Accessing variables in Azure loops using templates

Question

I want to loop through the pipeline artifacts and pass them as variables to a task.

Followed this answer here, but no luck: https://stackoverflow.com/a/59451690/5436341

Have this powershell script in the build stage to get the artifact names and store them in a variable:

- task: PowerShell@2
      inputs:
        targetType: 'inline'
        script: |
          # Write your PowerShell commands here.
          
          Write-Host "Fetching value files"
          cd $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)\MSI
          $a=dir -Filter "*.msi"
          $List = $a | foreach {$_}
          Write-Host $List
          $d = '"{0}"' -f ($List -join '","')
          Write-Host $d  
          Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=MSINames;isOutput=true]$d"
      name: getMSINames

And passing them as parameters to a template from another stage as below:

- stage: deployPoolsStage
  displayName: Deploy Pools
  dependsOn:
  - Build
  jobs:
  - job: CloudTest_AgentBased_Job
    displayName: 'CloudTest AgentBased Job'
    timeoutInMinutes: 120
    variables:
      MSIFiles: $[dependencies.Build.outputs['getMSINames.MSINames']]
    steps:
    - template: TestPipeline.yml
      parameters:
        files : $(MSIFiles)

Now, my template looks like this:

parameters:
  files : []

steps:
- ${{ each filename in parameters.files }}:
  - task: SomeTask
    inputs:
      Properties: worker:VsTestVersion=V150;worker:MSIFile=${{ filename }}
      displayName: 'tests'

Now this is failing with an error saying: "Expected a sequence or mapping. Actual value '$(MSIFiles)'". It's the same error even without using the template and directly accessing the variable in the original yml file.

Please let me know of a way to loop through my pipeline artifacts and pass them to my task.

Does this answer your question? [How to use a variable in each loop in Azure DevOps yaml pipeline](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/72528343/how-to-use-a-variable-in-each-loop-in-azure-devops-yaml-pipeline) — Vince Bowdren, Nov 09 '22 at 10:14

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 06 '22 at 16:12

You are exporting the variable MSINames from a task in Build stage that needs to be inside a job (say BuildJob). Also, you are trying to access the exported variable from another stage but inside a job. Thus, you should use the format to read variable from another stage but within a job. What you have used is a wrong format in deployPoolsStage stage. Try correcting the format as below inside CloudTest_AgentBased_Job job,

variables:
      MSIFiles: $[stageDependencies.Build.BuildJob.outputs['getMSINames.MSINames']]

NOTE: I have assumed that the getMSINames task is defined inside the BuildJob job under Build stage according to what you have provided.

See docs related to this here.

Accessing variables in Azure loops using templates

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