An annotation is a coding method that is used to embed the additional information for classes and methods in a source code. By using annotations, the information that was so far specified in the DD (web.xml or ejb-jar.xml) can be specified in the source code of the Servlets and Enterprise Beans.

The following table describes the organization of this chapter.

Table 12-1 Organization of this chapter (Using annotations)

Title	Reference location
Specifying annotations	12.2
Classes to be loaded and the class path required for loading	12.3
Using the DI	12.4
Controlling the annotation references	12.5
Updating the contents defined in the annotations	12.6
Notes on using annotations	12.7