Issue

I had an Azure DevOps YAML based pipeline that had been working but was now getting stuck with the message "Job is pending..." when trying to start a stage in which there is a deployment to an environment.

Looking at the logs and Azure DevOps UI it was not obvious what the issue was.

Solution

Turns out …

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I have been doing some work with Azure DevOps multi-stage YAML pipelines using stage dependency variables and conditions. They can get confusing …

As I am sure you are all aware the preview of Visual Studio 2022 has just dropped, so it is time for me to update my Parameter.xml Generator Tool to support this new version of Visual Studio.

But what does my extension do?

As the Marketplace description says...

A tool to generate parameters.xml files for MSdeploy from …

Introduction

The use of variables is important in Azure DevOps pipelines, especially when using YML templates. They allow a single pipeline to be used for multiple branches/configurations etc.

The most common form of variables you see is are the predefined built in variables e.g. $(Build.BuildNumber) and your own …

I have just released Version 3.1.7 of my Azure DevOps Pipeline XplatGenerateReleaseNotes Extension.

This new version allows you to build release notes within a Multi-Stage YAML build since the last successful release to the current (or named) stage in the pipeline as opposed to just last fully successful build.

This …

Updated 30/Sep/21 to reflect changes in the Aggregator CLI setup process Updated 27/Mar/22 to fix broken links

Background

Back in the day I wrote a tool, TFS Alerts DSL, to do Work Item roll-up for TFS. Overtime I updated this to support VSTS (as Azure DevOps was then called), it’s final version is still available in …

The testing cycle for Release Notes Templates can be slow, requiring a build and release cycle. To try to speed this process for users I have created a local test harness that allows the same calls to be made from a development machine as would be made within a build or release.

However, running this is not as simple …

I have added another new feature to my Cross Platform release note generator. Now, when using Handlebars based templates you can optionally get the parent or child work items for any work item associated with build/release

To enable the feature, as it is off by default, you need to set the  getParentsAndChildren: true …