Web Services Metadata for Java platform is a Java programming language specification (JSR-181) primarily used to standardize the development of Web Services interfaces for the Java platform.
Using annotations from the JSR 181, you can annotate a Web service implementation class or a Web service interface. It enables developers to create portable Java Web Services from a simple Plain Old Java Object (POJO) class by adding annotations, and also helps in generating a Web service with a wizard or by publishing the service on to a server.
Some of the annotations specified by this JSR are:
Put simply, JSR 181 is a specification to define standard and portable Web Services. It offers the following benefits:
Latest version is 2.1 released on December 15, 2009