Hello! I’m a new maintainer of a fairly popular niche project called GraphFrames (GitHub link). The project was in “maintenance mode” for a couple of years, and now I’m excited to help bring it back to life. However, I’m currently facing a serious issue with Sonatype and could use some advice on how to proceed.
Historically, GraphFrames’ JARs were published in the Spark Packages repository (link), which was automatically synchronized with Maven Repository (link). The project uses the org.graphframes namespace internally. Unfortunately, the Spark Packages project is now semi-defunct, and the synchronization to Maven is broken.
There is strong demand from GraphFrames users and contributors to resume publishing the project in Maven Central. However, the problem is that the “graphframes.org” domain is not available (whois link). I reached out to Sonatype Support to request permission to register and verify the org.graphframes namespace in Maven Central, but their response was clear: it is not possible.
Here is their response:
Hello Sem,
I am sorry to inform you that it is not possible to register a namespace for a domain that you do not control for Central Portal.
I tried to argue that GraphFrames has a large community, 1k stars on GitHub, nearly 10 years of publishing under the org.graphframes namespace, and numerous existing tutorials and blog posts, but this did not change their decision.
One option is to migrate the project from org.graphframes to io.github.graphframes, but this would be a major disruption for users and dependent projects. It would also render all existing videos, tutorials, and blog posts about GraphFrames outdated.
What else can I do in this situation? DNS, domains, and Sonatype are new topics for me, as I have primarily focused on coding in the past. I would greatly appreciate any advice or guidance on how to handle this issue effectively.
Thanks in advance!
You must log in or register to comment.
Only the owner of a domain can publish a package attributed to that domain. Otherwise you’d have random hackers publishing malware as an Apache project or something. All you can do is try to contact the owner of the domain and see if they are willing to transfer ownership to you, or better yet, set up a nonprofit LLC, or whatever it’s called in your country, to have it transfered to.
That is sad. I’m just a contributor who is liking the project and willing to contribute. I’m doing it in my free time, I’m not paid for it, I’m not making money on the project… Setting a nonprofit LLC is not an option for me, unfortunately. It would require to hire lawyers to make all the paperwork and yearly reports, I just do not have such capabilities… Thanks anyway for the answer!
I mean LLC is just a nice option if you want it to be easy to transfer it to someone else next time so they don’t have to go through any hassle. Adding someone to an LLC to have control over the assets is just easier than if an individual owns those assets.
But this all comes down to ownership. Someone owns the rights to the domain. Sonatype obeys that ownership. So it really comes down to how the owner wants to handle it. And in the US anyway, lawyers aren’t really required for an LLC, depending on the state you live in. Many it’s just a couple of simple documents and a small fee. That’s why LLCs are used by rich people to hide their money, it’s cheap and easy. I’ve done it many times in multiple states for various projects and never had any legal background. The nonprofit part is a little more work, but as long as you aren’t bringing in any money, its not necessary. Still easy in practice, but more research to figure out. Also, it comes with a lot of benefits like free access to a lot of stuff, including some from Sonatype. But again, not required, just thinking ahead and how I would do it.
First step would be just to contact the domain owner. If they are no longer interested in owning that asset, then they may just give it to you. If they are unresponsive and the domain is not in use for anything else, you could also contact the registrar and report it and if they can’t contact the domain owner there’s a possibility that they may allow you to purchase it depending on their policies.
Again, don’t get discouraged, and I’m totally willing to give pointers if you decide to go the nonprofit LLC route, but first, just contact the owner and maybe they’ll just give you the login for the domain registrar or if they don’t want to give up the ownership of the domain, maybe just authorize you with Sonatype to publish the artifacts. Essentially, because it’s an ownership issue, the owner needs to be involved.
Thank you again! I will try to reach an owner of the domain!
