Add staging repository creation to workflow

Introduce a new job to create a Sonatype staging repository before publishing artifacts. This ensures the repository is prepped and ready for artifact release, improving the reliability of the publishing process. The signing credentials have been removed from the close and release step, aligning with new security practices.

.github/workflows/publish.yml

@@ -7,7 +7,24 @@ on:
     types: [ published ]
 
 jobs:
+  create-staging-repository:
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    name: "Create Sonatype Staging Repository"
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+      - uses: actions/setup-java@v4
+        with:
+          distribution: adopt
+          java-version: 21
+      - uses: gradle/actions/setup-gradle@v4
+      - run: chmod +x gradlew
+      - run: ./gradlew initializeSonatypeStagingRepository
+        env:
+          SONATYPE_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.SONATYPE_PASSWORD }}
+          SONATYPE_USERNAME: ${{ secrets.SONATYPE_USERNAME }}
+
   publish-artifacts:
+    needs: [ create-staging-repository ]
     strategy:
       matrix:
         os: [ ubuntu, windows, macos ]
@@ -42,7 +59,5 @@ jobs:
       - run: chmod +x gradlew
       - run: ./gradlew closeAndReleaseSonatypeStagingRepository
         env:
-          SIGNING_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.SIGNING_PASSWORD }}
-          SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY: ${{ secrets.SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY }}
           SONATYPE_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.SONATYPE_PASSWORD }}
           SONATYPE_USERNAME: ${{ secrets.SONATYPE_USERNAME }}