrlDoc.Load("..\..\..\..\..\..\JeffFerguson.Gepsio.Test\XBRL-CONF-2014-12-10\Common\300-instance\301-01-IdScopeValid.xml")
        CheckValidity(xbrlDoc)
    End Sub

    Private Sub LoadInvalidInstance()
        Dim xbrlDoc = New XbrlDocument()
        xbrlDoc.Load("..\..\..\..\..\..\JeffFerguson.Gepsio.Test\XBRL-CONF-2014-12-10\Common\300-instance\301-10-FootnoteFromOutOfScope.xml")
        CheckValidity(xbrlDoc)
    End Sub

    Private Sub CheckValidity(xbrlDoc As XbrlDocument)
        If xbrlDoc.IsValid = True Then
            Console.WriteLine("Congratulations! This document is valid according to the XBRL specification.")
        Else
            Console.WriteLine("This document is invalid according to the XBRL specification.")
            For Each ValidationError In xbrlDoc.ValidationErrors
                Console.Write(ValidationError.Message)
            Next
        End If
    End Sub

End Module

F#

open System
open JeffFerguson.Gepsio

let CheckValidity (xbrlDoc : XbrlDocument) =
    if xbrlDoc.IsValid then
        Console.WriteLine "Congratulations! This document is valid according to the XBRL specification."
    else
        Console.WriteLine "This document is invalid according to the XBRL specification."
        for validationError in xbrlDoc.ValidationErrors do
            Console.WriteLine validationError.Message
    |> ignore

let LoadValidInstance =
    let xbrlDoc = new XbrlDocument()
    xbrlDoc.Load @"..\..\..\..\..\..\JeffFerguson.Gepsio.Test\XBRL-CONF-2014-12-10\Common\300-instance\301-01-IdScopeValid.xml"
    CheckValidity xbrlDoc
    |> ignore

let LoadInvalidInstance =
    let xbrlDoc = new XbrlDocument()
    xbrlDoc.Load @"..\..\..\..\..\..\JeffFerguson.Gepsio.Test\XBRL-CONF-2014-12-10\Common\300-instance\301-10-FootnoteFromOutOfScope.xml"
    CheckValidity xbrlDoc
    |> ignore

[<EntryPoint>]
let main argv =
    LoadValidInstance
    LoadInvalidInstance
    0 // return an integer exit code