Hyper-fast Validation & Processing

Hyper-performance

In today’s organizations, Big Data trends and XBRL mandates are producing huge, ever increasing amounts of XML, XBRL, JSON, and Avro data. Now, there is finally a modern, hyper-fast engine to validate, process, transform, and query it all.

RaptorXML Server provides hyper-performance through:

RaptorXML Server is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS platforms.

XML Validation and Processing

RaptorXML Server provides the fastest XML validator and processor for the XML family of standards, with functionality including:

YAML Validation

RaptorXML Server also supports the increasingly popular YAML language. Though YAML does not have an official schema specification, RaptorXML supports validating YAML against JSON Schemas and JSON Schemas written in YAML syntax.

XBRL Validation

In addition to comprehensive XML support, RaptorXML+XBRL Server includes specialized support for validation of XBRL taxonomies and instance files, and, it provides important support for XBRL Dimensions, XBRL Formula, XBRL Table Linkbase, XULE, and OIM.

These new standards provide the opportunity to view, validate, and analyze XBRL data in new and productive ways, without compromising interoperability and backwards compatibility. Full support is in an XBRL processor is of the utmost importance.

XULE, from "XBRL Rule," helps ensure data quality through business rule validation. XULE syntax provides two ways to check data quality: queries and assertions. Queries can be used to compute data based on numbers provided in an XBRL report and produce output that can be further assessed. Data can also be tested against defined assertions and then actions can be taken based on the results. Once they are defined, XULE queries are executed against an XBRL report or taxonomy using a XULE processor such as RaptorXML Server.

Options let you execute XULE documents from the command line, with scripts, and via a number of server and engine APIs, including a powerful Python API. The server can process single XULE documents or rulesets containing multiple XULE documents stored in a ZIP archive.

Despite its benefits, the complexity of XBRL presents a sharp learning curve for accountants and other stakeholders not familiar with XML, leading to errors and increased consultancy costs. XBRL International has worked over the years to modernize and simplify the standard in response to those challenges, and the Open Information Model (OIM) is an exciting and innovative solution.

OIM provides an abstraction layer that decouples XBRL from the underlying XML syntax. Then it defines additional, interchangeable formats that can be used to represent XBRL data. Organizations and users can select the format that aligns with their experience level and individual needs. Initially, XML, CSV (comma separated value), and JSON are supported.

RaptorXML Server supports OIM with high-performance validation of xBRL-XML, xBRL-JSON, and xBRL-CSV documents.

Adding to the numerous XBRL standards supported in the list above, we have released several Python scripts for various XBRL validation scenarios, all of which are available for free on GitHub. Download the scripts for validation against:

All of these scripts for RaptorXML+XBRL Server use the new Raptor Python v2.2 API, are available as open-source, and are offered under a standard Apache 2.0 license.

Note: in addition to scripts for DQC rules, RaptorXML+XBRL Server now supports XULE .

Read more about these validation rules and Python scripts on the Altova Blog and visit the Altova GitHub repository for more sample projects and resources for developers.

Development and Integration Features

RaptorXML Server offers powerful, flexible options for developers including access via command line, .NET, COM, and Java APIs, a Python interface, and a built-in HTTP server.

Support for XPath extension functions enables specialized processing. Superior error reporting capabilities include reporting of multiple errors, detailed error descriptions, full error stacks, and links to the relevant specification.

The .NET API allows developers to integrate RaptorXML Server and RaptorXML+XBRL Server functionality any application written for the Microsoft platform in C# and other .NET languages.

The potential applications for this synergy are limitless! For instance, the .NET API makes it possible to build Excel plugins or add-ins to generate XBRL directly from data in Excel, offering a powerful alternative to existing tagging-based solutions.

One such add-in is now available as a product that allows contractors to create XBRL reports based on the Work in Process Taxonomy - directly in Excel. Learn more about the Altova Work in Process (WIP) XBRL add-in for Excel.

To allow RaptorXML to be easily integrated into a modern SOA (service-oriented architecture) infrastructure, RaptorXML Server includes a built-in HTTP server that is accessed via a RESTful web API.

This allows RaptorXML to accept validation jobs, XSLT transformation jobs, etc., submitted via HTTP request by other services and by client applications. The job description as well as the results are exchanged in JSON format.

RaptorXML Server integrates seamlessly with FlowForce Server, Altova's workflow automation solution. Using FlowForce Server, the administrator can trigger jobs in response to timer or event-triggers to validate XML, perform XQuery and XSLT operations, validate XBRL instance documents and XBRL taxonomies, and so on.