Conditionally copying folders in Azure Pipeline - azure-devops

Question

When we perform uploads using our production pipeline I'd like to be able to conditionally upload the assets folder of our application. This is because it takes significantly more time to upload the contents of that folder and it rarely has any changes to it anyway.
I've wrote the "CopyFilesOverSSH" task as follows...
# Node.js with Angular
trigger:
- production
pool:
default
steps:
- task: CopyFilesOverSSH#0
inputs:
sshEndpoint: 'offigo-production-server'
sourceFolder: '$(Agent.BuildDirectory)/s/dist/offigo-v2/'
${{ if eq('$(UploadAssets)', 0) }}:
contents: |
!browser/assets/**
${{ if eq('$(UploadAssets)', 1) }}:
contents: |
!browser/assets/static-pages/**
!browser/assets/page-metadata/**
targetFolder: '/var/www/docker/DocumentRoot/offigo/frontend'
readyTimeout: '20000'
continueOnError: true
However, when the pipeline runs it completely ignores the rules either way and just uploads all contents of the assets folder. I can't work out why it is not working correctly, some help would be greatly appreciated...

Answer 1

If UploadAssets is a variable name you should use this syntax like here
${{ if eq(variables['UploadAssets'], 0) }}:

Answer 2

Going out on a limb and assuming your future deployment steps if using YAML Pipelines will also have this condition on what and how to deploy.
Would recommend to create two templates. The template would have all the steps outline and if steps are being reused would recommend templating them so they are only defined once.
The issue is here is how the variable is being declared. $() is at the macro level. To confirm download the logs by clicking the ellipses on a job that has been completed:
I'd guess you'd ratehr need at at runtime so $[variables.UploadAssets] .
Alternatively, when editing in the browser can click download full YAML file to see it as well though this won't have any variables passed in at runtime.
Feel free to ask any more questions in the comments as this stuff is never as straightforward.

Answer 3

Thanks Krzysztof Madej, I tried using
${{ if eq(variables['UploadAssets'], 0) }}:
But it still didn't resolve the issue, the variable just seemed to be undefined. Using the link DreadedFrost provided about templates I ended up adding a parameter into the pipeline like so...
# Node.js with Angular
trigger:
- production
pool:
default
parameters:
- name: uploadAssets # Upload assets folder?; required
type: boolean # data type of the parameter; required
default: true
steps:
- task: CopyFilesOverSSH#0
inputs:
sshEndpoint: 'offigo-production-server'
sourceFolder: '$(Agent.BuildDirectory)/s/dist/offigo-v2/'
${{ if eq(parameters.uploadAssets, false) }}:
contents: |
!browser/assets/**
${{ if eq(parameters.uploadAssets, true) }}:
contents: |
!browser/assets/static-pages/**
!browser/assets/page-metadata/**
targetFolder: '/var/www/docker/DocumentRoot/offigo/frontend'
readyTimeout: '20000'
continueOnError: true
This then adds a checkbox when I run the pipeline, so I can set whether or not to upload the folder.
I doubt this is the best way of doing it but it resolves the issue for now, I'll have a proper look at implementing templates in the future.