Configure Maven to Download from Nexus

If you are adopting Nexus for internal development you should configure a single Nexus group which contains both releases and snapshots. To do this, add snapshot repositories to your public group, and add the following mirror configuration to your Maven settings in ~/.m2/settings.xml

Configuring Maven to Use a Single Nexus Group. 

<settings>
  <mirrors>
    <mirror>
      <!--This sends everything else to /public -->
      <id>nexus</id>
      <mirrorOf>*</mirrorOf>
      <url>http://localhost:8081/nexus/content/groups/public</url>
    </mirror>
  </mirrors>
  <profiles>
    <profile>
      <id>nexus</id>
      <!--Enable snapshots for the built in central repo to direct -->
      <!--all requests to nexus via the mirror -->
      <repositories>
        <repository>
          <id>central</id>
          <url>http://central</url>
          <releases><enabled>true</enabled></releases>
          <snapshots><enabled>true</enabled></snapshots>
        </repository>
      </repositories>
     <pluginRepositories>
        <pluginRepository>
          <id>central</id>
          <url>http://central</url>
          <releases><enabled>true</enabled></releases>
          <snapshots><enabled>true</enabled></snapshots>
        </pluginRepository>
      </pluginRepositories>
    </profile>
  </profiles>
  <activeProfiles>
    <!--make the profile active all the time -->
    <activeProfile>nexus</activeProfile>
  </activeProfiles>
</settings>

 

We have defined a single profile - "nexus".   This profile is configured to download from a repository with the id "central" that has been configured with a bogus URL. This URL is overridden by the mirror setting in the same settings.xml file to point to the URL of your single Nexus group. The nexus group is then listed as an active profile in the activeProfiles element.