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Definition of Data Types

The data types used in IAA-XML are as follows:

String

A string of characters (optionally containing blanks) for which a maximum length can be specified. String indicates an element that allows character data up to a maximum number of characters. The number after the hyphen specifies the maximum number of characters. For example, S-12 specifies an element of characters with maximum length 12 characters. S-8 indicates an element with no maximum length. It is expected that character type elements may contain multibyte representations of characters in some implementations, depending on the allowable character sets.

Text

A string of characters (optionally containing blanks) for which a maximum length cannot realistically be fixed.

Binary

A finite sequence of binary octets. The definition consists of three logical elements: content type, binary data and binary data length.

The Binary data type is a compound type consisting of three logical elements as shown in the following table:

Tag
Type
Usage
Description

<contentType>

Enumeration

Optional

Specified in IETF RFC 2046.

<binLength>

Integer

Required

Identifies the size of the binary data in number of bytes.

<binData>

Raw Binary Data

Required

Binary data.

Boolean

A logical TRUE or FALSE condition.

Date

An indication of a particular day in the Gregorian calendar. Elements of data type Date (as shown in the following table), contain an indication of a particular day. This data type describes a unique period of time, normally 24 hours (not a repeating portion of every year).

This data type must contain a 4-digit year, and may contain a month number and a day number.

Date
Data Type
Type
Usage
Description

<year>

Short

Required

4-digit year value.

<month>

Short

Optional

Number of the represented month. Value must be within the range 1 through 12. Must be included if <Day> is included. If absent, the value is assumed to be 1 (January).

<day>

Short

Optional

Number of the represented day. Value must be within the range 1 through 31. If absent, the value is assumed to be 1.

Time

An indication of a particular time in a day expressed with a maximum precision of one microsecond. Elements of data type Time (as shown in the following table), contain an indication of a particular time during a date. This data type describes a repeating portion of a day. That is, each time described (ignoring leap seconds) occurs once for each calendar date. Based on the IFX specification, it is required that a time data type be able to represent a specific period with indefinite precision. Milliseconds are the minimum required precision of the time data type.

A time represented using this data type must not be ambiguous with respect to morning and afternoon. That is, the time must occur once and only once each 24-hour period.

You should always specify the time zone to avoid ambiguous communication between clients and servers. The Time data type must not be ambiguous with respect to location at which the time occurs. If unspecified, the time zone defaults to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Time
Data Type
Type
Usage
Description

<hour>

Short

Required

Number of the represented hour. Value must be within the range 0 through 23.

<minute>

Short

Optional

Number of the represented minute. Value must be within the range 0 through 59. Must be included if <Second> is included. If absent, the value defaults to 0.

<second>

Short

Optional

Number of the represented second. Value must be within the range 0 through 60. The value 60 is used only to represent leap seconds. Must be included if <Fraction> is included. If absent, the value defaults to 0.

<fraction>

Short

Optional

Number of represented microseconds. Value must be within the range 0 through 999,999. Particular implementations may choose to allow representations of smaller fractions. If absent, the value defaults to 0.

<utcOffset>

Short

Optional

Offset from UTC in minutes. Value must be within the range -720 through +720. Value is typically a multiple of 60 (an exact number of hours), but the offset may also include half and quarter hours. Generally should be included. If absent, the value defaults to 0, that is, UTC.

Timestamp

An indication of a particular date and time expressed with a precision of one microsecond. Elements of data type Timestamp (as shown in the following table), contain the same information as DateTime values. Unlike that data type, Timestamp information is not intended to have meaning at the other end of the communication. In addition, microseconds are the minimum required precision of the time portion of this data type.

Timestamp is a type identical to DateTime but without semantic meaning between two machines. The general DateTime data type has meaning on both ends of the protocol (even though time synchronization is not required by this specification). Timestamp indicates an exact point in time with respect to the generating application. For example, a Timestamp value may be generated at a server when creating an audit response. The client application may return that value to the server in later requests, but the client software should not interpret the information.

Timestamp
Data Type
Type
Usage
Description

<year>

Short

Required

4-digit year value.

<month>

Short

Required

Number of the represented month. Value must be within the range 1 through 12.

<day>

Short

Required

Number of the represented day. Value must be within the range 1 through 31.

<hour>

Short

Required

Number of the represented hour. Value must be within the range 0 through 23.

<minute>

Short

Required

Number of the represented minute. Value must be within the range 0 through 59.

<second>

Short

Required

Number of the represented second. Value must be within the range 0 through 60. The value 60 is used only to represent leap seconds.

<fraction>

Short

Required

Number of represented microseconds. Value must be within the range 0 through 999,999. Particular implementations may choose to allow representations of smaller fractions.

<utcOffset>

Short

Optional

Offset from UTC in minutes. Value must be within the range -720 through +720. Value is typically a multiple of 60 (an exact number of hours), but the offset may also include half and quarter hours. Generally should be included. If absent, the value is assumed to be 0, i.e. time is assumed to be UTC.

TimeDuration

A duration of time expressed in years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds as described in the following table:

TimeDuration
Data Type
Type
Usage
Description

<years>

Short

Required

4-digit year value.

<months>

Short

Required

Number of the represented month. Value must be within the range 1 through 12.

<days>

Short

Required

Number of the represented day. Value must be within the range 1 through 31.

<hours>

Short

Required

Number of the represented hour. Value must be within the range 0 through 23.

<minutes>

Short

Required

Number of the represented minute. Value must be within the range 0 through 59.

<seconds>

Short

Required

Number of the represented second. Value must be within the range 0 through 60. The value 60 is used only to represent leap seconds.

Number

A numeric count not requiring any units.

Byte

A signed integer between -128 and +127, of type Number.

Integer

A signed integer between -2147483648 and +2147483647, of type Number.

Short

A signed integer between -32768 and +32767, of type Number.

Decimal

Decimal indicates a numeric value that is up to fifteen digits in length, excluding any punctuation such as sign, decimal, currency symbol and so on. The value is not restricted to integer values and has a decimal point that may be placed anywhere from the left of the leftmost digit to the right of the rightmost digit (e.g., +.12345678901234 is acceptable while 12345678901234567 is not).

NOTE:  The sign is always optional. If it is absent, the value is assumed to be positive.

Percentage

A percentage.

Amount

A numeric count including units, such as liters, inches, or kilometres per liter. For example, 150 km/l. An amount is a compound data type consisting of two logical elements as described in the following table:

Tag
Type
Usage
Description

<amount>

Decimal

Required

Amount.

<unit>

String

Required

Unit.

Currency Amount

A monetary amount including the currency. A Currency Amount is a compound data type consisting of two logical elements as described in the following table:

Tag
Type
Usage
Description

<amount>

Decimal

Required

Amount.

<currencyCode>

String

Required

Currency code.

All monetary amounts in IAA-XML are handled with the Currency Amount data type. When included, this data type contains a decimal value for the amount, and an optional three-letter currency code defined in ISO-4217.

Enumeration

A value out of a limited set, each with a specific mutually exclusive meaning.

Enumeration is a Value type that has a limited number of specified valid values, each of which is represented by a tag of up to 80 characters each.

At this point, the IAA-XML specification does not provide a syntax to define permitted values for an Enumeration type. Where defined, the permitted values will be found in the description of a property.

Short

A signed integer between -32768 and +32767.

Identifier

A value without business meaning that uniquely distinguishes an occurrence.

Object reference

An identifier, unique across both space and time, with respect to the space of all Object references.

      
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