How to dynamically trigger PR/CI/Release pipeline in Azure DevOps based on project directory

Question

(also wondering if the solution is available in classic as well as YAML mode)

The purpose of this requirement is trying to grow a pipeline template instead of having duplicates of PR/CI/Release with only difference in the path of a branch

For example, considering following project structure

Repository (MyApp)
    |
    |- com.123abc.myapp.prj01   ==> PR pipeline ==> CI pipeline ==> Release pipeline 
    |
    |- com.456abc.myapp.prj02   ==> PR pipeline ==> CI pipeline ==> Release pipeline 
    |
    |- com.789abc.myapp.prj03   ==> PR pipeline ==> CI pipeline ==> Release pipeline 
    |
    |- com.000abc.myapp.prj04   ==> PR pipeline ==> CI pipeline ==> Release pipeline 
    |

In reality prj01.. prj04 can have little difference in project structure however have different environment for deployment. So PR/CI/Release pipeline is pretty much the same with a couple parameter with dynamic value.

So here are my questions:

1. I understand that group variables is the feature that can be used for those parameters, however how to trigger pipeline with dynamic Path filter that I can create single set of PR/CI/Release pipelines that can serve each prj0n

2. Is there a way to pass external parameter into PR/CI/Release pipeline respectively other than variable group?

Thanks much in advance.

Answer 1

How to dynamically trigger PR/CI/Release pipeline in Azure DevOps based on project directory

You could try to use the git command to get the project directory path of the project change, like:

# Checks which files have been updated to determine build/release the job
$editedFiles = git diff HEAD HEAD~ --name-only
echo "$($editedFiles.Length) files modified:"
$editedFiles | ForEach-Object {
   echo $_
    Switch -Wildcard ($_ ) {
        'com.123abc.myapp.prj01/*' { 
              Write-Output "##vso[task.setvariable variable=ChangeThePrj01;isOutput=true]True"
         }        
        'com.456abc.myapp.prj02/*' { Write-Output "##vso[task.setvariable 
variable=ChangeThePrj02;isOutput=true]True" }
        'com.456abc.myapp.prj03/*' { Write-Output "##vso[task.setvariable 
variable=ChangeThePrj03;isOutput=true]True" }
        'com.456abc.myapp.prj04/*' { Write-Output "##vso[task.setvariable 
variable=ChangeThePrj04;isOutput=true]True" }
    }
}

Then we could use the Output variables from previous job/stages for the deplot:

`dependencies.jobName.outputs['stepName.variableName']`,stages refer to `stageDependencies.stageName.jobName.outputs['stepName.variableName']`

like:

jobs:
- deployment: prj01
  displayName: DeployForprj01
  pool: 
    name: string
  condition: eq(dependencies.jobName.outputs['stepName.ChangeThePrj01'], 'True')
  steps:
    - script: echo "Deploy Forprj01."


- deployment: prj02
  displayName: DeployForprj02
  pool: 
    name: string
  condition: eq(dependencies.jobName.outputs['stepName.ChangeThePrj02'], 'True')
  steps:
    - script: echo "Deploy Forprj02."

You could check the thread and the document Specify conditions for some more details.