# JiBX: <include> Element

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<binding> element
<include> element
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### <include> Element Definition

The include element allows modular binding definitions by specifying another binding to be read as part of the current binding definition.

Top-level format and mapping definitions from the included binding are treated the same as if they'd been present in the original binding, as children of the binding element. namespace definitions, on the other hand, apply downward only: Top-level namespace definitions in the original binding apply to the included binding just as if they were directly present, but namespace definitions within the included binding do not apply back to the original binding. This makes it easy to structure bindings corresponding to different namespaces, and to combine these bindings without namespace conflicts.

include elements can also be used within included bindings, and circular references are allowed.

The include element uses only one unique attribute.

#### Attributes

path

The path for the binding definition to be included. This may be an absolute path, or a path relative to the including binding definition. Any type of URL reference can be used for the path. If you're using file paths on Windows and want to specify the absolute path (such as C:/some/directory/file.xml) you'll need to convert this into a valid URL reference by using either '/' or 'file:///' as a prefix (so /C:/some/directory/file.xml or file:///C:/some/directory/file.xml).

If the included binding element has a direction attribute the value must match the direction of the original binding; no other attributes are allowed on the included binding element.