Java developers get repository help

Sonatype on Tuesday began offering a tool for Java developers to manage internal Maven-based code repositories and access external Maven repositories.

The company's Nexus 1.0 product is a Maven repository manager; the Maven Central Repository itself features a repository for binary artifacts and publicly available project metadata, the company said.

Maven Central Repository holds more than 50,000 main artifacts, said Sonatype, which developed the repository. The overarching Apache Maven project features a Java build development framework.

"We try to provide a single place for people to manage all their Maven repositories, and that's what Nexus provides," said Jason van Zyl, founder and CTO of Sonatype.

The open source version of Nexus 1.0 is available for free from Sonatype. Support services will be sold, but users also can get questions answered via a mailing list. A commercially available version due in the fourth quarter of this year will have capabilities for enterprise development environments. Enterprise support and services are to be available as well.

The software requires a small memory footprint, runs out of the box without a database, and can be fully integrated with Eclipse to provide a rich development environment, Sonatype said.

Other features of Nexus 1.0 include:

• A rich UI for managing repositories and contents, enabling deletion and direct uploading of artifacts.
• REST APIs to integrate external Eclipse systems using Sonatype's m2eclipse plugin for Maven and Eclipse.
• Repository RSS feeds for deployed and cached artifacts and RSS feeds of new artifacts and system changes.
• Indexing and searching, including searching of proxied repositories.
• Advanced repository proxying and hosting, including on-the-fly metadata correction, artifact request optimization and creation of logical groups of proxied or hosted repositories available via a unified URL.

Nexus 1.0 can be downloaded at Sonatype's Web page.