Freelance software consultant Maciej Walkowiak (of Just and Spring Cloud AWS fame) has recently published this highly useful guide on “How to publish a Java library to Maven Central”.
While Maven and its main repository Maven Central certainly is a reliable, safe tool with the requisite infrastructure for managing dependencies for Java software projects, it isn’t quite as easy to publish new Maven dependencies as it is for example to publish new npm packages.
There’s a trade-off here of course (as usually is the case): While npm favours ease-of-use and developer experience, Maven and Maven Central usually err on the side of caution when it comes to publishing new software others might rely on, and rightfully so.
However, this also entails a more than a little cumbersome process for publishing Maven dependencies. Hence, Maciej’s comprehensive guide is a boon to prospective and experienced Java library developers alike, because it provides clear guidelines that make publishing libraries and other dependencies to Maven Central not exactly a breeze but at least easy and less of the chore it used to be.