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Publishing your mod to a Maven repository

Publishing your mod to a Maven repository is a great way to share your mod with other developers. Maven is a popular platform for sharing Java libraries and projects, and it is used by many Java developers to share their projects with the community. Gradle has built-in support for publishing your mod to a Maven repository, and this guide will show you how you can publish your mod to a Maven repository using Tableau.

Prerequisites​

Before you can publish your mod to a Maven repository, you need to have a Maven repository to publish to. You can use a public Maven repository like Maven Central or JitPack, or you can set up your own Maven repository using a tool like Nexus Repository Manager. Please collect the following information:

  • The URL of the Maven repository
  • Your username and password for the Maven repository
danger

Keep your username and password safe and do not share them with anyone!

Configuring Tableau​

To publish your mod to a Maven repository, you need to configure Tableau's Maven module. To do this, edit the build.gradle file of your project and add the following configuration to the tableau block:

build.gradle
tableau {
    maven {
        publishTo("https://maven.example.com/repository/maven-releases/")
    }
}

This is enough configuration of the project to get started with publishing your mod to a Maven repository.

Configuring the publishing​

It is highly recommended that you properly configure your publishing metadata and repository. You will need address two aspects: Configuring the correct publishing location, and the POM file itself.

Publishing location​

In the Configuring Tableau section, you have already configured the publishing location. However, as of writing there are three other options you could use, instead of publishTo:

  • Publishing locally
  • Publishing to GitHub Packages.
  • Publishing to the LDTTeam repository.

Publishing locally​

To publish locally, you can use the publishLocally method:

build.gradle
tableau {
    maven {
        publishLocally()
    }
}

This will ensure that the mod is published to the repo directory in the project root.

Publishing to GitHub Packages​

To publish to GitHub Packages, you can use the publishToGithub method:

build.gradle
tableau {
    maven {
        publishToGithub()
    }
}

When you this method you need to supply the GitHub username and token as environment variables:

  • GITHUB_USERNAME -> Your GitHub username.
  • GITHUB_TOKEN -> A GitHub token with the write:packages scope.

Publishing to the LDTTeam repository​

To publish to the LDTTeam repository, you can use the publishToLDTTeam method:

build.gradle
tableau {
    maven {
        publishToLDTTeam()
    }
}

When you this method you need to supply the LDTTeam username and token as environment variables:

  • LDTTeamJfrogUsername -> Your LDTTeam username.
  • LDTTeamJfrogPassword -> Your LDTTeam password, or token.

POM file​

Configuring a POM file correctly ensures that your mod is published correctly, and that other modders have a place to find information about your mod.

info

The pom in the maven block extends a Gradle MavenPom object, which is a representation of a Maven POM file. You can find more information about the MavenPom object in the Gradle documentation.

However, the pom in Tableau also comes with a set of special methods, which are not available in the Gradle documentation, but are Tableau specific. These methods help you configure the POM file for your mod.

Configuring a license​

The maven POM indicates what license your project has to consumers. You can configure the license using the licenses method:

build.gradle
tableau {
    maven {
        pom {
            licenses {
                license {
                    name = "Project custom license"
                    url = "https://somelice.url/path/to/license"
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Alternatively, you can use the license shortcut methods Tableau provides, to configure common licenses for your project.

Configuring your project for a GNU GPL license​

To configure your project for a GNU GPL license, you can use the usingGnu3License method:

build.gradle
tableau {
    maven {
        pom {
            usingGnu3License()
        }
    }
}
Configuring your project for a MIT license​

To configure your project for a MIT license, you can use the usingMitLicense method:

build.gradle
tableau {
    maven {
        pom {
            usingMitLicense()
        }
    }
}

Configuring your distribution management​

The distribution management section of the POM file indicates where the project is distributed and can be downloaded from. You can configure the distribution management using the distributionManagement method:

build.gradle
tableau {
    maven {
        pom {
            distributionManagement {
                //Replace with maven url
                downloadUrl = "https://maven.example.com/repository/maven-releases/"
            }
        }
    }
}
tip

If you followed the guides under Publishing location, then the distribution management is already configured for you.

Configuring using Git​

The POM file can also be configured using information from your git repository. You can configure the POM file to use information from your git repository using the usingGit method:

build.gradle
tableau {
    maven {
        pom {
            usingGit()
        }
    }
}

This will configure the following information:

  • Source Control Management
  • Developers
  • Contributors (Which are the top 5 contributors to the project)
  • Issue Management (Automatically set to GitHub Issues)
  • Inception Year
  • Ci Management (Automatically set to GitHub Actions)
  • Organization (Automatically set to the GitHub organization)