structure In typical usage, XBRL consists of an XBRL instance, containing primarily the business facts being reported, and a collection of taxonomies (called a Discoverable Taxonomy Set (DTS)), which define metadata about these facts, such as what the facts mean and how they relate to one another. XBRL uses XML Schema, XLink, and XPointer standards. XBRL Instance The XBRL instance begins with the <xbrl> root element. There may be more than one XBRL instance embedded in a larger XML document. Xbrl Instance is also known as XBRL file. The XBRL instance itself holds the following information: Business Facts – facts can be divided into two categories Items are facts holding a single value. They are represented by a single XML element with the value as its content. Tuples are facts holding multiple values. They are represented by a single XML element containing nested Items or Tuples. In the design of XBRL, all Item facts must be assigned a context. Contexts define the entity, e.g., company or individual, to which the fact applies, the period of time the fact is relevant, and an optional scenario. Date and time information appearing in the period element must conform to ISO 8601. Scenarios provide further contextual information about the facts, such as whether the business values reported are actual, projected, or budgeted. Units define the units used by numeric or fractional facts within the document, such as USD, shares. XBRL allows more complex units to be defined if necessary. Facts of a monetary nature must use a unit from the ISO 4217 namespace. Footnotes use XLink to associate one or more facts with some content. References to XBRL taxonomies, typically through schema references. It is also possible to link directly to a linkbase. This is an example of a fictitious Dutch company's International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) statement instance file : <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <xbrli:xbrl xmlns:ifrs-gp="http://xbrl.iasb.org/int/fr/ifrs/gp/2005-05-15" xmlns:iso4217="http://www.xbrl.org/2003/iso4217" xmlns:xbrli="http://www.xbrl.org/2003/instance" xmlns:xbrll="http://www.xbrl.org/2003/linkbase" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <xbrll:schemaRef xbrll:href="http://www.org.com/xbrl/taxonomy" xlink:type="simple"/> <ifrs-gp:OtherOperatingIncomeTotalFinancialInstitutions contextRef="J2004" decimals="0" unitRef="EUR">38679000000</ifrs-gp:OtherOperatingIncomeTotalFinancialInstitutions> <ifrs-gp:OtherAdministrativeExpenses contextRef="J2004" decimals="0" unitRef="EUR">35996000000</ifrs-gp:OtherAdministrativeExpenses> <ifrs-gp:OtherOperatingExpenses contextRef="J2004" decimals="0" unitRef="EUR">870000000</ifrs-gp:OtherOperatingExpenses> ... <ifrs-gp:OtherOperatingIncomeTotalByNature contextRef="J2004" decimals="0" unitRef="EUR">10430000000</ifrs-gp:OtherOperatingIncomeTotalByNature> <xbrli:context id="BJ2004"> <xbrli:entity> <xbrli:identifier scheme="www.iqinfo.com/xbrl">ACME</xbrli:identifier> </xbrli:entity> <xbrli:period> <xbrli:instant>2004-01-01</xbrli:instant> </xbrli:period> </xbrli:context> <xbrli:context id="EJ2004"> <xbrli:entity> <xbrli:identifier scheme="www.iqinfo.com/xbrl">ACME</xbrli:identifier> </xbrli:entity> <xbrli:period> <xbrli:instant>2004-12-31</xbrli:instant> </xbrli:period> </xbrli:context> <xbrli:context id="J2004"> <xbrli:entity> <xbrli:identifier scheme="www.iqinfo.com/xbrl">ACME</xbrli:identifier> </xbrli:entity> <xbrli:period> <xbrli:startDate>2004-01-01</xbrli:startDate> <xbrli:endDate>2004-12-31</xbrli:endDate> </xbrli:period> </xbrli:context> <xbrli:unit id="EUR"> <xbrli:measure>iso4217:EUR</xbrli:measure> </xbrli:unit> </xbrli:xbrl> XBRL Taxonomy An XBRL Taxonomy is a collection of taxonomy schemas and linkbases. A taxonomy schema is an XML schema document (file). Linkbases are XML documents (file) which