Better integration with Nexus

The issue names no files or tests; start by tracing the project and component provisioning flows in this deprecated Java/Spring Boot app and document how Nexus credentials, groups, repositories, and mirror metadata are currently handled. Done means an agreed scope and behavior for both creation cases, permissions, and local/CI use, followed by targeted tests.

feature request

I'd like to see better integration with Nexus. Currently local usage of nexus:

• depends on extracting the secret (from OpenShift) so developers can make use of Nexus locally.
• doesn't provide the repositories one would expect

We are looking at local usage of Nexus because we want to be able to run builds and test locally with an environment that resembles the CI environment as close as possible.

solution proposal

I see 2 base cases

1. create a new project
   When a new project is created the corresponding groups should be created to or added in nexus so that the personal credentials can be used rather than sharing a secret between a potentially very large group. Not to mention all the hassle if people switch teams, this requires a secret rotation for a lot of people.

   • manager (possibly read/write?)
     • CI -- I'm not sure about this, I'd much prefer if CI was the only thing that could write to the repository
   • team
   • stakeholder

   groups should be added to nexus as read-only member of all "public" nexus repositories but not necesarily all repositories (although I can't see harm in that right now)

2. create a new component within an existing project
   When a new component is created I would like to an option to create a Nexus repository.

   The reason for not doing that directly at the project level is that we don't know ahead of time which kind of repository is required for which component.

A perfect experience would be if the repositories are magically added to the "meta repositories" (lacking the proper term here) so that when Nexus is configured as the default Maven, PyPI, R, ... mirror all internal packages are available automatically.

alternate/current methods

Manually ordering the repositories is our only option right now. This has proven to be too cumbersome and error prone.

People actively avoid using Nexus as a means to distribute software as the process seems unclear and complicated. We are already seeing several implementations of "I pretend to be a repository but I'm not" in the wild and in use by various high profile projects.

additional context / required praise

❤️ You girls and guys rock! ❤️