Are there any artifactory repository naming/configuration conventions? - gradle

I am recently working on setting up Artifactory on my virtual server. Basically everything works fine but I did not find any conventions how to setup the repositories used by my projects.
Is there any recommendation/guide to either create an own repository for each (multi module) project (e.g. myProject-release-local) or alternatively to put them all to the same repository (e.g. libs-release-local)?
Thanks in advance

It depends on how much isolation you need/want. If you want to tightly control the dependencies of each build, separate repositories might work better. In any case, each build should only have to list a single repository in its build script. This can be achieved by aggregating physical repositories into virtual repositories.

Related

Is there a way in Gradle to define what patterns of artifacts should, (or should not), be resolved via a repository?

Is there a way in Gradle to explicitly define where certain artifacts should be coming from?
We have a legacy project which is being on-boarded to use a proper artifact repository manager, instead of a network share. However, we have multiple repositories from which artifacts are being downloaded. We'd like to be able to fine-grain where certain artifacts should be coming from, until we can fully on-board to the artifact repository manager in question.
Is something like this possible?
Yes that is possible as of Gradle 5.1
https://docs.gradle.org/5.1/release-notes.html#repository-to-dependency-matching
Repository to dependency matching
It is now possible to match repositories to dependencies, so that Gradle doesn't search for a dependency in a repository if it's never going to be found there.
See the docs for more details: https://docs.gradle.org/5.6.2/userguide/declaring_repositories.html#sec::matching_repositories_to_dependencies

Where to actually put internal repository URL?

I see several options:
directly in pom.xml
in company super-pom
in settings.xml (global or user)
in a profile or directly (in settings.xml or pom.xml)
We want our Jenkins to push artifacts to internal repository, and developers to pull missing artifacts from there.
If I put the repository URL in pom.xml, and later the internal repository is moved to a different address, the released versions will all have a broken link.
Super-pom saves some repetition, but in a clean setup you need to somehow know where the repository is to find the parent POM — to tell you where the repository is.
Having the URL in settings allows one to change it without modifying the artifacts, but there are two problems:
build will fail due to unresolved dependencies, if maven settings have no reference to the internal repo
developers have to update their settings.xml files manually
I'm also unsure about the merits of putting repository configuration in profiles. I know it let's you easily switch the repositories on and off, but shouldn't the -o option and snapshot resolution settings be enough for most uses?
What about using a different repository (e.g. with instrumented classes) for integration tests?
Configure a single repository in the users ${HOME}/.m2/settings.xml and configure other needed repositories in your appropriate repository manager either Nexus, Artifactory or Archiva. In Jenkins there is the Config File Provider plugin which exactly handles such situations in a very convinient way.
If you want to have repeatable builds and good control over your organization internally, use a repository manager and use a mirrorOf entry in everyone’s settings.xml to point at that url.
If you are exposing your source and want to make it easy for others to
build, then consider adding a repository entry to your POM, but don’t
pick a URL lightly, think long-term, and use a URL that will always be
under your control.
http://blog.sonatype.com/2009/02/why-putting-repositories-in-your-poms-is-a-bad-idea/

How to use the ivy local repository as a maven respository

The ivy local repository is in ~/.ivy2, and I'd like to use it as my local maven respoitory. Is there any easy way like setting to do it ?
I suspect what you're trying to do is share ivy's cache, not it's local repository. Files are placed in ivy's repository by calling the publish task. Ivy has a clear storage distinction between these file types:
~/.ivy2/cache
~/.ivy2/local
Maven on the other hand mixes up both file types under the following directory:
~/.m2/repository
It would be a lot simpler to optimize your caching by installing a Maven repository manager like Nexus and configuring Maven and Ivy to use it. Nexus is a very efficient java process and simple to setup on your development machine.
Finally if you are determined to share caches, you could attempt to use the caches directive in the ivy settings file. It has "ivyPattern" and "artifactPattern" directives which suggest one can customize how the cached files are stored. To make this work you'll have to customize ivy. Maven has no flexibility in this area.

Reusing Artifactory's maven repo

I'm trying to figure out if its possible to reuse Artifactory's maven repo on the local machine where the Artifactory server is running. The following details what I am trying to do.
I have a server where Artifactory runs and I'm planning on setting up Jenkins on the same server. If possible, I would like to have only one maven repository on the server. Since Artifactory already runs there, I would expect it is maintaining some kind of a maven repository (I looked around for it but couldn't find it).
Currently, when Jenkins uses Maven to build a maven project, it downloads the dependent jars into a local maven repo (a .m2 folder) on the server. Instead of this, would it be possible to point the settings.xml that maven is using to some local folder under Artifactory where artifactory stores all the jars? Basically, I would like maven to think that all the jars are already available in a local repo (which artifactory is maintaining) and so it wouldnt have to download all the jars from artifactory.
If maven and artifactory can share the same repo folder, this would be possible. But if Artifactory uses its own strucuture to maintain the maven repository (something other than the structure maven follows with its .m2 folder) this would not be possible.
I should state that I have very minimal knowledge of Artifactory, other than the fact that it is a maven repository manager.
Answering my own question here, as more research suggests that this is not possible. I found another question here on SO that states:
Artifactory uses Java Content Repository (JCR) standard to store artifacts. It is an abstraction above various storage implementations, which include filesystem, relational databases, etc. In any case, JCR manages the store by checksums (to reduce size and bandwith), so the repository is not directly browesable in the filesystem. The default implementation is storing the binaries on the filesystem (inside $ARTIFACTORY_HOME/data/filestore and the metadata in Derby DB.
How Artifactory manages repos
A blog post by the Nexus guys also suggests that this is not possible.
Contrasting Nexus and Artifactory -> Contrast #2

Good configuration for Archiva?

We have recently decided to use Maven as build system. I'm responsible to migrate all the projects from Ant to Maven. We also decided to use Apache Archiva to configure an internal repository in the company.
I see that Archiva create two repositories by default (internal and snapshots). I also see that it configures the internal repository to proxy the central and java.net repositories.
Are there some best practices regarding Archiva configuration?
In the Archiva documentation, there is a possibility to configure Maven to use only the internal repository and then access the remote repository through the internal repository. What do you think about this option?
Thanks for your help
A Maven repository manager is essential to support Enterprise Maven development. The Maven installer is merely a bootstrap, running Maven for the first time downloads everything it needs from the Maven Central repository in order to compile your project.
The benefits of using a Maven repository aree documented elsewhere but I'll summarize:
Efficiency. Repository acts as a cache for Maven Central artifacts
Resilience. Repository protects against remote repository failures or lack of internet connection
Repeatability. Storing common artifacts centrally, avoids shared build failures caused by developers maintaining their own local repositories.
Audit. If all 3rd party libraries used by development come from a single entry point in the build process one can assess how often they're used (based on download log files) and what kinds of licensing conditions apply.
To that end I'd encourage you to use the following Archiva features:
Locking down to only use Archiva. Configure Maven clients download everything from Archiva.
Virtual repositories for each team. Configure all the remote repositories used by teams centrally in Archiva instead of leaving the details to the teams themselves.
PS
I use Nexus for my Maven repository management, but the same concepts apply.

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