Start vNext build from Powershell and get artefacts

Question

In order to automate our deployments, I would like to rebuild an application, based on a given ChangeSetId. Once this build has completed, I want to get the artefacts of the build (the .exe), so we can deploy them.

For DevOps purposes, I'd like to use PowerShell

I've set up Builds in our On Premise TFS 2015 server (which are working neatly) - and added a VSO task 'Publish artefacts’ after this build. So far so good. The published artefacts is are to be stored on the Server, which basically means I have to download the artefacts connected to build - every existing build will have its artifacts linked - which is better than an UNC drop in my book.

Answer 1

TFS 2015 comes with the new REST API, and it includes the method to get the artefacts of the specific build. I would approach your challenge in the following way:

• Add a "PowerShell script" build step after your "Publish artefacts" step
• In that PowerShell script:
  • Get the ID of the current build. TFS exposes a number of predefined variables, and build ID is there. All those variables end up as environment variable, and this postcan help you read the appropriate one from your PowerShell script
  • Next, make a web request to get build artifacts. As you can see from the API description, you'll have to provide just the build ID
  • Then, parse the JSON response - the downloadUrl property contains the link to download all the artefacts of the build zipped as a single archive
  • Finally, extract the archive and pick up those artefacts you need. Perhaps, you'd like to deploy it to your testing environment in this step as well