JFrog Artifactory serves as a single source of truth for build artifacts across your organization, and deploys and resolves artifacts by configuring your package manager and CI tools to work opposite Artifactory.
Using Artifactory to store and manage your artifacts provides the following benefits:
Universal support with over 30 integrated package types.
Complete metadata on every package allows for wide observability and traceability.
Control over the components your developers can access and leverage in your software development lifecycle.
Unlimited scalability with a variety of enterprise-scale storage capabilities.
Security enhancement through a native integration with JFrog Xray.
For more benefits and information, see JFrog Artifactory.
Artifactory stores your first-party artifacts in local repositories, which are locally-managed repositories into which you can deploy your artifacts. After configuring a local repository, you can deploy and resolve your artifacts directly from the JFrog Platform UI or API.
Using a Package Manager Client
You create a connection between Artifactory and the package manager client you are working with by configuring Artifactory as a local repository for the package manager client. Once you configure a local repository, you can deploy and resolve artifacts directly from Artifactory.
To configure a client, go to the Artifacts page, click Set Me Up, and follow the instructions that appear. Each package manager client has slightly different instructions, which Artifactory will generate specifically for your instance.
In most cases, the configuration process has the following structure:
Configure
First, set the appropriate Artifactory repository as the default registry for the package manager client you are working with.
Next, enter your Artifactory and package credentials in the package manager client and establish a link between the two.
Deploy
To deploy your packages to the Artifactory local repository, use an API or CLI command to deploy the package type you selected.
Resolve
To resolve your packages from the Artifactory local repository, use a command to resolve the package type you selected.
After adding an artifact to a local repository, you will be able to access it using an Artifactory URL. Refer to the Set Me Up section for the package type you are working with for specific instructions, URLs, and file paths.
Example: Docker Local Repository
To store and use your Docker images on Artifactory, configure Artifactory as a Docker repository, as follows:
To create a new Docker local repository, access the JFrog UI, navigate to Administration | Repositories | Add Repositories, and select Local Repository.
Fill in the repository key and URL, and any other repository settings you would like to apply, and click Create Local Repository.
Navigate to Application | Artifactory | Artifacts | Set Me Up, and select Docker from the packages list.
Select your repository from the drop-down menu. Instructions for configuring the client will appear under the Configure tab. Follow the instructions to establish the connection between your Docker client and Artifactory.
Once you establish the connection between your Docker client and Artifactory, you can tag, push, and pull your Docker images using Artifactory.
Browsing and Searching Artifacts
After adding artifacts to a local repository, you can browse them using the JFrog Platform UI. For more information, see Browsing Artifacts.
You can also search for specific remote cached resources according to the package metadata, searching by version, permissions, type, and more. For more information, see Application Search.
Artifactory Query Language
Artifactory Query Language (AQL) is a standardized language that allows you to extract any data related to your artifacts and builds stored in Artifactory. For more information, see Artifactory Query Language.
Using REST API
Artifactory allows you to use REST API endpoints to perform a vast number of actions on a JFrog instance. This helps enable automation across your pipelines. For more information, see Artifactory REST API.