The XML Schema language provides the constructs xs:group and xs:attributeGroup. They let you put a name to a structured group of elements or attributes, respectively. To insert the elements or attributes in some other place, use the attribute ref="..." specifying the group's given name.

This feature is useful if your elements have common subsets of elements or attributes, but it does not affect the Java code generated by JAXB's schema compiler xjc. This may be regretted, since groups or group combinations might provide a basis for adding interface definitions to the generated set of classes.