Sonatype Nexus Repository 1.7.2 Now Available With Improved Search Interface

August 17, 2010
By Brian Fox

2 minute read time

The Nexus 1.7.2 release offers an improved search interface, making it even easier to locate the libraries and artifacts you need in Nexus. Sonatype has published a version of Nexus 1.7.2, which contains some dramatic improvements to the search interface. Download the new Nexus Open Source (now known as Sonatype Nexus Repository Community Edition) or Nexus Professional (now known as Sonatype Nexus Repository) release and start searching for artifacts.

What is new in the Nexus 1.7.2 search interface?

• Search results now link directly to the latest version of a matching artifact.

• Selecting a search result immediately displays information about the matching artifact. You can browse artifact information from the search interface.

• (Nexus Professional) Archive browsing and artifact metadata are available from the search interface.

• Matching artifacts of different types (pom, jar, war, zip, etc.) can be downloaded from the search results page.

This release takes the effort out of searching for artifacts in Nexus. Here are some screenshots of the new interface now available and soon to be available in the 1.7.2 release of Nexus Open Source and Nexus Professional.

If you are searching for artifacts in Nexus, start with either the Advanced Search interface or the Welcome panel shown below. This Welcome panel is the first thing you will see when you load Nexus in the browser.

To search for an artifact, just type in a keyword. A keyword can be a groupId, an artifactId, or just the name of a project. If you were searching for the latest version of the Guice library, you would type in "guice" in the Welcome panel, press Return or click on the search icon to the right of the search box. Searching for Guice will show the following result panel.

What's new in this interface?

• Look at the Version column in the search results. In this version of the search interface, we decided to list the most recent version. If you need to view a different version, click on "Show All Versions." Clicking on "Show All Versions" will drill down into the list of available versions.

• Look at the Download column in the search results. This Download column contains direct download links for the most recent version of the artifact. To download a matching artifact, click on a link in this column.

• Select a search result, and you will see the artifact in the Repository Tree in the lower left-hand quadrant of this interface. This is helpful to give you context for an artifact. An artifact could be present in more than one repository. If this is the case, click on the value next to "Viewing Repository" to switch between multiple matching repositories.

• In the lower right-hand quadrant of the interface, you will see many tabs which show information about the selected search result:

  • Maven Information: This contains basic identifiers and a snippet of XML you can use to add this artifact as a project dependency.

• Archive Browser: This gives you a way to explore the contents of an archive in the repository. You can view the files and folders contained in a matching search result.

• Artifact Information: This tab contains timestamps, file size, checksum values, and a list of repositories containing a given artifact.

• Artifact Metadata: This tab shows all the built-in and custom metadata associated with an artifact.

This new search interface will be part of the Nexus 1.7.2 search interface available in both Nexus Open Source and Nexus Professional.

Written by Brian Fox

Brian Fox, CTO and co-founder of Sonatype, is a Governing Board Member for the Open Source Security Foundation (OpenSSF), a Governing Board Member for the Fintech Open Source Foundation (FINOS), a member of the Monetary Authority of Singapore Cyber and Technology Resilience Experts (CTREX) Panel, a member of the Apache Software Foundation and former Chair of the Apache Maven project. Working with OpenSSF, Brian helped create The Open Source Consumption Manifesto, urging organizations to elevate awareness of open source usage. He also chaired efforts to provide official responses to requests for information from the The Office of the National Cybersecurity Directorate (ONCD) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Within the Atlantic Council's Open Source Policy Network, Brian actively helps shape cybersecurity strategy, offering valuable insights on critical documents, such as ONCD's recent National Cyber Security Strategy. Brian has over 20 years of experience driving the vision behind, as well as developing and leading the development of software for organizations ranging from startups to large enterprises. Brian is a frequent speaker at national and regional events including Java User Groups and other security and development-related conferences.