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<h1 class="topictitle1">Adding import elements</h1>
<div><p>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 an <samp class="codeph">import</samp> element to
bring in definitions and declarations from an imported schema into the current
schema. </p>
<div class="section"><p>The imported schema can come from a different namespace than the
current schema does. You can add multiple import elements to an XML schema,
however, prefixes and namespaces have to unique amongst the imported schemas.</p>
<p>The
following instructions were written for the Resource perspective, but they
will also work in many other perspectives.</p>
<p>To add an import element,
complete the following steps:</p>
</div>
<ol>
<li class="stepexpand"><span>Open your XML schema in the XML schema editor. In the Outline view,
select your schema.</span> The entire schema and its contents should be
displayed in the Design view.</li>
<li class="stepexpand"><span>In the Design view, right click in the <strong>Directives</strong> section
and click <span class="uicontrol">Add Import</span>.</span></li>
<li class="stepexpand"><span>In the Properties view, click the <strong>General</strong> tab and click
the <span class="uicontrol">Browse</span> <img src="../images/Browse.gif" alt="This&#10;graphic is the Browse button" /> button to the right of the <span class="uicontrol">Schema
location</span> field.</span></li>
<li class="stepexpand"><span>If you want to import an XML schema located in the workbench:</span>
<ol type="a">
<li><span>Select <span class="uicontrol">Workbench projects</span> and click <span class="uicontrol">Next</span>. </span>
</li>
<li><span>Select the schema you want to import and click <span class="uicontrol">Finish</span>.</span>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li class="stepexpand"><span>If you want to import an XML schema located on the Web:</span>
<ol type="a">
<li class="substepexpand"><span>Select <span class="uicontrol">HTTP</span> and click <span class="uicontrol">Next</span>.</span>
</li>
<li class="substepexpand"><span>Type the URL of the XML schema and click <span class="uicontrol">Finish</span>.</span>
<div class="note"><span class="notetitle">Note:</span> 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.</div>
</li>
</ol>
</li>
<li class="stepexpand"><span>The XML schema editor will retrieve the namespace for the imported
XML schema file and display it as read-only in the <span class="uicontrol">Namespace</span> field.</span>
</li>
<li class="stepexpand"><span>If necessary, type a unique prefix for this namespace in the <span class="uicontrol">Prefix</span> field.</span>
</li>
<li class="stepexpand"><span>Click the <span class="uicontrol">Documentation</span> tab if you want
to provide any information about this import element.</span> The <span class="uicontrol">Documentation</span> page
is used for human readable material, such as a description.</li>
<li class="stepexpand"><span>Click the <span class="uicontrol">Extensions</span> tab if you want to
add application information elements to your annotations of schema components.</span>
The <span class="uicontrol">Extensions</span> page allows you to specify the
schema and add XML content to your annotations.</li>
</ol>
<div class="section"><p>Once you have added an import 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 <span class="uicontrol">Type</span> list for the element,
attribute, complex or simple type.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" />
</div>
<div><div class="reltasks"><strong>Related tasks</strong><br />
<div><a href="../topics/taddincl.html" title="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.">Adding include elements</a></div>
<div><a href="../topics/taddrdfn.html" title="You can use the redefine mechanism to redefine simple and complex types, groups, and attribute groups obtained from external schema files. When you redefine a component, you are modifying its contents.">Adding redefine elements</a></div>
</div>
<div class="relref"><strong>Related reference</strong><br />
<div><a href="../topics/rnmspc.html" title="An XML namespace is a collection of names, identified by a URI reference, which are used in XML documents as element types and attribute names.">XML namespaces</a></div>
</div>
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