Sonatype Nexus Repository 1.9 Performance, Compatibility, and Dependency Browsing

April 14, 2011
By Brian Fox

3 minute read time

Sonatype has released the latest version of our industry leading repository manager: Sonatype Nexus Repository 1.9.1.

This post outlines the new features available in all 1.9 releases of both Nexus Professional (now known as Sonatype Nexus Repository) and Nexus Open Source (now known as Sonatype Nexus Repository Community Edition). This release has many important, under-the-hood changes - including many changes to the core infrastructure of Nexus to increase Maven 3 compatibility and to incorporate open source libraries for repository interaction (Aether and Maven Indexer). In addition to a wide array of fixes and features in Nexus Open Source, you can now use Nexus Professional to analyze Maven dependencies.

Changes in Sonatype Nexus Repository 1.9.1

For a complete list of all features added and bugs fixed in Nexus Professional 1.9.1, see the official release notes (note: release notes require a log-in).

• Moved the Custom Metadata Plugin to optional plugins - This Custom Metadata plugin is now shipped as an optional dependency. If you are using the Custom Metadata plugin you will need to copy this plugin from the optional dependencies directory to the plugins directory. Nexus will then start this plugin the next time it is restarted.

• The New Maven Module Dependency Report - Nexus Professional adds a helpful report for people browsing the repository. For the first time, you can click on an artifact and see a report of Maven dependencies. From this report, you can click through to search for dependencies.

Changes in Nexus Open Source

Nexus Open Source 1.9.1 contains the following new features and updated capabilities. We've summarized some of the major features and bug fixes for your convenience. If you are looking for more details about a particular feature or fix, read the full release notes for a comprehensive list of features added and bugs fixed.

• New Nexus Archetype Plugin - Nexus 1.9.1 will now add any Maven Archetypes you deploy to your own repositories to the archetype catalog. Once an archetype is available in the archetype catalog, you can then access archetypes using tools like m2eclipse, which reference the archetype catalog when creating a new project.

• Uses the Maven Indexer - Sonatype successfully completed the donation of the Nexus Indexer to the Apache Software Foundation, and we are integrating this newly donated "Maven Indexer" in this release of Nexus. For more information, read this post.

• Improvements to the Roles and Permissions Interface - The Nexus team spends considerable time trying to simplify the Roles and Permissions interface based on user feedback. We've tried to make it easier to understand at first glance, and we're also trying to reduce the amount of work necessary to make changes to roles and permissions.

• Integrated Aether - Aether is a new open source library designed to capture best practices for retrieving information from Maven repositories. It provides a clean interface and manages fetching both metadata and artifacts. This version of Nexus incorporates Aether and replaces Mercury. Integrating Aether has also solved many minor issues involving Maven metadata and compatibility with Maven 3.

• Switched to Java 6 - Nexus has upgraded to Java 6.

• Nexus Upgraded Security from JSecurity to Apache Shiro - As an end-user, you shouldn't notice many changes in the interface to support this migration. If you are developing custom security realms for Nexus, this post describes the changes you need to make to support the move to Shiro. Note: After this upgrade, both first name and last name are required fields for a user. If you have an existing user with only one name ("Administrator"), you will need to supply a first and last name for this user if you ever edit this user through Nexus UI.

• Added robots.txt to bundle to stop public repos from getting crawled.

• Improved Reindexing Performance - Reindexing performance has been considerably improved, achieving a nearly 2x speed up for certain repositories.

• Switched to the Affero General Public License - Nexus Open Source is now covered under the Affero General Public License.

• Added a Start-up Script for 64-bit Windows Platforms - If you are running Nexus on a 64-bit Windows platform, you can now start Nexus with a 64-bit Windows JSW startup wrapper.

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.