Creating your own data files

This section explains how to create, check, and publish your own IATI XML data files.

To prepare your IATI data files, you can either:

The IATI Standard defines how to structure and format your data. You’ll need to create two types of data file: an Activity File and an Organisation File. See our Standard overview for details on what to include.

Checking your files before publishing

After creating your files, check for errors and preview how your data will appear to users.

Ensure your XML files are under 40MB. Larger files should be split - by country, region, or date - with each activity appearing in only one file.

Publishing your IATI files

See Publishing your files for information on how to publish your data files. Note that it is important to publish without access restrictions.

Correcting and updating your files

If you find an error in your published IATI files, you can correct and republish it. For in-house publishing processes, errors may stem from incorrect data or faulty XML structuring.

IATI reporting requires regular updates. Always edit your existing files rather than creating new ones or deleting data. IATI tools will detect the changes automatically.

In this section:

Build an in-house system to create your IATI data files

While there are several third-party tools and services to help you prepare and publish your IATI data, many organisations prefer to build their own solutions.

While there are several third-part…

Publishing your data files

This section explains how to host your IATI data files and link to them from the IATI Registry.

This section explains how to host …

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Publishing without access restrictions

For publishers that create and publish their own XML files (i.e. they don’t use a tool like IATI Publisher or Aidstream) it’s important to publish those files on an open website which allow tools (such as the Datastore) to access them.

For publishers that create and pub…