gradle-versions-plugin VS Polyglot for Maven

This can tell you about new versions https://github.com/ben-manes/gradle-versions-plugin

In one of my larger projects I use https://github.com/ben-manes/gradle-versions-plugin to update dependencies every couple of weeks. I manually go through each available update, and now I have to check every androidx update to see if it's one of these special versions. On top of that, if it is, I have to go manually check if there was an update to the version that I'm on but beneath the special version.

In the meantime you can use the gradle-versions-plugin or one of its extensions. I wrote it a decade ago and naively hoped they would have offered something built-in and better by now. Maybe they finally will if the above moved forward.

https://github.com/ben-manes/gradle-versions-plugin is my go to plugin for updating and maintaining plugin versions (also allows you to update to stable only versions of dependencies once you setup some custom gradle methods.(note jitpack has bad meta data so you'll have to exclude this lib from that repo)

I like https://github.com/ben-manes/gradle-versions-plugin but there are others out there that are more up to date and provide more features. I only used it for dependency report generation. I'm going to play around with this and others more in the near future and see what one(s) I like.

Creating your own pre compiled script plugins for tidying up your build.gradle config and give an example showcasing config for the popular the popular versions gradle plugin

And you don't even need to use XML with Polyglot Maven

https://github.com/takari/polyglot-maven

If you prefer the shorter alternative, you might want to use the Polyglot XML extension https://github.com/takari/polyglot-maven/tree/master/polyglot-xml

Here you go: https://github.com/takari/polyglot-maven

Fun fact, POM files can be in formats other than XML (although I have no idea if IJ would tolerate such shenanigans): https://github.com/takari/polyglot-maven/blob/polyglot-0.4.8/polyglot-yaml/src/test/resources/snakeyaml/pom.yaml

There is a certain argument to be made for user ergonomy. Many developers are drawn to Gradle and friends, or to work with polyglot Maven, because they support a more concise syntax. This is not necessarily a contradiction with Maven's Goals!

I wished they‘d finally embrace polyglot maven https://github.com/takari/polyglot-maven. pom.yaml rule the world.

It seems merely adding a file to the .mvn directory will do as you wish: https://github.com/takari/polyglot-maven#usage

I have avoided that road because it's one more thing that is a snowflake in the very area where I don't want to blazing trails. But I have personally tried their approach before and can confirm it does work as advertised. I can't recall if IJ lost its mind over pulling a stunt like that, but arguably if it did, then filing a YouTrack is an appropriate next step