Java: prepare release java-0.2.8-alpha (#2426)

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### Contribution Checklist

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- [ ] The code builds clean without any errors or warnings
- [ ] The PR follows the [SK Contribution
Guidelines](https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md)
and the [pre-submission formatting
script](https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#development-scripts)
raises no violations
- [ ] All unit tests pass, and I have added new tests where possible
- [ ] I didn't break anyone 😄

Co-authored-by: GitHub <noreply@github.com>

Author: joe-braley

java/api-test/api-usage-example/pom.xml

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.microsoft.semantic-kernel.test</groupId>
         <artifactId>api-test</artifactId>
-        <version>0.2.8-alpha-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.2.8-alpha</version>
         <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

java/api-test/integration-tests/pom.xml

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.microsoft.semantic-kernel.test</groupId>
         <artifactId>api-test</artifactId>
-        <version>0.2.8-alpha-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.2.8-alpha</version>
         <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

java/api-test/pom.xml

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.microsoft.semantic-kernel</groupId>
         <artifactId>semantickernel-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>0.2.8-alpha-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.2.8-alpha</version>
         <relativePath>../pom.xml</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

java/connectors/semantickernel-connectors-ai-openai/pom.xml

@@ -1,13 +1,12 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 
-<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.microsoft.semantic-kernel</groupId>
         <artifactId>semantickernel-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>0.2.8-alpha-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.2.8-alpha</version>
         <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

java/connectors/semantickernel-connectors-memory-azurecognitivesearch/pom.xml

@@ -1,13 +1,12 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 
-<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.microsoft.semantic-kernel</groupId>
         <artifactId>semantickernel-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>0.2.8-alpha-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.2.8-alpha</version>
         <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

java/connectors/semantickernel-connectors-memory-sqlite/pom.xml

@@ -1,13 +1,12 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 
-<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.microsoft.semantic-kernel</groupId>
         <artifactId>semantickernel-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>0.2.8-alpha-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.2.8-alpha</version>
         <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

java/extensions/semantickernel-gpt3-tokenizer/pom.xml

@@ -1,12 +1,10 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
-<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
-         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.microsoft.semantic-kernel</groupId>
         <artifactId>semantickernel-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>0.2.8-alpha-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.2.8-alpha</version>
         <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

java/extensions/semantickernel-planners/pom.xml

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.microsoft.semantic-kernel</groupId>
         <artifactId>semantickernel-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>0.2.8-alpha-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.2.8-alpha</version>
         <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

java/plugins/semantickernel-plugin-core/pom.xml

@@ -6,7 +6,7 @@
     <parent>
         <groupId>com.microsoft.semantic-kernel</groupId>
         <artifactId>semantickernel-parent</artifactId>
-        <version>0.2.8-alpha-SNAPSHOT</version>
+        <version>0.2.8-alpha</version>
         <relativePath>../../pom.xml</relativePath>
     </parent>
 

java/pom.xml

@@ -1,13 +1,12 @@
 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 
-<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
-         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
+<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
 
     <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
     <groupId>com.microsoft.semantic-kernel</groupId>
     <artifactId>semantickernel-parent</artifactId>
-    <version>0.2.8-alpha-SNAPSHOT</version>
+    <version>0.2.8-alpha</version>
     <packaging>pom</packaging>
     <url>https://www.github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel</url>
     <name>Semantic Kernel Parent</name>
@@ -682,7 +681,7 @@
                                 <licenseHeader>
                                     <content>// Copyright (c) Microsoft. All rights reserved.</content>
                                 </licenseHeader>
-                                <toggleOffOn/>
+                                <toggleOffOn />
                             </java>
                         </configuration>
                     </plugin>
@@ -805,6 +804,6 @@
         <url>https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel</url>
         <connection>scm:git:https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel.git</connection>
         <developerConnection>scm:git:https://github.com/microsoft/semantic-kernel.git</developerConnection>
-        <tag>HEAD</tag>
+        <tag>java-0.2.8-alpha</tag>
     </scm>
 </project>