Managing branches with Azure DevOps Classic Build Pipelines and TFVC - azure-devops

Question

How do you manage building from branches when using Azure DevOps Classic Build Pipelines and TFVC?
I believe that the only viable option is to copy the build pipeline with a new name and update the source code mapping to point to the new TFVC branch.
I see the ADO web UI provides the option to clone an individual build definition, yet as I have over 200+ build pipelines to clone whenever I branch is there a more efficient way to do this? Or is the only option to write a custom tool to leverage the ADO REST Api?

Answer 1

Since you need to clone pipelines in batches, using scripts to run the Rest API will be a reasonable method. As far as I know, there is no easy way out of the box other than this.
You could try the following PowerShell Script Sample:
$DefinitionIds = "PipelineIDs" #InPut All Pipelineids(e.g. "324,323,xxx" )
$DefinitionId = $DefinitionIds.split(",");
$token = "PAT Token"
$token = [System.Convert]::ToBase64String([System.Text.Encoding]::ASCII.GetBytes(":$($token)"))
foreach ($i in $DefinitionId)
{
echo $i
$url="https://dev.azure.com/{OrganizationName}/{ProjectName}/_apis/build/definitions/$($i)?api-version=6.0"
$response = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url -Headers #{Authorization = "Basic $token"} -Method Get -ContentType application/json
Write-Host "$($response | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 100)"
$response.repository.properties.tfvcMapping= '{"mappings":[{"serverPath":"$/TFVCBranchName","mappingType":"map","localPath":"\\"}]}' # ServerPath is the Branch name
$response.repository.name = "TFVCRepoName" #Repo Source Name
$response.name = "Pipeline $i Clone" # Cloned PipelineName
echo $response.name
$url1= "https://dev.azure.com/{OrganizationName}/{ProjectName}/_apis/build/definitions?api-version=6.0"
$json = #($response) | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 100
$response1 = Invoke-RestMethod -Uri $url1 -Headers #{Authorization = "Basic $token"} -Method Post -Body $json -ContentType application/json
}
Here are the Two Rest APIs used in the Script:
Definitions - Get
Definitions - Create
Result:
The cloned Pipeline will be set to the new TFVC branch and Build definition name.