Upload artifacts to Sonatype Nexus

You can use the Nexus Publish plugin in your CI pipelines to upload artifacts to Sonatype Nexus Repository Manager.

You need:

Access to a Sonatype Nexus Repository Manager instance.
A CI pipeline with a Build stage.
Steps in your pipeline that generate artifacts to upload, such as by running tests or building code. The steps you use depend on what artifacts you ultimately want to upload.

You can also upload artifacts to S3, upload artifacts to GCS, and upload artifacts to JFrog. For other upload locations, you can use a script in a Run step.

Use the Nexus Publish plugin

Visual
YAML

In your CI pipeline's Build stage, add a Plugin step.
Enter a Name and optional Description.
For Container Registry, select a Docker connector.
In the Image field, enter harnesscommunity/publish-nexus-repository:1.1.1.
Under Optional Configuration, add Settings to configure the Nexus Publisher plugin's properties as described in the following table.

Keys	Type	Description	Value example
`username`	String	A username for accessing Nexus Repository Manager.	`admin` `test-user`
`password`	String	An expression referencing a secret containing the password for the specified username.	`<+secrets.getValue("nexus_password")>`
`server_url`	Public URL	The URL of your Nexus Repository Manager instance.	`http://34.235.128.201:8081/`
`filename`	String	The path to the target artifact that you want to upload.	`./target/example-1.0.jar`
`format`	String	The repository format.	`maven2` `raw`
`repository`	String	The name of the repository where you want to upload the artifact.	`maven-releases`
`attributes`	String of key-value pairs	Component and asset attributes providing additional artifact metadata. Can be optional. Relevant fields vary by use case. For example, use `-CgroupID` to map group info.	`-CgroupId=org.dronetest -CartifactId=example -Cversion=1.0 -Aextension=jar -Aclassifier=bin`

The following YAML example describes a Plugin step in a CI stage that uploads an artifact to Sonatype Nexus.

              - step:
                  type: Plugin
                  name: upload_sonatype
                  identifier: upload_sonatype
                  spec:
                    connectorRef: account.harnessImage ## Docker Hub container registry connector
                    image: harnesscommunity/publish-nexus-repository:1.1.1
                    settings:
                      username: deploy-user ## Nexus Repository Manager username
                      password: <+secrets.getValue("nexus_password")> ## Nexus Repository Manager password
                      server_url: http://34.235.128.201:8081/ ## Nexus Repository instance URL
                      filename: ./target/example-1.0.jar ## Path to the artifact to upload
                      format: maven2 ## Repository format
                      repository: maven-releases ## Destination repository name
                      attributes: "-CgroupId=org.dronetest -CartifactId=example -Cversion=1.0 -Aextension=jar -Aclassifier=bin" ## Key-value pairs providing additional metadata

Plugin step specifications

type: Plugin
name: Specify a step name.
identifier: Specify a unique step ID.
connectorRef: Specify a Docker connector.
image: harnesscommunity/publish-nexus-repository:1.1.1
settings: Configure the Nexus Publisher plugin's properties as described in the following table.

Keys	Type	Description	Value example
`username`	String	A username for accessing Nexus Repository Manager.	`admin` `test-user`
`password`	String	An expression referencing a secret containing the password for the specified username.	`<+secrets.getValue("nexus_password")>`
`server_url`	Public URL	The URL of your Nexus Repository Manager instance.	`http://11.222.333.444:8000/`
`filename`	String	The path to the target artifact that you want to upload.	`./target/example-1.0.jar`
`format`	String	The repository format.	`maven2` `raw`
`repository`	String	The name of the repository where you want to upload the artifact.	`maven-releases`
`attributes`	String of key-value pairs	Component and asset attributes providing additional artifact metadata. `"-CgroupId=org.dronetest -CartifactId=example -Cversion=1.0 -Aextension=jar -Aclassifier=bin"`

Tips

You can use variable expressions for Settings values. For example, password: <+stage.variables.nexus_password> uses a stage variable.

Create text secrets for sensitive information, such as passwords.

View artifacts on the Artifacts tab

You can use the Artifact Metadata Publisher plugin to publish artifact URLs on the Artifacts tab. This makes it easier to find artifacts associated with specific builds. To do this, add another Plugin step after the Nexus Publisher plugin step.

Visual
YAML

Configure the Plugin step to use the Artifact Metadata Publisher plugin:

Name: Enter a name.
Container Registry: Select a Docker connector.
Image: Enter plugins/artifact-metadata-publisher.
Settings: Add the following two settings as key-value pairs.
- file_urls: The URL to the artifact that was uploaded by the Nexus Publisher plugin. If you uploaded multiple artifacts, you can provide a list of URLs.
- artifact_file: Provide any .txt file name, such as artifact.txt or url.txt. This is a required setting that Harness uses to store the artifact URL and display it on the Artifacts tab. This value is not the name of your uploaded artifact, and it has no relationship to the artifact object itself.

Add a Plugin step that uses the artifact-metadata-publisher plugin.

               - step:
                  type: Plugin
                  name: publish artifact metadata
                  identifier: publish_artifact_metadata
                  spec:
                    connectorRef: account.harnessImage
                    image: plugins/artifact-metadata-publisher
                    settings:
                      file_urls: https://complete/url/to/artifact/on/nexus
                      artifact_file: artifact.txt

connectorRef: Use the built-in Docker connector (account.harness.Image) or specify your own Docker connector.
image: Must be plugins/artifact-metadata-publisher.
file_urls: Provide the URL to the artifact that was uploaded by the Nexus Publisher plugin. If you uploaded multiple artifacts, you can provide a list of URLs.
artifact_file: Provide any .txt file name, such as artifact.txt or url.txt. This is a required setting that Harness uses to store the artifact URL and display it on the Artifacts tab. This value is not the name of your uploaded artifact, and it has no relationship to the artifact object itself.

Build logs and artifact files

When you run the pipeline, you can observe the step logs on the build details page.

If the Nexus Publisher plugin step succeeds, you can find the artifact in your Sonatype Nexus repo. You can use the Artifact Metadata Publisher plugin to view artifacts on the Artifacts tab.

tip

On the Artifacts tab, select the step name to expand the list of artifact links associated with that step.

If your pipeline has multiple steps that upload artifacts, use the dropdown menu on the Artifacts tab to switch between lists of artifacts uploaded by different steps.

Pipeline YAML example

This example pipeline has steps that build an artifact, upload it to a Sonatype Nexus repo, and then use the Artifact Metadata Publisher plugin to show a link to the artifact on the Artifacts tab.

pipeline:
  name: YOUR_PIPELINE_NAME
  identifier: YOUR_PIPELINE_ID
  projectIdentifier: default
  orgIdentifier: default
  tags: {}
  properties:
    ci:
      codebase:
        connectorRef: YOUR_CODEBASE_CONNECTOR
        repoName: YOUR_CODE_REPO
        build: <+input>
  stages:
    - stage:
        name: stage1
        identifier: stage1
        type: CI
        spec:
          cloneCodebase: true
          execution:
            steps:
              - step:
                  type: Run
                  name: Build
                  identifier: build
                  spec:
                    shell: Sh
                    command: "mvn clean package"
              - step:
                  type: Plugin
                  name: upload_nexus
                  identifier: upload_nexus
                  spec:
                    connectorRef: account.harnessImage
                    image: harnesscommunity/publish-nexus-repository:1.1.1
                    settings:
                      username: test-user
                      password: <+secrets.getValue("nexus_password")>
                      server_url: http://11.222.333.444:8000/
                      format: maven2
                      filename: ./target/example-1.0.jar
                      repository: maven-releases
                      attributes: "-CgroupId=org.dronetest -CartifactId=example -Cversion=1.0 -Aextension=jar -Aclassifier=bin"
               - step:
                  type: Plugin
                  name: publish artifact metadata
                  identifier: publish_artifact_metadata
                  spec:
                    connectorRef: account.harnessImage
                    image: plugins/artifact-metadata-publisher
                    settings:
                      file_urls: https://repository.sonatype.org/content/sites/...
                      artifact_file: artifact.txt
          platform:
            os: Linux
            arch: Amd64
          runtime:
            type: Cloud
            spec: {}

Troubleshoot uploading artifacts

Go to the CI Knowledge Base for questions and issues related uploading artifacts, such as:

Use the Nexus Publish plugin​

Plugin step specifications​

View artifacts on the Artifacts tab​

Build logs and artifact files​

Pipeline YAML example​

Troubleshoot uploading artifacts​