The <importNCL> element allows for incorporating another NCL document specification. As a consequence, all bases defined inside the imported NCL document, as well as the document <body> element, are imported, all at once. The bases will be treated as if each one is imported by <importBase> elements. The imported <body> element will be treated as a <context> element. It should be stressed that the <importNCL> element does not “include” the referred NCL document but only makes the referred document visible to have its components reused by the document that has defined the <importNCL> element. Thus, the imported <body>, as well as any of its contained nodes, may be reused inside the <body> element of the importing NCL document.
The documentURI attribute of the <importNCL> element refers to a URI corresponding to the NCL document to be imported. The alias attribute specifies a name to be used as prefix when referring to elements of this imported document. The reference must have the format: alias#element_id. It is important to note that the same alias should be used when referring to elements defined in the indirectly imported document bases (<regionBase>, <connectorBase>, <descriptorBase>, etc.).
The import operation is transitive, that is, if baseA imports baseB that imports baseC, then baseA imports baseC. However, the alias defined for baseC inside baseBis not considered by baseA.
| Element | Attributes | Content | Parent |
|---|---|---|---|
| <importNCL> | alias, documentURI | – | <importedDocumentBase> |
| Name | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| alias | It may receive any string value that begins with a letter or an underscore and that only contains letters, digits, “.”, and “_”. | The alias attribute specifies a name to be used as prefix when referring to elements of the imported base. The alias value must be unique in a document ands its scope is constrained to the document that has defined the alias attribute. |
| documentURI | URI. | The documentURI attribute is the locator for the NCL document from where the base or document will be imported. |