Altova XBRL Resources


In the year since the Altova MissionKit 2009 added XBRL support as a marquee feature, we have added several new technical resources for anyone starting to learn the complexities of XBRL. Many of these are uniquely focused toward our present and future customers – those who are familiar with XML and the other components that contribute to the XBRL standard, but have no hands-on experience with XBRL itself. We invite you to comb through these resources and to learn, as we have learned, how this powerful and flexible language can promote transparency and interactivity in financial reports, transactions, and internal auditing practices. · XBRL: An Overview for Technical Users – a whitepaper catered toward developers and other technical users · XBRL Training – a free, online, 5-module course that provides an introduction to XBRL technology and the MissionKit · XBRL Glossary – a comprehensive list of the technical terms that are used in describing XBRL instance documents, XBRL taxonomies, and the XBRL specification in general · XBRL Solutions Pagea brief overview of the XBRL specification and the Altova tools that support it Snap2

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StyleVision Review and Video Demo


As the XML Aficionado reported over on his blog, Dave Gash recently published an in-depth review of Altova StyleVision 2010 on the WritersUA Web site. The review provides an excellent synopsis of how the StyleVision stylesheet and electronic forms design tool works and even covers some of the exciting new features in the recently released 2010 version, including absolute positioning, electronic forms design, blue print support, and more. Gash notes that StyleVision helps take the pain out of creating XSLT stylesheets to render XML or database data:

"In a nutshell, StyleVision generates standards-conformant XSLT and XSL-FO stylesheets based on your design, enabling true single-source, multi-output, dynamic-content publishing. Believe me, that’s a neat trick if you can do it, and StyleVision can."

During the rest of the review, Gash walks through some common tasks (illustrated with screenshots) that users may accomplish using StyleVision and concludes:

"StyleVision is one of the most interesting software applications I’ve seen in years. Without question, it offers a new and unique approach to XSLT transform authoring, a skill formerly reserved for beanie-wearing, pocket-protector using, syntax-obsessing code jockeys such as your humble reviewer. It allows more of the tech pubs workforce than ever to transform raw data into aesthetic, useful pages."

Please check out the StyleVision review for all the details.

UPDATED: StyleVision Demo

To see a brief overview of the features highlighted in the review above, check out our Intro to StyleVision video demo, which has been recently updated to include new functionality in Version 2010. This three-minute video will give you a good idea of what you can accomplish with StyleVision. StyleVision Demo   And when you’re ready to test drive StyleVision for yourself, grab a free trial from our Web site.

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