Create MSBuild arguments string based on a set of boolean parameters - azure-devops

Question

As a AzureDevops user I want to be able to manually pass different MSBuild constants (via DefineConstants) by turning checkboxes on and off on the "Run Pipeline" UI.
Example:
I achieve that by defining two boolean parameters for the current pipeline:
parameters:
- name: enableDebugErrorMessages
displayName: 'Enable debug error messages'
type: boolean
default: false
- name: enableAnalytics
displayName: 'Enable analytics'
type: boolean
default: true
Now I want to generate a string for MSBuild containing enabled constants. Examples:
/p:DefineConstants="ENABLE_ANALYTICS"
/p:DefineConstants="ENABLE_DEBUG_MESSAGES;ENABLE_ANALYTICS"
so I can pass them for MSBuild this way:
- task: XamariniOS#2
inputs:
args: '<HERE>'
I've tried all possible combination of expressions from the documentation I could think of except I want to do something that is not supported by expressions.

Answer 1

UPDATED: I took (another) crack at it on a trivial pipeline and came up with this:
pool: MyBuildPool
parameters:
- name: ENABLE_ANALYTICS
displayName: "Analytics"
type: boolean
default: false
- name: ENABLE_DEBUG_MESSAGES
displayName: "Debug Messages"
type: boolean
default: true
- name: ENABLE_SOMETHING_ELSE
displayName: "Something Else"
type: boolean
default: false
variables:
- ${{ each p in parameters }}:
- name: "DEFINECONSTANT_${{p.key}}"
value: ${{ p.value }}
steps:
- pwsh: |
$constantVars = Get-ChildItem -Path Env:\ | Where-Object Name -like "DEFINECONSTANT_*"
$constantList = ""
$constantVars | ForEach-Object {
$constantList += "$($_.Name.Replace('DEFINECONSTANT_', ''))=$($_.Value);"
}
Write-Host "/p:DefineConstants=`"$constantList`""
displayName: 'Combine parameter values'
When I have Azure Pipelines expand that file, I get:
parameters:
- name: ENABLE_ANALYTICS
displayName: "Analytics"
type: boolean
default: false
- name: ENABLE_DEBUG_MESSAGES
displayName: "Debug Messages"
type: boolean
default: true
- name: ENABLE_SOMETHING_ELSE
displayName: "Something Else"
type: boolean
default: false
variables:
- name: DEFINECONSTANT_ENABLE_ANALYTICS
value: False
- name: DEFINECONSTANT_ENABLE_DEBUG_MESSAGES
value: True
- name: DEFINECONSTANT_ENABLE_SOMETHING_ELSE
value: False
stages:
- stage: __default
jobs:
- job: Job
pool:
name: MyPoolName
steps:
- task: PowerShell#2
displayName: 'Combine parameter values'
inputs:
targetType: inline
script: |
$constantVars = Get-ChildItem -Path Env:\ | Where-Object Name -like "DEFINECONSTANT_*"
$constantList = ""
$constantVars | ForEach-Object {
$constantList += "$($_.Name.Replace('DEFINECONSTANT_', ''))=$($_.Value);"
}
Write-Host "/p:DefineConstants=`"$constantList`""
pwsh: true
Is that closer to what you want? You can have checkboxes with different constant names, descriptions, and default values.

Answer 2

You could use If expression to set the value of the corresponding variable based on the value of the boolean parameter.
Here is the sample:
variables:
${{ if and(parameters.enableDebugErrorMessages, 'true', ne(parameters.enableAnalytics, 'true')) }}:
DefineConstants: ENABLE_DEBUG_MESSAGES
${{ if and(parameters.enableDebugErrorMessages, 'true', eq(parameters.enableAnalytics, 'true')) }}:
DefineConstants: ENABLE_DEBUG_MESSAGES;ENABLE_ANALYTICS
${{ if and(parameters.enableAnalytics, 'true', ne(parameters.enableDebugErrorMessages, 'true')) }}:
DefineConstants: ENABLE_ANALYTICS
parameters:
- name: enableDebugErrorMessages
displayName: 'Enable debug error messages'
type: boolean
default: false
- name: enableAnalytics
displayName: 'Enable analytics'
type: boolean
default: true
pool:
vmImage: ubuntu-latest
steps:
...
In MSbuild argument, you could use the following format: /p:DefineConstants= "$(DefineConstants)".
select enableDebugErrorMessages -> $(DefineConstants) =
ENABLE_DEBUG_MESSAGES
select enableAnalytics -> $(DefineConstants) = ENABLE_ANALYTICS
select both -> $(DefineConstants) =
ENABLE_DEBUG_MESSAGES;ENABLE_ANALYTICS