npm Registry

The command line tool npm is a package management solution for Javascript-based development. It is used to create and use node packaged modules and is built into the Javascript platform Node.js.

NXRM supports the npm registry format for proxy repositories. This allows you to take advantage of the packages in the npm registry and other public registries without incurring repeated downloads of packages, since they will be proxied in the repository manager.

In addition, Nexus Repository Manager supports running your own private registry, also known as a hosted repository, using the npm format. You can share internally developed, proprietary packages within your organization via these private registries allowing you to collaborate efficiently across development teams with a central package exchange and storage location.

To share a package or tool with npm, you create a npm package and store it in the npm registry hosted by the repository manager. Similarly, you can use packages others have created and made available in their npm repositories by proxying them or downloading the packages and installing them in your own private registry for third party packages.

To simplify configuration Nexus Repository Manager supports aggregation of npm registries into a single group. This allows you to expose all the external packages from the npm registry and other public registries as well as the private registries as one registry, which greatly simplifies client configuration.

To reduce duplicate downloads and improve download speeds for your developers and CI servers, you should proxy the registry served at https://registry.npmjs.org. By default npm accesses this registry directly. You can also proxy any other registries you require.

To proxy an external npm registry, you simply create a new npm (proxy) as documented in Repository Management.

Minimal configuration steps are:

A private npm registry can be used to upload your own packages as well as third-party packages. You can create a private npm registry by setting up a hosted repository with the npm format in the repository manager. It is good practice to create two separate hosted repositories for these purposes.

To create a hosted repository with npm format, simply create a new npm (hosted) as documented in Repository Management.

Minimal configuration steps are:

The npm registry information is immediately updated as packages are deployed or deleted from the repository.

A repository group is the recommended way to expose all your npm registries repositories from the repository manager to your users, with miminal client side configuration. A repository group allows you to expose the aggregated content of multiple proxy and hosted repositories with one URL to npm and other tools. This is possible for npm repositories by creating a new npm (group) as documented in Repository Management.

Minimal configuration steps are:

A typical, useful example would be to group a npm hosted repository with internal software packages, another npm hosted repository with third-party packages and the proxy repository that proxies the npm registry.

Using the URL of the repository group as your npm repository URL in your client tool will give you access to the packages in all three repositories with one URL. Any new packages added as well as any new repositories added to the group will automatically be available.

Using a Pro version, you can push images to the group repository as documented in Publishing npm packages.

You can browse npm repositories in the user interface inspecting the components and assets and their details as documented in Browsing Repositories and Repository Groups.

Searching for npm modules can be performed in the user interface as described in Searching for Components. This search will find all npm modules images that are currently stored in the repository manager, either because they have been pushed to a hosted repository or they have been proxied from an upstream repository and cached in the repository manager.