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Set a predefined list of values for CI environment variables and surface them in the "Run pipeline" page form

Release notes

Previously we made it possible to surface pre-filled variables with values in the "Run pipeline" page, however changing the value is still a manual and error-prone process. In this release we've added the ability to set a list of predefined variable values for CI environment variables to make it easier to run a pipeline with the available variables, by surfacing a list of available values for environment variables we will reduce the complexity when you inject manual variables to a pipeline

Competitive analysis

  • This is a similar feature to Jenkins Active choice and extensible choice parameter Jenkins Plugin plugin in Jenkins, some of our users requests this feature so they could rip out Jenkins, besides Jenkins

  • Azure DevOps has this feature implemented as radio boxes, but functionally the same as a dropdown menu:

image

The related yaml:

parameters:
  - name: oraProject
    displayName: Ora Project
    type: string
    default: Operations
    values:
    - Operations
    - Development
  - name: oraTaskId
    displayName: Ora Task ID
    type: string
  - name: deployMessage
    displayName: What is being deployed?
    type: string

Problem to solve

In 13.7 we made it possible to surface pre-filled variables with values in the "Run pipeline" page. Changing the value is still a manual and error-prone process. The CI users would like to be able to set a list of predefined variable values for CI environment variables to make it easier to run a pipeline with the available variables. The severity of this problem is well documented by multiple customers in the issue discussions below.

Intended users

  • Sasha (Software Developer)

Proposal

  • Variable values array will be defined in YAML
  • The available variable values will be surfaced in the "Run pipeline" form as a list dropdown
  • The first value in the list will be the pre-selected value in the dropdown

All other variable form behavior remains unchanged.

YAML definition

variables:
  DEPLOY_ENVIRONMENT:
    value: staging
    options: 
      - "staging"
      - "canary"
      - "production"
    description: "The deployment target. Change this variable to 'canary' or 'production' if needed."

UI dropdown

The form should work exactly as it is working today, with the addition of a drop-down values menu for the pre-filled variables with multiple values.

View designs

Further iterations (out of scope, separate issues will be created)

  • Allow to add your own value even if there's predefined values
  • Allow for no default value
  • Allow to add variable values through the UI
  • Set value types and show different input depending on the value. #351067 (closed)
  • Input validation for text input.

Permissions and Security

Existing variable permissions will be used.

Documentation

Documentation required.

Testing

What does success look like, and how can we measure that?

Implementation Table

Group Issue Link
UX 👈 You are here
backend #362934 (closed)
frontend #363660 (closed)

Links / references

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Edited by Dov Hershkovitch