New Service to Search for Artifacts in Maven Central

February 07, 2011 By Tim OBrien

2 minute read time

Sonatype is pleased to announce the availability of http://mavencentral.sonatype.com, a new website for searching the artifacts in the Maven Central Repository.

What makes this new service different from other sites that index and search the central repository? The new search service is not just a place for quickly and easily researching artifacts on which your project depends, but it is also the most up-to-date source of information on those artifacts other than browsing repo1.maven.org directly.

Searching Maven Central is simple. You can search for artifacts hosted in Maven Central by typing in your search terms separated by
spaces. Maven Central Search will search for your terms in either the groupId or the artifactId fields. Your search results will include the latest version for each found artifact, a link to see all versions for that particular artifact, and all available downloads for that artifact.

Before you use the new service, note that the site relies heavily on Javascript. Please make sure that Javascript is enabled in your browser. Maven Central has been tested on IE7+, FF3+, Safari 3+, and Chrome 4+. The Jar Check feature downloads and executes a Java applet, so you will need to have Java 1.5+ installed and Java enabled in your browser to use this feature.

The new service also offers advanced search functionality, including:

  • Search by Maven coordinates
  • Search by class name
  • Search by SHA-1 checksum (which Maven Central can calculate for any
    jar file you have on your computer using its Jar Check functionality).

Please provide any feedback you have using the GetSatisfaction feedback tab that is always available on the right-hand border of the site. You can share ideas, ask questions, or report problems with the site. This is the first of many new services we plan for Maven Central, and we very much value your opinions, and we're interested in getting your feedback.

Tags: Sonatype Says, Sonatype, artifacts, Central

Written by Tim OBrien

Tim is a Software Architect with experience in all aspects of software development from project inception to developing scaleable production architectures for large-scale systems during critical, high-risk events such as Black Friday. He has helped many organizations ranging from small startups to Fortune 100 companies take a more strategic approach to adopting and evaluating technology and managing the risks associated with change.