Azure DevOps Pipeline Parameters

Do you have some process in development, which needs to be automatized and you are doing it for example by running PowerShell script with some parameters? Do you have problem with where to put the script and how to share all this with your colleagues? Do you have problem that someone is using old version of the script and some the newest one? Do you want to have some log who run it and with which values?

If yes, I want to offer you one feature of the Azure DevOps, which is available since March 2020. You can find the description here.

Pipeline Runtime parameters

May be you are already using parameters in your YAML pipeline templates. You can now use same thing for whole pipeline. When you run such a pipeline manually, user can set the parameters and run the pipeline with them. It means, you can e.g. select what you want to do, which tasks to run or not to run, which image to use, whatever you can imagine. All what you need is to specify the parameters on beginning of your pipeline file in this format:

parameters:
- name: myStringName
  type: string
  default: a string value
- name: myMultiString
  type: string
  default: default
  values:
  - default
  - something other
- name: myNumber
  type: number
  default: 2
  values:
  - 1
  - 2
  - 4
  - 8
  - 16
- name: myBoolean
  type: boolean
  default: true

Do not forget that the parameters are available only during template parsing time, thus you can use them in ${{ }} expression where needed and the values will be used instead when the template is parsed. If you want to use them somewhere later, you should assign the values into variables and use them instead.

Usage example

Ok, why it could be interesting for you? Because now you can create pipeline like "Create BC App", ask user for some values like App Name, Repository Name, ID range etc. and then as part of the pipeline, you can create the repository, initialize it with some templated files with correct final values (like new App ID, correct App name etc.), create the pipelines needed, write the app into your evidence and whatever you need. If someone need new app, he just run the pipeline and enter the parameters. You do not need to think about where to put the scripts (just store them to some repository), how to keep them up-to-date for everyone, how to set the permissions, and on top of all you will get traces about who created the app, you can get notification that some app was created... all these things which are standard in Azure DevOps. Why to not use them?

Do you need tool for creating new development environment? Create pipeline for it...

Do you need tool to run some maintenance like update licenses in your environments? Create pipeline for it...

My example for creating the BC App process:

parameters:
  - name: AppName
    displayName: Application Name
    type: string
  - name: RepoName
    displayName: Repository Name
    type: string
  - name: UserStoryID
    displayName: Connected User Story ID (0 if none)
    type: number
  - name: ObjectCount
    displayName: Object Count
    type: number
    default: 100
  - name: ObjectStartID
    displayName: Object start ID
    type: number
    default: 55000
  - name: Branch
    displayName: Template Source Branch
    type: string
    values:
    - v16_W1
    - v16_CSY
  - name: Type
    displayName: Extension Type
    type: string
    values:
    - PTE
    - AppSource

name: ${{ format('{0} {1}',parameters.AppName,'$(Rev:.r)') }}
    
trigger: none

jobs:
  - job: createApp
    displayName: Create the app
    pool:
      name: default
    workspace:
      clean: all
    steps:
    - checkout: git://BusinessCentral/BCPipelineScripts@master
      path: s/BCPipelineScripts

    - task: PowerShell@2 
      inputs:
          targetType: 'filePath'
          filePath: 'BCPipelineScripts\Scripts\New-BCApp.ps1'
          arguments: ${{ format('-AppName ''{0}'' -RepositoryName ''{1}'' -WIUserStory ''{2}'' -Branch ''{3}'' -ObjectCount {4} -StartId {5} -Type {6} -ADOUrl {7} -ProjectID {8}',parameters.AppName,parameters.RepoName,parameters.UserStoryID,parameters.Branch, parameters.ObjectCount,parameters.ObjectStartID,parameters.Type,Format('{0}{1}',variables['System.TeamFoundationCollectionUri'],variables['System.TeamProject']),variables['System.TeamProjectId']) }}
      displayName: Run script for creating the app
      name: runScript
      env:
        SYSTEM_ACCESSTOKEN: $(System.AccessToken)