The namespace associated with each schema file differentiates between elements that come from different sources but have the same names. A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) reference defines the location of the file that contains the elements and attribute names.

When you import a schema that contains more than one namespace, the Developer tool adds the namespaces to the schema object. When the schema file includes other schemas, the namespaces for those schemas are also included.

The Developer tool creates a generated prefix for each namespace. When the schema does not contain a prefix, the Developer tool generates the namespace prefix tns0 and increments the prefix number for each additional namespace prefix. The Developer tool reserves the namespace prefix xs. If you import a schema that contains the namespace prefix xs, the Developer tool creates the generated prefix xs1. The Developer tool increments the prefix number when the schema contains the generated prefix value.

For example, Customer_Orders.xsd has a namespace. The schema includes another schema, Customers.xsd. The Customers schema has a different namespace. The Developer tool assigns prefix tns0 to the Customer_Orders namespace and prefix tns1 to the Customers namespace.

To view the namespace location and prefix, select a namespace in the

Schema

view.

When you create a web service from more than one schema object, each namespace must have a unique prefix. You can modify the generated prefix for each namespace.