Issue with Passing Multi-line Text Variables in Runbook Execution

[ehjohnson87]

Hello Octopus Support Team!

I’m currently facing an issue with runbooks in Octopus Deploy where multi-line text variables are not being passed completely between user projects and the main engineering team’s runbook.

Details:

1. Context: We have a setup where the engineering team maintains a runbook with several required variables. One of these variables is a multi-line text variable. For the public-facing parts of our Octopus Server, we have users who initiate a runbook with a single step: “Run Octopus Runbook”. I have then constructed identical variable sets in these user-specific projects.
2. Workflow: When a user runs their runbook, they are prompted to enter values for these variables. Once entered, the user-specific project is supposed to pass these variable values to the engineering team’s runbook using the prompted variable values configuration.
3. Issue: This process works for all variables except for the multi-line text variable. When a multi-line value is provided, only the top line gets passed.For example: If the input is:

SELECT TOP 10 *
FROM Business
WHERE Name LIKE '%ABC'

Only “SELECT TOP 10 *” is received by the engineering runbook.

Expected Behavior: All lines of the multi-line variable should be passed to the engineering runbook without truncation or omission.

Actual Behavior: Only the first line of the multi-line variable is being passed.

Impact: This truncation affects the correct execution of the runbook, potentially leading to inaccurate or incomplete processes.

Request: Kindly assist in rectifying this behavior or suggest a workaround that ensures complete multi-line variable values are passed between projects/runbooks.

Environment Details:

• Octopus Server Version: v2023.2 (Build 12209)
• Operating System: Windows 11

Additional Information:

• Screenshots: [Attach any relevant screenshots that can help in understanding the issue better]
  

Thank you for your prompt attention to this issue.

Best regards,

Eric

[Kenneth_Bates]

Hi Eric!

Thank you for getting in touch with this great question (and the level of detail provided). I tested with possible ways to handle this for a while, and while there’s likely a better way Octopus could handle multi-line variables, I did finally find out an approach that will retain all the lines in a multi-line variable.

This is to use the Replace filter, replacing the \n newline with the PowerShell syntax (`n). If you set the prompted variable values being passed to the other runbook to look like the following, this should work for any multi-line values (let me know if you’re still experiencing unexpected issues with it, however);

SQL Query::#{SQL Query | Replace “\n” “`n”}

I hope this helps! Let me know how you go, or if you have any further questions or concerns going forward.

Best regards,

Kenny