It is possible to convert a json to variables/parameters YAML and iterate?

[giseliramos]

Hello,

I have a powershell script in a stage that creates a jsonObject and I save it to a variable to be reused later:

$imagesJson = @"
[
{
   "myAcr": "someCustomAcr1",
   "listImages": "image1, image2"
},
{
   "myAcr": "someCustomAcr2",
   "listImages": "image4, image5, image6"
}
]
"@

# < some operations I do on imagesObj, already converted >

$newJson = ConvertTo-Json $imagesObj -Compress
"##vso[task.setvariable variable=ImagesList;isOutput=true]$newJson"

This part works okay. The matter is that I want to populate some YAML variables with it or iterate, for example, I want to iterate for each "dict" here and extract the info. Is that possible to do in the YAML, to populate on variables or on parameters template?

Thanks!

[KonstantinTyukalov]

Hi @giseliramos, because these are runtime pipeline variables, you can't use YAML template syntax (which is compile-time) with them.
More info about runtime(+macro) and compile variables and differences between them shared in this doc

Could you clarify your use case with more details? Probably we'll be able to find a suitable solution for you

[giseliramos]

Hello @KonstantinTyukalov, the scenario I have:

• One stage where some runtime variables are defined in a powershell script and written, for example:

##vso[task.setvariable variable=$SourceAcr1;isOutput=true]$source1

• The number is variable (not known before the run), so I may have $SourceAcr1, $SourceAcr2 in one run and in another run have 1 or 3, for example. That is why I tried the json to use to iterate between the keys.
• In subsequent stages, I recover these variables using the stage dependencies with:

AcrOrigin1: $[ stageDependencies.Stage1.Job1.outputs['TaskName.SourceAcr1'] ]

. The problem is that I want to avoid hard-coding it, like as sourceAcr1, sourceAcr2. So I need to estimate a max number, like, max 5 variables and check for each (hard-coded) if they are not empty in the "condition" of job/task.

• I can get a number of the defined variables, like as numberPopulated and try to loop. It is possible to use this information and loop, like as in:

copy the numberPopulated to variables and expand as in a array, from 1 to numberPopulated
- ${{ each index in numberPopulatedArray }}:
  - ${{ if eq($[stageDependencies....SourceAcr$index])}}:
    - template: myCustomJob.yml

Is that possible? Or I'll need to hard-copy and check for each variable? For now, I'm doing the following for each variable, but it is cumbersome:

      - task: PowerShell@2
        condition: ne(variables.AcrOrigin1, 'placeholder')
        displayName: 'Debug'
        inputs:
          targetType: 'inline'
          script: |
            Write-Host "Hey it worked!"

[max-zaytsev]

Such questions should be posted on the Developer Community, since this repo is mainly about the templates located in this repository.