XML includes allow includes of external XML files into a document.  We use XML for our configuration files (some of which can get quite big) and as such this gives much greater felixibility in how miRicoh is configured.

We wanted to add the ability use an XML include and therefore have added functionality similar to that specified by w3 but have adapted the standard slightly to fit the needs of m3i and miRicoh.  Firstly we have implemented the following features that can be found in the standard:

• Inclusion of external XML elements
• Fallback, in case the load of an external reference fails

And in addition we have added the following key feature:

• Authorisation and security
• Additional locations to load external refernces from, including file shares over SMB

What this means in practice is that you can include external XML elements from secure locations (including password protected file shares).  If a configuration file is to be split up into smaller, more managable chunks, and say these chunks may contain sensitive data - then all of this can now be distributed on servers or within your organisations file system providing flexibility and security.

The schema we have defined for our XML includes (SXInclude) can be found at http://www.m3ic.net/schema/1.0/SXInclude/, note we have used to prefix sxi: rather than xi: to differentiate it from the w3 standard.

To use the include, a simple XML file might look something like:

<example-include xmlns:sxi="http://www.m3ic.net/schema/1.0/SXInclude"
      xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.m3ic.net/schema/1.0/SXInclude
      http://www.m3ic.net/schema/1.0/SXInclude.xsd">
  <sxi:include href="https://www.myxsiinclude.xml" username="username" password="password">
    <sxi:fallback>
      <fallback details="This a fallback element"/>
    sxi:fallback>
  sxi:include>
example-include> 

As m3i is all about giving people options, this is yet another way in which more flexibility and configuration can be added into the system.