Sonatype has announced the availability of Java.net open-source projects in Maven Central, in partnership with Oracle. Previously, it was either up to individual projects to move their content into Maven Central, or just host it on the Java.net repository for others to consume.
As part of the migration, existing metadata was cleaned up and brought into the metadata requirements needed for Maven Central. A hosted Nexus Pro instance at Java.net now enables synchronisation of artefacts to the central location, where clients can access them without needing to refer to Java.net itself.
This will also help with stability of artefacts generated. Previously there have been issues with artefacts changing (or even disappearing) from the Java.net repository. With Maven Central being used to feed Java.net artefacts, even if they do disappear from Java.net there will be a persisted copy available at central.
Amit Zavery, Vice President of Product Management at Oracle, thinks this will make it easier for others to consume:
Java.net is the premier source for Java technology collaboration with more than 600,000 members and 2,000 projects in development,” said, Vice President, Product Management at Oracle. “With an industry-standard infrastructure now in place, Sonatype and Oracle have made it easier for existing and future Java.net projects to leverage the collective knowledge and work of the community to create better software faster.
Maven Central is ten years old, and is accessed by nearly 4 billion times per year, with an estimated 90% of Java developed artefacts being available.