I have a txt file that is holding a string inside, I want to be able to use this string in one of my scripts, so I'm wondering if there is a way to set the content of the file as one of the build properties or parameters which I'll be able to use in my scripts it should be the same as using one of the build environment properties.
For example : ${JOB_NAME} which is holding the the job name, so in the same way I want to access the content of the file which is holding some value inside.
Is it possible?
You can upload a file from your computer to the workspace through the File parameter of the job.
You can use Extended Choice plugin parameter, to read value(s) from a file and display them in a dropdown/radio-button/checkbox for the user to select, dynamically, every time the build is triggered.
You can use EnvInject plugin to read value(s) from a file and inject them into the build as environment variables, so that they can be used by the rest of the build steps/scripts.
Your question is very unclear on what your are trying to do. Pick one of the 3 methods above based on what you need, or clarify your question.
Related
TL;DR: Search and replace placeholders in a text file with the decrypted values of secrets in a variable group.
I would like to use a PowerShell script to receive a variable group in a release pipeline and then iterate through the list, performing search-and-replace on a file being released.
The variables in the variable list are secrets so I want to overwrite the placeholders in the file with the decrypted value of the variables.
The values of the variables are environment specific, so I do not want to provide the values at build time and do not want to include the decrypted values in a stored artifact.
The file being search-replaced will be used in an execution at release time but will not be deployed to a host, so will be destroyed upon completion of the pipeline execution.
The Tokenization task from the Visual Studio Marketplace does this job well. You'll need to install it into your Azure DevOps organisation, it's available at https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=TotalALM.totalalm-tokenization
By default the Tokenization task uses double underscores to identify the placeholders. It will replace any text that that matches the name of a variable in your release definition as long as it's surrounded by double underscores.
So if you want to write the value of a variable called MySecretVariable into your file you'll need to add a place holder like __MySecretVariable__ into the file where ever you want that value to be written.
The Tokenization task will write any encrypted values into the file in plain text but in the release logs they will be obfuscated.
If you're storing your variables in a variable group just link that to the release definition and set the scope to the appropriate environment.
So, I've found that, as long as I have a Base64 token configured for Variable Groups (click 'Show all scopes' when creating a new PAT) then I can call GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/distributedtask/variablegroups/{groupId}?api-version=5.1-preview.1 to get the variable group I need.
The above, however, will not return a value for secrets, although there is a hack/workaround for this (involving multiple pipeline steps).
The advisable route is to create a Key Vault in Azure and perform the processing either in Powershell or code.
As I need the decrypted key values passed into my application via a repeated find-replace, I have implemented a Powershell script in one Release pipeline step and consume the output in the next step.
I have lots of URL values and their keys. But there is no way to batch import the variables and the "value" controls are also not text boxes in the Variables Group page to perform chrome browser extensions assisted find and replace.
If this is possible, what is the syntax to refer to the key?
As in, I have a variable App.URL : www.contoso.com.
I am using the key to substitute value in my next variable like this Login.URL : $(App.URL)\Login and this doesn't work.
GitHub link : https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/vsts-docs/issues/3902#issuecomment-489694654
This isn't currently available, not sure if it will be. Can you create a task early in your pipeline that sets the variables you need in subsequent tasks/steps? This gives you more control as you can store the script along with your source. You could then use a pipeline variable for the environment you're in and let your script use that to set values appropriately.
See Set variables in scripts in the MS docs.
If it's not possible to re-architect your app to concatenate the url strings in the application, what the previous commenter said about creating a simple script to do that for you would be the way to go. Ie:
#!/bin/bash
#full login url
fullLoginUrl=$APP.URL\$LOGINSUFFIX
echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=Login.URL]$fullLoginUrl
Otherwise, perhaps playing around with the run time vs compile time variables in YAML pipelines might be worth trying.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/process/variables?view=azure-devops&tabs=yaml%2Cbatch#understand-variable-syntax
I have a Windows Forms .NET application in Visual Studio. Making a form "Localizable" adds a Form1.resx file nested below the form. I also want to add a separate .resx file for each form (Form1Resources.resx). This is used for custom form-specific resources, e.g. messages generated using the code behind.
This is set up as follows:
It would be tidier to nest the custom .resx file beneath the form (see this question for details about nest how to do this), as follows:
However, this results in the following error when I build the application:
Two output file names resolved to the same output path:
"obj\Debug\WindowsFormsApp1.Form1.resources" WindowsFormsApp1
I'm guessing that MSBuild uses some logic to find nested .resx files and generate .resources file based on its parent. Is there any way that this can be resolved?
Note that it is not possible to add custom messages to the Form1.resx file - this is for design-specific resources only and any resources that you add get overwritten when you save changes in design mode.
The error comes from the GenerateResource task because the 2 resx files (EmbeddedResource items in msbuild) passed both have the same ManifestResourceName metadata value. That values gets created by the CreateManifestResourceNames task and assumingly when it sees an EmbeddedResource which has the DependentUpon metadata set (to Form1.cs in your case) it always generates something of the form '$(RootNamespace).%(DependentUpon)': both your resx files end up with WindowsFormsApp1.Form1 as ManifestResourceName. Which could arguably be treated as the reason why having all resx files under Form1 is not tidier: it's not meant for it, requires extra fiddling, moreover it could be confusing for others since they'd typcially expect to contain the resx fils placed beneath a form to contain what it always does.
Anyway: there's at least 2 ways to work around this:
there's a Target called CreateCustomManifestResourceNames which is meant to be used for custom ManifestResourceName creation. A bit too much work for your case probably, just mentioning it for completeness
manually declare a ManifestResourceName yourself which doesn't clash with the other(s); if the metadata is already present it won't get overwritten by
Generic code sample:
<EmbeddedResource Include="Form1Resources.resx">
<DependentUpon>Form1.cs</DependentUpon>
<ManifestResourceName>$(RootNamespace).%(FileName)</ManifestResourceName>
...
</EmbeddedResource>
My simple experiment reads from an Azure Storage Table, Selects a few columns and writes to another Azure Storage Table. This experiment runs fine on the Workspace (Let's call it workspace1).
Now I need to move this experiment as is to another workspace(Call it WorkSpace2) using Powershell and need to be able to run the experiment.
I am currently using this Library - https://github.com/hning86/azuremlps
Problem :
When I Copy the experiment using 'Copy-AmlExperiment' from WorkSpace 1 to WorkSpace 2, the experiment and all it's properties get copied except the Azure Table Account Key.
Now, this experiment runs fine if I manually enter the account Key for the Import/Export Modules on studio.azureml.net
But I am unable to perform this via powershell. If I Export(Export-AmlExperimentGraph) the copied experiment from WorkSpace2 as a JSON and insert the AccountKey into the JSON file and Import(Import-AmlExperiment) it into WorkSpace 2. The experiment fails to run.
On PowerShell I get an "Internal Server Error : 500".
While running on studio.azureml.net, I get the notification as "Your experiment cannot be run because it has been updated in another session. Please re-open this experiment to see the latest version."
Is there anyway to move an experiment with external dependencies to another workspace and run it?
Edit : I think the problem is something to do with how the experiment handles the AccountKey. When I enter it manually, it's converted into a JSON array comprising of RecordKey and IndexInRecord. But when I upload the JSON experiment with the accountKey, it continues to remain the same and does not get resolved into RecordKey and IndexInRecord.
For me publishing the experiment as a private experiment for the cortana gallery is one of the most useful options. Only the people with the link can see and add the experiment for the gallery. On the below link I've explained the steps I followed.
https://naadispeaks.wordpress.com/2017/08/14/copying-migrating-azureml-experiments/
When the experiment is copied, the pwd is wiped for security reasons. If you want to programmatically inject it back, you have to set another metadata field to signal that this is a plain-text password, not an encrypted password that you are setting. If you export the experiment in JSON format, you can easily figure this out.
I think I found the issue why you are unable to export the credentials back.
Export the JSON graph into your local disk, then update whatever parameter has to be updated.
Also, you will notice that the credentials are stored as 'Placeholders' instead of 'Literals'. Hence it makes sense to change them to Literals instead of placeholders.
This you can do by traversing through the JSON to find the relevant parameters you need to update.
Here is a brief illustration.
Changing the Placeholder to a Literal:
I started out by writing html code in the "Default content" section but that is not meeting my requirements since all the information I want to include in the email (html) is not available.
My questions are :
How can I set an environment variable in post build actions that I can then use in the default content section ? Is that even possible ?
How can I the know the path of a file present in the workspace after the build is done. The path contains a folder that is named using timestamp and I was looking for a way to get to the build results folder for the current build easily. Is there a way ?
You can use ${ENV, var="VARNAME"} (where VARNAME is the environment variable that you want to reference) anywhere in your HTML
As for your build folder, if it's a random timestamp during the build, you can't reference it unless you save that value to a properties file and then read it with ${PROPFILE,file="FILENAME",property="PROPERTYNAME"}
If you are using Jenkins's build timestamp BUILD_ID then you can reference that as any other environment variable.