It is possible to break the configuration.xml file into many smaller files, that are then included into a 'master' configuration file. The included files are complete configuration.xml documents, not fragments of text.
The following is an example configuration.xml which 'outsources' its content into several files:
<configuration xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.exoplaform.org/xml/ns/kernel_1_0.xsd
http://www.exoplaform.org/xml/ns/kernel_1_0.xsd"
xmlns="http://www.exoplaform.org/xml/ns/kernel_1_0.xsd">
<import>war:/conf/sample-ext/jcr/jcr-configuration.xml</import>
<import>war:/conf/sample-ext/portal/portal-configuration.xml</import>
</configuration>
The special URL is used to refer to another configuration file. The URL schema 'war:' means that the path following is resolved that is related to the current PortalContainer's servlet context resource path, starting at WEB-INF as the root.
The current PortalContainer is really a newly created PortalContainer, as war: URLs only make sense for PortalContainer scoped configuration.
Also, thanks to the extension mechanism, the servlet context used for resource loading is a unified servlet context (as explaned in a later section).
To include the resolved path related to the current classpath (context classloader), use the 'jar:' URL schema.