An attribute may be declared within an interface or class. When declared under an interface the attribute will be included in the generated service defintion. When declared under a class, the attribute will be included in the info element of the type defintion.

package org.apache.avalon.playground;

/**
 * Example of the declaration of a series of attributes.
 *
 * @avalon.attribute key="description" value="an example"
 * @avalon.attribute key="color" value="red"
 * @avalon.attribute key="priority" value="normal"
 */
public interface MyService
{
  ...
}

Generated meta-info when declared within an interface:

<service>
  <attributes>
    <attribute name="description" value="an example"/>
    <attribute name="color" value="red"/>
    <attribute name="priority" value="normal"/>
  </attributes>
</service>

Generated meta-info when declared within an class:

<type>
  <info>
    <attributes>
      <attribute name="description" value="an example"/>
      <attribute name="color" value="red"/>
      <attribute name="priority" value="normal"/>
    </attributes>
  </info>
</type>