How to use output variables of Set Connection Variable task

[nsearle97]

Hello,

There doesn't appear to be any documentation on the MS website about the Set Connection Variable task, but I do believe it would be useful for a specific requirement that I am dealing with.
The problem is, I've put it into a test pipeline and it doesn't appear to output anything at all. Presumably I'm missing something but without any documentation it's very unclear as to what this is.
Would someone be able to elaborate on this please?

Many thanks
Noah

[devkeydet]

HI @nsearle97. I contributed this task. You can see an example of us using it in our ALM Accelerator here:
https://github.com/microsoft/coe-alm-accelerator-templates/blob/433b3f314f83f57ebcf5c610962c4c5babef61eb/Pipelines/Templates/deploy-Solution.yml#L29

I'll follow up with the rest of the team on the documentation plans.

[nsearle97]

Thank you @devkeydet that's really helpful!

[devkeydet]

Until we have better docs, you can review the output variables the task sets here:
https://github.com/microsoft/powerplatform-build-tools/blob/main/src/tasks/set-connection-variables/set-connection-variables-v2/task.json#L24

[craig-lund]

This works great!

For those who don't use yaml, know that the way to access is as follows.

$(PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.TenantId)
$(PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.ApplicationId)
$(PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.ClientSecret)

Reduced the need to create a Library to access Key Vault values.

[INC02203]

Hi team,

I am working on a script where i need to read Tenant Id. So i used PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables task followed by PowerShell script with inline target script, where i am successfully able to read Tenant Id.

But, when i try to use same script through file path (same script is copied to file in azure repo). am not able to read Tenant id value.

Code Snippet:

Write-Host "Hello World" Write-Host "Tenant Id - $(PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.TenantId)"

Log:

`
2023-08-22T20:01:02.1961457Z ##[section]Starting: Test
2023-08-22T20:01:02.2088493Z ==============================================================================
2023-08-22T20:01:02.2088695Z Task : PowerShell
2023-08-22T20:01:02.2088777Z Description : Run a PowerShell script on Linux, macOS, or Windows
2023-08-22T20:01:02.2088898Z Version : 2.226.1
2023-08-22T20:01:02.2088995Z Author : Microsoft Corporation
2023-08-22T20:01:02.2089088Z Help : https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/utility/powershell
2023-08-22T20:01:02.2089235Z ==============================================================================
2023-08-22T20:01:03.5951682Z Generating script.
2023-08-22T20:01:03.6128745Z Formatted command: . 'D:\a\r1\a_User Provisioning\PowerShell\scripts\test.ps1'
2023-08-22T20:01:03.6998738Z ========================== Starting Command Output ===========================
2023-08-22T20:01:03.7296379Z ##[command]"C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command ". 'D:\a_temp\b5249799-8aef-48cc-bbe9-4ca82a4d378e.ps1'"
2023-08-22T20:01:04.0815114Z Hello World
2023-08-22T20:01:04.3463314Z PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.TenantId : The term
2023-08-22T20:01:04.3463961Z 'PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.TenantId' is not recognized as the name of a cmdlet, function, script
2023-08-22T20:01:04.3464502Z file, or operable program. Check the spelling of the name, or if a path was included, verify that the path is correct
2023-08-22T20:01:04.3467696Z and try again.
2023-08-22T20:01:04.3468749Z At D:\a\r1\a_User Provisioning\PowerShell\scripts\test.ps1:4 char:27
2023-08-22T20:01:04.3469404Z + ... nant Id - $(PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.TenantId)" ...
2023-08-22T20:01:04.3469775Z + ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2023-08-22T20:01:04.3470167Z + CategoryInfo : ObjectNotFound: (PowerPlatformSe...dTools.TenantId:String) [], ParentContainsErrorRecord
2023-08-22T20:01:04.3470489Z Exception
2023-08-22T20:01:04.3470804Z + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CommandNotFoundException
2023-08-22T20:01:04.3471599Z
2023-08-22T20:01:04.4674118Z ##[error]PowerShell exited with code '1'.
2023-08-22T20:01:04.5094765Z ##[section]Finishing: Test

`

Any help?

Thanks

[sdgmits]

I am also facing a similar issue.

[craig-lund-palm]

Hi,

It is a scope issue. Please pass the value to your script rather than calling it inside the script.

Regards

[tiagodenoronha]

Hey, so I've been hitting my head a bit with this.
I created a fairly simple pipeline.

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest

steps:
- task: PowerPlatformToolInstaller@2
  inputs:
    AddToolsToPath: true

- task: PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables@2
  inputs:
    authenticationType: 'PowerPlatformSPN'
    PowerPlatformSPN: 'Dev SC'

- task: PowerShell@2
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: |
      pac auth create `
        --applicationId "$(BuildTools.ApplicationId)" `
        --clientSecret "$(BuildTools.ClientSecret)" `
        --tenant "$(BuildTools.TenantId)" `
        --environment "$(BuildTools.EnvironmentUrl)"

I have tried multiple approaches:
Not adding anything like the example
Using PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.ApplicationId
Naming the PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables and using that in the PowerShell

Any thoughts? This seems like a simple error which I'm just close to solving.

[craig-lund]

Hi @tiagodenoronha,

I too struggled with the poor documentation and examples on this.

Tri this:
$(PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.TenantId)
$(PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.ApplicationId)
$(PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.ClientSecret)

[tiagodenoronha]

Hey!
Unfortunately, exactly the same error...

[tiagodenoronha]

What's even more strange, is that I can see in the logs that the Set Connection step creates the BuildTools variables:

They all have isOutput=false, which shouldn't matter but...

[tiagodenoronha]

Ok finally figured it out! Leaving this here if anyone else has the same issue.

Here is an example pipeline which works.

trigger:
- none

pool:
  vmImage: ubuntu-latest

steps:
- task: PowerPlatformToolInstaller@2
  inputs:
    AddToolsToPath: true

- task: PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables@2
  inputs:
    authenticationType: 'PowerPlatformSPN'
    PowerPlatformSPN: 'Dev SC'

- pwsh: |
      pac auth create `
        --applicationId "$(PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.ApplicationId)" `
        --clientSecret "$(PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.ClientSecret)" `
        --tenant "$(PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.TenantId)" `
        --environment "$(BuildTools.EnvironmentUrl)"

Notice that the EnvironmentUrl property does not have the PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables before, which was the cause of the issue.
Besides those properties, you can also use PowerPlatformSetConnectionVariables.BuildTools.DataverseConnectionString if needed.

Thanks for the help @craig-lund!