ObjectBox is not entirely FOSS

[LeoColman]

Hello ObjectBox team!

In the instructions on the README of the project, we have these instructions:

buildscript {
    ext.objectboxVersion = "3.3.1"
    repositories {        
        mavenCentral()    
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath("io.objectbox:objectbox-gradle-plugin:$objectboxVersion")
    }
}

The plugin added to the classpath is in MavenCentral, this is the latest published version.

As an educated developer, I downloaded the sources jar, so that I could validate the source code that my app is using.

Inside that file, however, there's only a README file:

Not available yet

And naturally, by downloading the Jar file, only .class files are available.

---

For this reason, the gradle plugin is considered proprietary code. And this has lead F-Droid - the main FLOSS Android distributor - has blocked many apps, such as

• Non-FOSS in F-Droid build - io.objectbox:objectbox-gradle-plugin LeoColman/Petals#98
• Non-FOSS in F-Droid build - io.objectbox:objectbox-gradle-plugin owntracks/android#1298
• Non-FOSS in F-Droid build - io.objectbox:objectbox-gradle-plugin Nonononoki/Hendroid#70
• Non-FOSS in F-Droid build - io.objectbox:objectbox-gradle-plugin kiwix/kiwix-android#3091

And probably more to come.

---

This is a very serious bug.
I imagine it's somewhere where the code is published to MavenCentral that is not including the source codes.

This issue is a blocker for anyone that wants to integrate ObjectBox to an 100% FLOSS app, such as ones deployed to F-Droid

[greenrobot]

First, this is not an bug, and being a "blocker" is completely wrong relating to "Open Source" in general. On the upside, it's not as offensive as your first attempt at an ticket, so I won't close the ticket right away.

Then, I am confused. If you have an app, there's no need to ship the plugin. The plugin is only used at build time. Can you please clarify this part?

[LeoColman]

First, this is not an bug, and being a "blocker" is completely wrong relating to "Open Source" in general

I've rephrased that to reflect better what it's blocking

On the upside, it's not as offensive as your first attempt at an ticket, so I won't close the ticket right away.

The intention was never to be offensive. Maybe aggressive, but not offensive. I'm sorry for offending you and your project. It's a masterpiece of code that you've developed, and that's why I'm trying to solve this specific issue

[greenrobot-team]

Thanks for your input! Note that this was/is discussed in #560 already.

[marek22k]

Is there any news? Some F-Droid app are still not available :-(

[greenrobot-team]

@marek22k If you are interested in this, please thumbs up the first post instead. This helps us track interest.