[jwrosewell]

What changed

• Package descriptions. The <description> in six pom files now says what each package does, in the words developers type when they look for a package like it, and ends by naming the products it is an alternative to. The detail, and a before and after table for each artifact, follow below.

• Source links. The <scm> <url>, <connection>, and <developerConnection> in the four parent poms (pipeline/pom.xml, device-detection/pom.xml, ip-intelligence/pom.xml, and location/pom.xml) pointed at the earlier repositories pipeline-java, device-detection-java, ip-intelligence-java, and location-java. Those repositories are archived, so the source link on each package page was a dead end. Two changes fix that.

  1. All three elements now point at this repository in https form, https://github.com/51Degrees/51degrees-java for <url> and scm:git:https://github.com/51Degrees/51degrees-java.git for <connection> and <developerConnection>. The <connection> used git://, which GitHub permanently turned off on March 15, 2022. The <developerConnection> named info@51degrees.com as its host rather than GitHub.
  2. Each parent's <scm> now sets child.scm.connection.inherit.append.path, child.scm.developerConnection.inherit.append.path, and child.scm.url.inherit.append.path to "false". Child packages inherit these links, and without the attributes Maven adds each child's artifactId to them. The Maven model reference gives the default for <scm> <url> as "parent value [+ path adjustment] + (artifactId or project.directory property), or just parent value if scm's child.scm.url.inherit.append.path="false"", and says the same for the two connections. That is why the Maven Central page for com.51degrees:device-detection 4.5.128 links its source to https://github.com/51Degrees/device-detection-java/device-detection, which GitHub answers with 404. With the attributes, a child's links are the repository itself. The attributes need Maven 3.6.1 or later, and every runner image this repository's CI uses lists Maven 3.9.12 or later (see "How it was checked").

  The root pom's project <url> already pointed here, and no other pom has an <scm> block. After the merge with rc the module poms also carry that same repository as their <url>.

Package descriptions

Maven has no keywords field, so the description is the only place for the words developers search with, and Maven Central, mvnrepository.com, and web search all index it.

Developers search for phrases such as "user agent parser" (which search engines complete with "java"), "device detection", "User-Agent Client Hints", "ip geolocation", and "ip intelligence". The old text did not use "User-Agent", "User-Agent Client Hints", or "geolocation" at all.

The new text follows one pattern.

1. It opens with the search phrases, "Device Detection and User-Agent parser for Java" or "IP Intelligence and IP geolocation for Java".
2. It says what the package finds. Device Detection finds the device type and model, browser, operating system, and crawlers from the User-Agent and User-Agent Client Hints. IP Intelligence finds an IP address's likely location (country, region, town, and coordinates), connection type, and network.
3. It says where the work happens. The cloud packages use the 51Degrees cloud service and need a Resource Key that says which properties to return, because the cloud request engine throws a PipelineConfigurationException without one (CloudRequestEngineBuilder). The on-premise engines read a data file on your server. The two aggregate packages, device-detection and ip-intelligence, depend on both their cloud and on-premise artifacts, so their text says they work either way.
4. It keeps the existing detail that each package is built on the 51Degrees Pipeline API.
5. It ends by naming the products the package is an alternative to, "An alternative to UAParser.js, DeviceAtlas, and WURFL." for Device Detection and "An alternative to MaxMind and IPinfo." for IP Intelligence. The names are kept so that people searching for those products find these packages. The text names them without describing them. UAParser.js keeps its ".js" so that it cannot be read as the 51Degrees fork of that library.

Two things were dropped on purpose.

• "High-performance", which is a claim the text cannot support.
• "with no external service calls" on the Device Detection on-premise engine. Both on-premise engine builders take a DataUpdateService (Device Detection, IP Intelligence) and can download new data files when automatic updates are on (setAutoUpdate). "On your server" says where detection runs without ruling that out.

The <name> elements are unchanged because they are already clear.

Before and after

"Before" is the text in the 4.5.128 poms on Maven Central, which matches main.

com.51degrees:device-detection

device-detection/device-detection/pom.xml

	Description
Before	Parse HTTP headers to detect the device type, model, OS, browser, and crawler information. This is an alternative to popular UAParser, DeviceAtlas, and WURFL packages.
After	Device Detection and User-Agent parser for Java. Detects the device type and model, browser, operating system, and crawlers from the User-Agent and User-Agent Client Hints. Works on-premise with a data file or in the cloud. Built on the 51Degrees Pipeline API. An alternative to UAParser.js, DeviceAtlas, and WURFL.

com.51degrees:device-detection.cloud

device-detection/device-detection.cloud/pom.xml

	Description
Before	Cloud-based device detection for Java that uses the 51Degrees cloud service via the Pipeline API. Parses HTTP headers to identify device hardware, operating systems, browsers, and crawlers.
After	Device Detection and User-Agent parser for Java, using the 51Degrees cloud service. Detects the device type and model, browser, operating system, and crawlers from the User-Agent and User-Agent Client Hints. Needs a Resource Key that says which properties to return. Built on the 51Degrees Pipeline API. An alternative to UAParser.js, DeviceAtlas, and WURFL.

com.51degrees:device-detection.hash.engine.on-premise

device-detection/device-detection.hash.engine.on-premise/pom.xml

	Description
Before	High-performance on-premise hash-based device detection engine for Java, built for the 51Degrees Pipeline API. Parses HTTP headers locally to identify device hardware, operating systems, browsers, and crawlers, with no external service calls.
After	On-premise Device Detection engine and User-Agent parser for Java. Reads a 51Degrees Hash data file on your server to detect the device type and model, browser, operating system, and crawlers from the User-Agent and User-Agent Client Hints. Built on the 51Degrees Pipeline API. An alternative to UAParser.js, DeviceAtlas, and WURFL.

com.51degrees:ip-intelligence

ip-intelligence/ip-intelligence/pom.xml

	Description
Before	Provides IP Intelligence for the 51Degrees Pipeline API. This can be used as an alternative to legacy IP Intelligence services such as MaxMind or IPinfo.
After	IP Intelligence and IP geolocation for Java. Finds an IP address's likely location (country, region, town, and coordinates), connection type, and network. Works on-premise with a data file or in the cloud. Built on the 51Degrees Pipeline API. An alternative to MaxMind and IPinfo.

com.51degrees:ip-intelligence.cloud

ip-intelligence/ip-intelligence.cloud/pom.xml

	Description
Before	Provides IP Intelligence for the 51Degrees Pipeline API using the 51Degrees Cloud service. This can be used as an alternative to legacy IP Intelligence services such as MaxMind or IPinfo.
After	IP Intelligence and IP geolocation for Java, using the 51Degrees cloud service. Finds an IP address's likely location (country, region, town, and coordinates), connection type, and network. Needs a Resource Key that says which properties to return. Built on the 51Degrees Pipeline API. An alternative to MaxMind and IPinfo.

com.51degrees:ip-intelligence.engine.on-premise

ip-intelligence/ip-intelligence.engine.on-premise/pom.xml

	Description
Before	Provides the On-premise IP Intelligence engine for the 51Degrees Pipeline API. This can be used as an alternative to legacy IP Intelligence services such as MaxMind or IPinfo.
After	On-premise IP Intelligence and IP geolocation engine for Java. Reads a 51Degrees IP Intelligence data file on your server to find an IP address's likely location (country, region, town, and coordinates), connection type, and network. Built on the 51Degrees Pipeline API. An alternative to MaxMind and IPinfo.

How it was checked

• Read each artifact's current text from the 4.5.128 pom on Maven Central, the latest version in each maven-metadata.xml (for example https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/com/51degrees/device-detection/4.5.128/device-detection-4.5.128.pom). The text matches main.
• Checked each statement in the descriptions against the code in this repository.
  • The device properties DeviceType, HardwareModel, BrowserName, PlatformName, IsCrawler, and CrawlerName are in DeviceDataBase.
  • The IP properties Country, Region, Town, Latitude, Longitude, ConnectionType, RegisteredName, and RegisteredOwner are in IPIntelligenceDataBase.
  • OfflineProcessing passes sec-ch-ua headers to the on-premise Hash engine, and both getting-started web examples cover User-Agent Client Hints (cloud, on-premise).
  • The dependencies of the aggregate packages, the Resource Key check, and the data file update option are linked above.
• Checked with gh repo view that pipeline-java, device-detection-java, ip-intelligence-java, and location-java are archived, and read the <scm> block of the 4.5.128 parent poms pipeline.device-detection and pipeline.ip-intelligence on Maven Central, which carry the old links.
• Checked the Maven version CI uses. The CI scripts in ci/ call mvn on the GitHub-hosted runners named in ci/options.json and do not install Maven, so the runner image decides. The runner image manifests list Maven 3.10.0 for ubuntu-22.04 and macos-15, 3.9.16 for windows-latest and macos-15-intel, and 3.9.12 for ubuntu-22.04-arm. The Maven wrapper in .mvn/wrapper pins 3.9.16.
• Ran help:effective-pom on device-detection/device-detection with Maven 3.9.16 through the wrapper, which reads the poms and builds nothing. The effective <scm> of com.51degrees:device-detection is https://github.com/51Degrees/51degrees-java for <url> and scm:git:https://github.com/51Degrees/51degrees-java.git for both connections, with no artifactId added.
• Parsed all ten edited poms with Python's xml.etree.ElementTree. All of them parse and return the new description or <scm> values and attributes.
• Searched the new description text for em dashes, semicolons, colons, numbers, and claims such as fastest or best, and found none.
• Searched every pom.xml for github.com and for the earlier repository names. The only matches left are the example artifact IDs, such as device-detection-java-examples, and a comment in the root pom, which are names rather than links.
• git diff shows one changed line in each of the six package poms. In each of the four parent poms it shows the <scm> opening tag, now three lines carrying the attributes, and the <url>, <connection>, and <developerConnection> lines. The files keep their LF line endings.
• No build or test was run. James Rosewell decided on 9 November 2026 that pull requests changing only package text skip the full build, and merge on "UTM link lint", "Only rc into main" and an independent review.
• The Maven Central pages can only show the new source links after the next release, so the link on the com.51degrees:device-detection page is worth checking then.

Merge with rc

The module poms on rc now carry a <url> of https://github.com/51Degrees/51degrees-java (from "Point package metadata at this repository and fix stale links", #42), which conflicted with this branch on the line beside each <description>. The branch now merges rc (merge commit d1d7f6d). In the six package poms it keeps the new <description> from this branch and the <url> from rc, so git diff origin/rc...HEAD shows the same ten files as before and in each package pom only the <description> line. The <scm> blocks on rc still named the archived repositories, so the <scm> change in the four parent poms is still needed.

Release effect

If the per-package release plan in #63 merges, a change to only <description> and <scm> releases nothing, so the new descriptions reach Maven Central with each package's next release for another reason.

Competitor names

James Rosewell decided on 9 November 2026 to name the competitors as written (UAParser.js, DeviceAtlas and WURFL for Device Detection, MaxMind and IPinfo for IP Intelligence), in every language.

Not changed

• No version number changed, and no versioning file was touched. The new text and links reach Maven Central with the next release.
• The <name> elements and every other line of the ten poms.
• The descriptions of the shared, translation, and parent poms (device-detection.shared, ip-intelligence.shared, ip-intelligence.translation, pipeline.device-detection, and pipeline.ip-intelligence) were out of scope. The device-detection.shared description was not rewritten and could be brought into line in a follow-up.
• The example artifact IDs and the root pom comment that use the earlier repository names.