Imports

LinkML encourages modular schema development. You can split you schema into modules, and even reuse other peoples modules on the web

A schema can have a list of imports associated with it. These are specified as CURIEs or local imports.

Importing external schemas

Most schemas will have at least an imports to the linkml types schema, which defines core types:

prefixes:
  linkml: https://w3id.org/linkml/
  ...: ...

imports:
  - linkml:types

The prefixes declaration (see URIs and mappings) registers the linkml prefix. The import is expanded to https://w3id.org/linkml/types, and an implicit file type suffix is added, yielding https://w3id.org/linkml/types.yaml

Local imports

You can also specify relative paths, e.g

imports:
  - core
  - ../enums/my-enums

The .yaml suffix is implicitly added, and here the list elements represent a relative path on the file system.

If you include relative paths and make a release of your schema be sure that the imported modules are accessible and follow the same paths

Making merged files for distribution

Sometimes it can be convenient to merge imports prior to distribution. This makes it easier for programs that want to make use of a linkml schema, as they only have to work with one file, rather than implementing the full import mechanism. It can also help eliminate network dependencies.

All generators have a --mergeimports import that will merge the imports closure. i.e. all imported definitions will be recursively copied into the main file.

One particularly useful generator is the linkml generator. This can be used to make a single combined file for distribution (in either JSON or YAML)