How to get activity name of Execute pipeline dynamically into the next activity in ADF?

Question

I urgently have a requirement to pass activity name of Execute Pipeline Activity dynamically into the next activity eg Copy Activity.

Data flow Diagram -- >

Execute pipeline Activity -- > Copy Activity
(name - Ex Act01)

I know "@pipeline().Pipeline" will give main pipeline name and "@activity('Ex Act01').output.pipelineName" will give its child pipeline name.

Is there any way I can get "Ex Act01" passed to copy activity dynamically, without Hardcoding it in ADF?

Answer 1

Unfortunately based on my understanding, it is not possible to get the activity names dynamically in either adf Or synapse. It needs to be hardcoded only.
@MartinJaffer-MSFT : can you please confirm on this?

Answer 2

Hello @Vijayvargiya, Divyank ,
Thanks for the question and using MS Q&A platform.

As I understand, your ask, you want to get the name of an activity dynamically. There is something about this which confuses me, trying to understand use case.

When you make your pipeline, and add in activities, you choose and hardcode the names of the activities. The names don't change unless you change them. The names are also used to identify the activity in expressions.

In order to get the activity properties (name is a property too), the pipeline expression needs to reference the activity. Since activities are referenced by name, circular logic doesn't let you get the name without knowing the name.

You might ask, "Why can't I get the name of the previous activity?"
Well, more than one activity can feed into a later activity. They can even be the same type, so there is no way to tell them apart without name.

So, in short, @Nandan Hegde is correct. Hardcode it.

Did I misunderstand your ask?

Please do let me if you have any queries.

Thanks
Martin

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Answer 3

Hey Jörgen Hasselgren
Good day!

Unfortunately it is still not possible to directly pass the previous activities names dynamically. You have to pass it manually/hardcoded way