I like how template variables are not sorted alphabetically, but could they at least be reordered? Now they show in the order you create them. I’d like to keep the variables that concern the same thing (like database connection) after another, but I have to be careful to create them after another now. If the list could be reordered that would be really useful.
Another question is regarding dropdowns. I created a dropdown and set a default value for dropdown, but when I open tenant it doesnt show the default value as selected. For instance if I set “SystemUser” as default value and create a list with “SystemUser|System User” it will show dropdown as empty, but that value is valid (selected). I also tried setting default value to “System User” but it still only shows blank when I open tenant variables.
Hi Terje,
Thanks again for your observations on potential issues in the UI for the 3.4.0-beta001 pre-release.
With regards to your first point we have discussed providing the ability to sort variable templates and time-permitting will see if it can be included before the RTW.
As for your second question, I can definitely understand your point. I can see that it might be confusing to users to not be able to see the default placeholder so I have created a github ticket for you to track its progress. We have also internally been discussing alternative ways of presenting the variable form in a different way to make clear what values have defaults and which don’t. In addition it might be more useful if it provides some way of clearing non-default values (like checkbox state which gets saved as true/false the first time the user saves). One approach may be to just show values that have defaults as plain text with a button needed to manually override the value (showing the form for user input). Perhaps it might help just not showing variables that are using defaults at all unless explicitly requested to be displayed. What are your thoughts on this feature that would make the most sense?
Thanks again for your input.
Cheers,
Rob
Hi,
Thanks for feedback. After checking a bit more I also noted that second point doesnt work with checkboxes either. I tried setting default value to True (which is what it stores if you manually check it) but it didnt show as checked as default value.
It is a bit confusing with default values now yes. I’d certainly like to see project variables also showing description as common variables do, and maybe formatted same way. Like now if I have 3 environments on a tenant it will create 3 boxes for project variables, one for each environment. But with wide enough browser it will fit 2 on first row and last below. It doesnt look as clean as the common variables view where they are always below each other, and with description for each variable.
Regarding default values your suggestion pretty much is in line with how I made our offline deployment tool. We needed more customization options and a gui to the offline deployment created by octopus, so created a deployment application that will download and run those scripts in the background. It has a variables view that acts almost like you describe. There is a button for overriding a variable, and for resetting to default. If default value is set box is made readonly / not editable which greys it out (so more visible than just placeholder text in editable box). Name of variable that is overriden will also be slightly stronger (semi bold) so when you scroll down you can see which one is overriden. In addition there is an option to only show overriden values if you want to filter out default values from list. Makes it easier to see what is overriden. For me that would be a good approach. Attaching a picture of that view.
Hi Terje,
Thanks for the feedback. While updating these tenant variables pages aren’t at the top of the list of our tasks before a second beta release, I will bring it back to the team and see if we can get some changes in before the RTW to make them more user friendly.
Thanks again,
Robert
