Storing third-party applications in artifact repository

Question

I'm learning about artifact repositories such as jFrog Artifactory and Sonatype Nexus. They seem to promote organizing artifacts the Maven way, something like:

/$groupId/$artifactId/$version/$artifactId-$version.$extension

I want to store third-party applications in my repository, in addition to my build outputs. This way employees have a central spot to store compilers and applications that are critical to our software build process.

What $groupId should I use for something like Notepad++? It's primary author is Don Ho, but if I use that I think it will make Notepad++ hard to find.

I'd prefer to keep the original artifact filenames, as downloaded from the third-party, rather than rename them to $artifactId-$version.$extension. Any pros or cons to this approach?

Answer 1

1. Way to go on using binary repository! Good move!
2. Once the 3rd party application won't be downloaded by Maven (and I guess Notepad++ won't, will it?) the $groupId doesn't matter. You can select whatever you feel right, e.g. going with the reversed url - org.notepad-plus-plus
3. The question is - how the users are going to use them. If they are going to use any non-maven way to retrieve them (UI, REST scripts, Ant, Gradle) then you can go with any path and name you like and you'll get full support from Artifactory (uploading, searching, etc.) With Nexus, which is much more Maven-centric, you'll better stick to Maven notation ([$groupId]/[$artifactId]/[$version]/[$artifactId]-[$version].[$ext])