[hi on] diegomarquezp:~$ function get_latest_released_version() {
    local group_id=$1
    local artifact_id=$2
    group_id_url_path="$(sed 's|\.|/|g' <<< "${group_id}")"
    url="https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/${group_id_url_path}/${artifact_id}/maven-metadata.xml"
    xml_content=$(curl -s --fail "${url}")
    latest=$(xmllint --xpath 'metadata/versioning/latest/text()' - <<< "${xml_content}")
    if [[ -z "${latest}" ]]; then
        echo "The latest version of ${group_id}:${artifact_id} is empty."
        echo "The returned json from maven.org is invalid: ${json_content}"
        exit 1
    else
        echo "${latest}"
    fi
}
[hi on] diegomarquezp:~$ get_latest_released_version com.google.api gapic-generator-java
2.60.0