I'm currently working on automating CI/CD configurations through bitbucket -> vsts -> azure.
My ideal result is to be able to copy paste (or manually enter) my configuration values into their respective console programs and have the applications configure the whole CI/CD ordeal without having to click through all the web interfaces. It's now possible in Bitbucket and Azure, but creating the VSTS CI/CD configurations through REST API is proving to be difficult.
Azure resources and Bitbucket configurations are currently created through a simple .NET console application that talks to the REST APIs. Basically copy paste (or manually enter) all the values (azure input values / bitbucket input values)into the console application and it will configure everything within 5 minutes.
Now I face the harder part of trying to automate build configurations and release configurations in VSTS. Microsoft Docs isn't great on the documentation of VSTS client libraries.
I'm honestly at a loss for how I can create a build definition through the API or Client Library.
The BuildHttpClient has three methods I can work with:
public virtual Task<BuildDefinition> CreateDefinitionAsync(BuildDefinition definition, Guid project, int? definitionToCloneId = null, int? definitionToCloneRevision = null, object userState = null, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken));
public virtual Task<BuildDefinition> CreateDefinitionAsync(BuildDefinition definition, int? definitionToCloneId = null, int? definitionToCloneRevision = null, object userState = null, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken));
public virtual Task<BuildDefinition> CreateDefinitionAsync(BuildDefinition definition, string project, int? definitionToCloneId = null, int? definitionToCloneRevision = null, object userState = null, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default(CancellationToken));
The BuildDefinition has the following properties.
namespace Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.WebApi
{
[DataContract]
public class BuildDefinition : BuildDefinitionReference
{
public BuildDefinition();
public List<string> Tags { get; }
public PropertiesCollection Properties { get; }
public List<RetentionPolicy> RetentionRules { get; }
public List<Demand> Demands { get; }
public IDictionary<string, BuildDefinitionVariable> Variables { get; }
public List<BuildTrigger> Triggers { get; }
public ProcessParameters ProcessParameters { get; set; }
public BuildRepository Repository { get; set; }
public List<BuildOption> Options { get; }
public List<BuildDefinitionStep> Steps { get; }
public bool BadgeEnabled { get; set; }
public int JobTimeoutInMinutes { get; set; }
public BuildAuthorizationScope JobAuthorizationScope { get; set; }
public string DropLocation { get; set; }
public string Description { get; set; }
public string Comment { get; set; }
public string BuildNumberFormat { get; set; }
public Build LatestBuild { get; }
public Build LatestCompletedBuild { get; }
}
}
As you can see, the most important properties of a build definition are read-only.
How do I go about creating a build definition through the REST API? Are there better alternatives to VSTS that will allow me to do this?
The format for the REST API to create a build definition as below:
POST https://{account}.visualstudio.com/{project}/_apis/build/definitions?api-version=5.0-preview.6
application/json example:
{
"process": {
"phases": [
{
"steps": [
],
"name": "Phase 1",
"refName": "Phase_1",
"condition": "succeeded()",
"target": {
"executionOptions": {
"type": 0
},
"allowScriptsAuthAccessOption": false,
"type": 1
},
"jobAuthorizationScope": "projectCollection",
"jobCancelTimeoutInMinutes": 1
}
],
"type": 1
},
"repository": {
"properties": {
"cleanOptions": "0",
"labelSources": "0",
"labelSourcesFormat": "$(build.buildNumber)",
"reportBuildStatus": "true",
"gitLfsSupport": "false",
"skipSyncSource": "false",
"checkoutNestedSubmodules": "false",
"fetchDepth": "0"
},
"id": "4ba24767-e5a6-4987-80cc-ebaeca01fdbc",
"type": "TfsGit",
"name": "product1",
"url": "https://marinaliu.visualstudio.com/Git2/_git/product1",
"defaultBranch": "refs/heads/master",
"clean": "false",
"checkoutSubmodules": false
},
"processParameters": {},
"drafts": [],
"queue": {
"id": 324,
"name": "ownPC",
"pool": {
"id": 23,
"name": "ownPC"
}
},
"name": "definitionCreatedByRESTAPI",
"type": "build",
"queueStatus": "enabled"
}
To use the REST API in C#, you can convert as below:
var personalaccesstoken = "PAT";
var base64Token = Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes($":{personalaccesstoken}"));
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Basic", base64Token);
var requestMessage = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, "https://account.visualstudio.com/project/_apis/build/definitions?api-version=5.0-preview.6");
requestMessage.Content = new StringContent("{\"process\": { \"phases\": [{\"steps\": [], \"name\": \"Phase 1\",\"refName\": \"Phase_1\",\"condition\": \"succeeded()\",\"target\": { \"executionOptions\": { \"type\": 0 },\"allowScriptsAuthAccessOption\": false, \"type\": 1 }, \"jobAuthorizationScope\": \"projectCollection\", \"jobCancelTimeoutInMinutes\": 1 }],\"type\": 1 }, \"repository\": { \"properties\": { \"cleanOptions\": \"0\",\"labelSources\": \"0\",\"labelSourcesFormat\": \"$(build.buildNumber)\", \"reportBuildStatus\": \"true\",\"gitLfsSupport\": \"false\", \"skipSyncSource\": \"false\",\"checkoutNestedSubmodules\": \"false\", \"fetchDepth\": \"0\"},\"id\": \"4ba24767-e5a6-4987-80cc-ebaeca01fdbc\",\"type\": \"TfsGit\",\"name\": \"product1\", \"url\": \"https://marinaliu.visualstudio.com/Git2/_git/product1\", \"defaultBranch\": \"refs/heads/master\", \"clean\": \"false\",\"checkoutSubmodules\": false },\"processParameters\": {}, \"drafts\": [],\"queue\": { \"id\": 324, \"name\": \"ownPC\",\"pool\": {\"id\": 23, \"name\": \"ownPC\"}}, \"name\": \"definitionCreatedByRESTAPI\", \"type\": \"build\",\"queueStatus\": \"enabled\"}", Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
HttpResponseMessage response = client.SendAsync(requestMessage).Result;
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
By referring the blog Accessing TFS/VSTS 2017 programmatically for the C# program.