Hi,
We work on a lot of small projects, and for each project, our process includes a folder full of text files labelled v5.0 Deployment Notes.txt or similar.
The idea is the first time we deploy 5.0.x we read those notes and do the pre or post-deploy steps manually.
These are for steps that cannot be automated or are not worth the effort.
Normally we just read the notes and do the steps either before or after pressing the deploy button in octopus.
It would be great however if octopus could read the file (or XML/more structured file format if required)
Then based on what it finds in the pre-deploy and post-deploy steps insert a Manual step in the process with the text from the deployment notes file.
This needs to occur only for steps between the version I’m changing from - to
eg: Given my current version is 3.1, when deploying to v4.2, I look for notes and find manual steps for 3.5 and 4.0 then those should show up as manual intervention steps.
Unfortunately, I don’t think we will be able to get this to work exactly as you require it. However, we do have an alternative approach that may be useful.
In Octopus, you can post Release Notes into a Release, and then use those notes as your Pre, or Post-Deploy Steps Manually. You could use a Manual Intervention step at the beginning of your project, simply to read the notes so these can be actioned ahead of approving the deployment, and then letting it continue.
You can post these into Octopus when you Create the Release by specifying --releasenotes=Value or --releasenotesfiles=Value, and this could contain the details in the .txt file you were using previously. I think this will work for your example as it will post the same information, it has a manual intervention step and you will be able to deploy.
Another approach would be to use an Octopus Deploy built-in System Variable called Octopus.Release.Notes, and then bind the variable in your Octopus Project or in the Manual Intervention Step, and put the notes in the variable. You can see more about this on https://octopus.com/docs/projects/variables/system-variables#Systemvariables-Release
