Uploading and Managing Artifacts in Nexus with Maven, Jenkins Plugin, and REST API

Nexus is a repository manager that stores and retrieves build artifacts in a private, secure repository, supporting common build tools such as maven , ant , and gradle .

Artifact Upload via UI : In Nexus UI, navigate to Upload , select the target repository, and fill in the artifact coordinates and metadata.

Using Maven Tool

Configure authentication in settings.xml :

<server>
  <id>mymaven</id>
  <username>admin</username>
  <password>admin123</password>
</server>

Upload with the Maven command:

mvn deploy:deploy-file \
  -DgroupId=xxxxxx \
  -DartifactId=xxxxxx \
  -Dversion=xxxxxx \
  -Dpackaging=xxxxxx \
  -Dfile=xxxxxx \
  -Durl=xxxxxx \
  -DrepositoryId=mymaven

If a pom.xml is available, you can upload directly:

mvn deploy:deploy-file \
  -DgeneratePom=false \
  -DrepositoryId=mymaven \
  -Durl=http://192.168.1.200:8081/repository/mymavenrepo \
  -DpomFile=pom.xml \
  -Dfile=target/demo-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

Using Jenkins Plugin

Install the Nexus Artifact Uploader plugin and generate DSL with the snippet generator:

nexusArtifactUploader   artifacts:[[artifactId: 'devopstest', classifier: '', file: 'target/demo-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar', type: 'jar']]],
  credentialsId: '1de05a13-197c-4a72-8c6a-cd330fc45559',
  groupId: 'com.jenkins',
  nexusUrl: '192.168.1.200:8081',
  nexusVersion: 'nexus3',
  protocol: 'http',
  repository: 'mymavenrepo',
  version: '1.1.2'

For repeated use, wrap the upload logic in a reusable function:

def NexusUploadByPlugin(artifactId, file, type, groupId, version){
  nexusArtifactUploader artifacts:[[artifactId: artifactId, classifier: '', file: file, type: type]],
    credentialsId: '1de05a13-197c-4a72-8c6a-cd330fc45559',
    groupId: groupId,
    nexusUrl: '192.168.1.200:8081',
    nexusVersion: 'nexus3',
    protocol: 'http',
    repository: 'mymavenrepo',
    version: version
}

Using Nexus REST API

Upload files directly with curl commands. Example for a PNG file:

curl -X POST "http://192.168.1.200:8081/service/rest/v1/components?repository=myrepo" \
  -H "accept: application/json" \
  -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
  -F "raw.directory=/tmp" \
  -F "[email protected];type=image/png" \
  -F "raw.asset1.filename=default.png"

Similar commands work for tar.gz , zip , and jar files.

Downloading Artifacts

Use curl :

curl -u admin:admin123 http://192.168.1.200:8081/repository/anyops/com/anyops/anyops-devops-service/1.1.1/anyops-devops-service-1.1.1.jar -o anyops-devops-service-1.1.1.jar

Or wget :

wget --http-user=admin --http-passwd=admin123 http://192.168.1.200:8081/repository/anyops/com/anyops/anyops-devops-service/1.1.1/anyops-devops-service-1.1.1.jar

Example Jenkins Pipeline for Artifact Upload

The pipeline consists of four stages: Checkout, Build, UnitTest, and Upload. The Upload stage calls the reusable NexusUploadByPlugin function.

@Library("mylib@main") _
import org.devops.*

def checkout = new Checkout()
def build = new Build()
def unittest = new UnitTest()
def sonar = new Sonar()

pipeline {
  agent { label "build" }
  options { skipDefaultCheckout true }
  stages {
    stage("Checkout") {
      steps { script { checkout.GetCode(env.srcUrl, env.branchName) } }
    }
    stage("Build") {
      steps { script { sh "mvn clean package" } }
    }
    stage("UnitTest") {
      steps { script { unittest.CodeTest(env.buildTool) } }
    }
    stage("Upload") {
      steps { script { NexusUploadByPlugin(env.artifactId, 'target/demo-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar', env.type, env.groupId, env.version) } }
    }
  }
}

def NexusUploadByPlugin(artifactId, file, type, groupId, version){
  nexusArtifactUploader artifacts:[[artifactId: artifactId, classifier: '', file: file, type: type]],
    credentialsId: '1de05a13-197c-4a72-8c6a-cd330fc45559',
    groupId: groupId,
    nexusUrl: '192.168.1.200:8081',
    nexusVersion: 'nexus3',
    protocol: 'http',
    repository: 'mymavenrepo',
    version: version
}

This comprehensive guide demonstrates multiple ways to manage and publish artifacts in a Nexus repository, covering UI, Maven, Jenkins plugin, custom pipeline functions, REST API, and direct download methods.