Passing variable from one powershell task to other powershell task with in same step in YAML

Question

I am using Azure DevOps pipeline to execute test on using TAEF from powershell, and want to share the test output from mail. Pipeline outputs following error:

Invoke-RestMethod: {"error":{"code":"InvalidRequestContent","message":"The request content is not valid and could not be deserialized: 'Unexpected character encountered while parsing value: }. Path 'email_body', line 5, position 0.'."}}

Following is the code in my Pipeline.

- powershell: |
          echo "Running TAEF"
          $output = & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\Testing\Runtimes\TAEF\TE.exe' x.dll
          $jsonOutput = $output | ConvertTo-Json

- task: PowerShell@2
        displayName: Send Email
        inputs:
          targetType: inline
          script: |
            $url = "xxxx"

            $headers = @{
                "Content-Type" = "application/json"
            }

            $emailMessage = @"
            {
                "to": "abc@abc.com",
                "subject": "Test",
                "email_body": $jsonOutput
            }
            "@

            Invoke-RestMethod -Method Post -Uri $url -Headers $headers -Body $emailMessage

Couple of questions: Can we use defined variable from powershell into another powershell task? If not how to achieve it?

Answer 1

Yes, you can set variables in you powershell script and use them in your subsequent tasks and throughout your jobs. According to the documentation

When you add a variable with task.setvariable , the following tasks can use the variable using macro syntax $(myVar) . The variable will only be available to tasks in the same job by default.

Example

- powershell: |
    Write-Host "##vso[task.setvariable variable=myVar;]foo"
- task: PowerShell@2
  displayName: Next powershell task
  inputs:
    targetType: 'inline'
    script: 'Write-Host "You can use macro syntax for variables: $(myVar)"'

Output

You can use macro syntax for variables: foo