Adding include elements

As schemas become larger, it is often desirable to divide their content among several schema documents for purposes such as ease of maintenance, reuse, and readability. You can use the include element to bring in definitions and declarations from the included schema into the current schema. The included schema must be in the same target namespace as the including schema.

The following instructions were written for the XML perspective, but they will also work in many other perspectives.

To add an include element, complete the following steps:

Open your XML schema in the XML schema editor. In the Outline view, select your schema. The entire schema and its contents are displayed in the Design view.
In the Design view, right-click in the Directives section and click Add Include.
In the Properties view, click the General tab and click the Browse button to the right of the Schema location field. The XML schema file you select must have the same namespace as the current schema.
If you want to import an XML schema located in the workbench:
1. Select Workbench projects and click Next.
2. Select the schema you want to import and click Finish.
If you want to import an XML schema located on the Web:
1. Select HTTP and click Next.
2. Type the URL of the XML schema and click Finish.
  Note: A local copy of the schema will not be stored in the workbench. Every time you validate your schema, the schema's contents will be checked from the URL you specify.
The XML schema editor will retrieve the location of the included XML schema file, and display it in the Schema location field. This field can be edited at any time to reflect the location of the XML schema file.
Click the Documentation tab if you want to provide any information about this include element. The Documentation page is used for human readable material, such as a description.
Click the Extensions tab if you want to add application information elements to your annotations of schema components. The Extensions page allows you to specify the schema and add XML content to your annotations.

Once you have added the include element to your XML schema, when you define new elements, attributes, complex types, or simple types where you can specify type information, any declarations from the included schema will be available in the Type list for the element, attribute, complex or simple type.

For example, if Address.xsd has the following content:

<complexType name="Address">
    <sequence>
        <element name="name" type="string">
        <element name="street" type="string">
    </sequence>
</complexType>

and you have an XML schema called PurchaseOrder.xsd that has added an include for Address.xsd, then when defining a new element in PurchaseOrder, you can select Address as its type.