I have been trying to use Regex to select a block of an XML based .NET Core CSPROJ file, and yes before you say know I could use XPATH, but why am not is another story. I was trying to use the Regex content.match(/<PropertyGroup>((.|n)\*)</PropertyGroup>/gmi) The strange thing was this selection string worked in online Regex testers and in online Javascript IDEs, but failed inside my Node based Azure DevOps Pipeline extension. ...

I have spent too long recently trying to sign a UWP .MSIXBUNDLE generated from an Azure DevOps build using the SignTool.exe and our code signing certificate. I kept getting the error Done Adding Additional Store Error information: "Error: SignerSign() failed." (-2146958839/0x80080209) From past experience, SignTool errors are usually due to the publisher details in the XML manifest files (in this case unpack the bundle with MakeAppx.exe and look in AppxMetadataAppxBundleManifest.xml, and also check the manifest in the bundled .MSIX files) does not match the subject details for the PFX file being used for signing. ...

Introduction I use Azure DevOps Pipelines for the build and release of my Azure DevOps Pipeline extensions, I previously detailed my process here . For a good few months now YAML builds have been available. These provide the key advantage that the build is defined in a YAML text file that is stored with your product’s source code, thus allowing you to more easily track build changes. Also bulk editing becomes easier as a simple text editor can be used. ...

I have posted in the past a quick script to generate some markdown documentation for the YAML usage of Azure DevOps Pipeline extensions. Well I decided that having this script as a task itself would be a good idea, so a wrote it, and please to say have just release it to the marketplace The YAML Documenter task scans an extension’s vss-extension.json and task.json files to find the details it needs to build the markdown documentation on the YAML usage. It can also, optionally, copy the extension’s readme.md as the extensions primary documentation. ...

I am automating the process by which we keep our build agent up to date. The basic process is to use a fork of the standard Microsoft Azure DevOps Pipeline agent that has the additional code included we need, notably Biztalk. Once I have the Packer created VM up and running, I need to install the agent. This is well document, just run _.config.cmd –help _for details. However, there is no option to add user capabilities to the agent. I know I could set them via environment variables, but I don’t want the same user capabilities on each agent on a VM (we use multiple agents on a single VM). There was no documented Azure DevOps API I could find to add capabilities, but a bit of hacking around with Chrome Dev tools and Postman got me a solution, which I have provided a ...

A major problem when moving from the graphic editing of Azure Pipeline builds to YAML has been the difficulty in knowing the options available, and of course making typos. Microsoft have just released a VSCode extension to help address this problem – it is called Azure Pipelines I have yet to give it a really good workout, but first impressions are good. It does not remove the need for good documentation of task options, there is a need for my script to generate YAML documentation from a task.json file, but anything extra to ease editing helps. ...

The problem If you are like me for historic reasons you have multiple Azure DevOps organisations (instances) backed by the same Azure Active Directory (AAD). In my case for example: one was created when Azure DevOps was first released as TFSPreview.com and another is from our migration from on-prem TFS using the DB Migration Tools method; and I have others. I make active use of all of these for different purposes, though one is primary with the majority of work done on it, and so I want to make sure the inherited process templates are the same on each of them. Using the primary organisation as the master customisation. Note I have already converted all my old on-premises XML process models to inherited process templates. There is no out the box way to do keep processes in syncs, but it is possible using a few tools. The main one is the Microsoft Process Migrator for Node on GitHub. ...

This is another of those posts I do so I don’t forget how I fixed something. I have a requirement to record videos for a client in 720p resolution. As I use as SurfaceBook with a High-Res screen I have found the best way to do this is set my Windows screen resolution to 1280x720 and do all my recording at this as native resolution. Any attempt to record smaller portions of a screen or scale video in production have lead to quality problems, especially as remote desktops within remote desktops are required. ...

I have just release a new Azure DevOps Pipelines extension to update a page in a Git based WIKI. It has been tested again Azure DevOps WIKI – running as the build agent (so the same Team Project) Azure DevOps WIKI – using provided credentials (so any Team Project) GitHub – using provided credentials It takes a string (markdown) input and writes it to a new page, or updates it if it already exists. It is designed to be used with my Generate Release Notes Extension, but you will no doubt find other uses ...

Whilst listening to a recent Radio TFS it was mentioned that TFS Aggregator uses the C# SOAP based Azure DevOps APIs; hence needed a major re-write as these APIs are being deprecated. Did you know that there was a REST API alternative to TFS Aggregator? My Azure DevOps Services & Server Alerts DSL is out there, and has been for a while, but I don’t think used by many people. It aims to do the same as TFS Aggregator, but is based around Python scripting. ...