Trying to pass a variable between two deployment job, I cannot use $(Environment.ResourceName), it only works if the resource name is hardcoded

Question

I am trying to pass a variable in an Azure deployment between two jobs, (deployments). According to the doc, as I use runOnce and resourceType I need to pass the resource-name in the variable: tag.

The resource name is an environment variable, $(Environment.ResourceName)

stages:
- stage: Stage
  jobs:
  - deployment: A
...
          steps:
          - bash: echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=OutputVar;isOutput=true]$myVar"
            env:
              myVar: 'Hello World'
            name: printvar

  - deployment: B
...
  variables:
    Variable1: $[ dependencies.A.Outputs.['Deploy_$(Environment.ResourceName).printVar.OutputVar'] ]
    Variable2: $[ dependencies.A.Outputs.['Deploy_MyResourceName.printVar.OutputVar'] ]

...

But when I run the code above the Variable1 is not set but Variable2 is properly set.

So, the reason Variable1 is not set is because $(Environment.ResourceName) is not expended.

I have also tried to output the value of $(Environment.ResourceName) and that value is properly set to MyResourceName, (in my example above).

How can I pass $(Environment.ResourceName) without hardcoding the value in the script?

Answer 1

From your description, you need to use the nested variable: $[ dependencies.A.Outputs.['Deploy_$(Environment.ResourceName).printVar.OutputVar'] ] to get the output value in previous job.

I am afraid that the nested variable is not supported in Azure DevOps. So the variable: $(Environment.ResourceName) is not able to expand as expected.

How can I pass $(Environment.ResourceName) without hardcoding the value in the script?

I suggest that you can change to use Parameters to pass the value to the variable.

Then you can use the format: $[ dependencies.A.outputs['${{parameters.name}}.setvarStep.myOutputVar'] ]

For example:

parameters:
  - name: MyResourceName
    type: string
    default: MyResourceName

pool:
  vmImage: windows-latest


stages:
- stage: Stage
  jobs:
  - deployment: A
...
          steps:
          - bash: echo "##vso[task.setvariable variable=OutputVar;isOutput=true]$myVar"
            env:
              myVar: 'Hello World'
            name: printvar

  - deployment: B
...
  variables:
    Variable1: $[ dependencies.A.Outputs.['Deploy_${{parameters.MyResourceName}}.printVar.OutputVar'] ]
    Variable2: $[ dependencies.A.Outputs.['Deploy_MyResourceName.printVar.OutputVar'] ]