How can I run a pipeline with a yaml template that refers to a variables file in a different repo with Azure DevOps? - azure-devops

Question

I have repo A that holds pipeline templates. Repo A has the following azure-template.yml:
# Repo A / azure-template.yml
stages:
- stage: ${{ variables.stageName }}
jobs:
- job:
steps:
- task:
A lot of the code in repo A that has the templates refers to variables in the following format:
${{ variables.variableName }}. The variable file is in a different folder in repo A. (e.g. variables/variables.yaml)
Now let's move to repo B. Repo B has my azure-pipeline.yml that needs to build from repo A:
# Repo B / azure-pipeline.yml
resources:
repositories:
- repository: templates
type: git
name: repoA
ref: refs/heads/develop
variables:
- template: variables/variables.yml#templates
stages:
- template: azure-template.yml#templates # Template reference
When I run azure-pipeline.yml, I get the following error:
An error occurred while loading the YAML build pipeline. The string must have at least one character. Parameter name: environmentName
That parameter is not one of mine. I don't have it declared or set anywhere. This tells me it is Azure specific but I have no idea where/why it's there or where it is even set.

Answer 1

How can I run a pipeline with a yaml template that refers to a
variables file in a different repo with Azure DevOps?
You're in correct direction, at least a working direction. It's supported to do that like what you've done above. About the error you got, I assume there could be something wrong with your yaml syntax. You can try following steps to locate the issue:
Copy the content of azure-template.yml and variables.yaml directly into azure-pipeline.yml file, and run the pipeline again to check if the issue persists.
In your Azure-pipeline.yml, specify the trigger and pool.
In azure-template.yml, try replacing the ${{ variables.stageName }} with hard-code value.
This is my first time to see this error message, but according to Parameter name: environmentName.You can also check if Release.EnvironmentName has valid value in one PS task. Hope it helps :)