Maven tips and tricks: Browsing and indexing repositories with m2eclipse

Written by Tim OBrien | September 16, 2009

The m2eclipse plugin allows you to browse and manipulate repository indexes.

Using the Maven Repository view in m2eclipse you can:

Browse your Local Maven repository
Browse global repositories such as the Maven Central repository
Browse a repository which captures artifacts generated by Maven projects in your Eclipse workspace
Rebuild a Nexus Index from scratch
Update a Nexus Index with incremental changes
Modify the scope of repository indexing with a "minimal" or "full" index
Disable Indexing for a repository
Materialize a Maven project from information stored in a POM

For more information about this new view, see Browsing and Manipulating Maven Repositories in Edition 0.6 of Developing with Eclipse and Maven. Read on to find out how to open this view in m2eclipse.

Opening the Maven Repositories view

To browse Maven repositories and to manipulate repository indexes open the Maven Repositories view by selecting Windows, Show View, Other...

Once you select Other... Eclipse will display a dialog containing all available views. Select the Maven Repositories view under the Maven folder in the Show View dialog.

Once you have selected Maven Repositories and clicked on the OK button, Eclipse will then load the Maven Repositories view. This view contains three folders:

Local Repositories: This folder contains your local Maven repository which is stored in ~/.m2/repository by default. It also contains a repository that represents the Maven projects contained in your Eclipse workspace.
Global Repositories: This folder contains any global Maven repositories that are referenced by all Maven projects. This folder contains the Central Maven repository under the repository identifier of "central". It will also contain mirrors that have been configured in your Maven Settings ( ~/.m2/settings.xml).
Project Repositories: This folder contains repositories which are defined by your projects. These repositories are present either in your project's pom.xml file or in an active Maven Profile.

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