diff --git a/.github/workflows/maven-install.yml b/.github/workflows/maven-install.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..edde7f2
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.github/workflows/maven-install.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+# General maven install to check everything compiles
+
+name: Maven Install
+
+on: push
+
+jobs:
+  build:
+
+    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v1
+      - name: Set up JDK 8
+        uses: actions/setup-java@v1
+        with:
+          java-version: 8.0.252
+      - name: Build with Maven
+        run: mvn install
diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 762f6e9..8e7ef3e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -7,3 +7,7 @@
 /bin
 /target
 /java-xmlbuilder
+
+# ignore IDEA project/module files
+/.idea/
+*.iml
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 88d5285..e822e9b 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -35,14 +35,11 @@
     </developer>
   </developers>
 
-  <dependencies>
-    <dependency>
-        <groupId>net.iharder</groupId>
-        <artifactId>base64</artifactId>
-        <version>2.3.8</version>
-        <scope>compile</scope>
-    </dependency>    
+  <properties>
+    <java.version>8</java.version>
+  </properties>
 
+  <dependencies>
     <dependency>
       <groupId>junit</groupId>
       <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
@@ -59,6 +56,16 @@
 
   <build>
     <plugins>
+
+      <plugin>
+        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
+        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
+        <version>3.8.1</version>
+        <configuration>
+          <source>${java.version}</source>
+          <target>${java.version}</target>
+        </configuration>
+      </plugin>
     
       <plugin>
         <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/jamesmurty/utils/BaseXMLBuilder.java b/src/main/java/com/jamesmurty/utils/BaseXMLBuilder.java
index c9466f7..cb88356 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/jamesmurty/utils/BaseXMLBuilder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/jamesmurty/utils/BaseXMLBuilder.java
@@ -22,6 +22,7 @@
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 import java.io.Writer;
+import java.util.Base64;
 import java.util.Map.Entry;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
@@ -42,8 +43,6 @@
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPathExpressionException;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPathFactory;
 
-import net.iharder.Base64;
-
 import org.w3c.dom.Document;
 import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 import org.w3c.dom.Node;
@@ -857,7 +856,7 @@ protected void cdataImpl(String data) {
     protected void cdataImpl(byte[] data) {
         xmlNode.appendChild(
             getDocument().createCDATASection(
-                Base64.encodeBytes(data)));
+                Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(data)));
     }
 
     /**
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/jamesmurty/utils/BaseXMLBuilderTests.java b/src/test/java/com/jamesmurty/utils/BaseXMLBuilderTests.java
index ca8876f..2795281 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/jamesmurty/utils/BaseXMLBuilderTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/jamesmurty/utils/BaseXMLBuilderTests.java
@@ -4,15 +4,15 @@
 import java.io.FileWriter;
 import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
+import java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets;
+import java.util.Base64;
 import java.util.Properties;
 
-import javax.annotation.Resource;
 import javax.xml.transform.OutputKeys;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPathConstants;
 import javax.xml.xpath.XPathExpressionException;
 
 import junit.framework.TestCase;
-import net.iharder.Base64;
 
 import org.w3c.dom.Node;
 import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;
@@ -332,14 +332,14 @@ public void testImport() throws Exception {
     public void testCDataNodes() throws Exception {
         String text = "Text data -- left as it is";
         String textForBytes = "Byte data is automatically base64-encoded";
-        String textEncoded = Base64.encodeBytes(textForBytes.getBytes("UTF-8"));
+        String textEncoded = Base64.getEncoder().encodeToString(textForBytes.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
 
         BaseXMLBuilder builder = XMLBuilder_create("TestCDataNodes")
             .elem("CDataTextElem")
                 .cdata(text)
                 .up()
             .elem("CDataBytesElem")
-                .cdata(textForBytes.getBytes("UTF-8"));
+                .cdata(textForBytes.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
 
         Node cdataTextNode = builder.xpathFind("//CDataTextElem")
             .getElement().getChildNodes().item(0);
@@ -350,7 +350,7 @@ public void testCDataNodes() throws Exception {
             .getElement().getChildNodes().item(0);
         assertEquals(Node.CDATA_SECTION_NODE, cdataBytesNode.getNodeType());
         assertEquals(textEncoded, cdataBytesNode.getNodeValue());
-        String base64Decoded = new String(Base64.decode(cdataBytesNode.getNodeValue()));
+        String base64Decoded = new String(Base64.getDecoder().decode(cdataBytesNode.getNodeValue()));
         assertEquals(textForBytes, base64Decoded);
     }