I have been annoyed by lack of comprehensive artifact repository in Java community. Perl has CPAN, Python has PyPI, Ruby has Gems and to this moment Java did not have something that would resemble CPAN as Wikipedia put it.
And therefore I wrote my version of CJAR, which is based on Maven repository structure but is not Maven specific and has some additional services available:
- search artifacts by name or content: class names etc.;
- quickly getting information about artifacts – license, bytecode version, availability of javadocs and sources;
- creation of Ant or Maven build file based on selected artifacts;
- jardiff that allows comparing different versions of Jars and see precisely what has changed at class and package levels: new and removed classes, methods, and method signatures;
I am working for SourceLabs and the company supports the service and hosts it on its servers at:
http://area51.sourcelabs.com/cjar/app
It is just a beginning – many things need to be done:
- repository needs to be filled with artifacts;
- POM files needs to be cleaned;
- missed information needs to be put into POMs and MANIFEST files;
- java artifacts needs to be signed by they authors or trusted persons;
- more information should be available about artifacts;
Please visit the CJAR site and leave feedback, together we can fill the gap in Java infrastructure!
