How can I pass a variable to the tags parameter in CloudFormationCreateOrUpdateStackTask@1?

Question

I am using the CloudFormationCreateOrUpdateStackTask@1 and I can't seem to pass a variable or parameter to the tags parameter. I added a top-level variable in the calling YAML template to hold the tags like so:

variables:  
  tags: |
    {
      "AppName": "$(Build.Repository.Name)",
      "BuildId": "$(Build.BuildNumber)"
    }

And in the called/nested YAML template, I'm trying to use it like so:

...
- task: CloudFormationCreateOrUpdateStack@1
  displayName: 'Cloudformation'
  inputs:
  regionName: ${{ parameters.aws_region }}
  stackName: '$(Build.Repository.Name)-task-definition'
  templateSource: 'file'
  templateFile: './template.yaml'
  templateParametersSource: 'inline'
  templateParameters: '{
        "ParameterKey": "Name",
        "ParameterValue": "$(Build.Repository.Name)"
    }'
  tags: $(tags)

However, the tags value is blank and doesn't seem to work even when I pass it as a parameter. The only way that seems to work is to hardcode the tags like so:

tags: |
  AppName=$(Build.Repository.Name)      
  BuildId=$(Build.BuildNumber)

How can I pass either an input parameter or a global variable to the tags parameter?

Answer 1

Hello @Zareen

Happy to help.

To pass the tags variable from your YAML pipeline to the CloudFormationCreateOrUpdateStack@1 task, you need to make a few adjustments. Please make the following changes:

Template Parameters Source:

First, ensure that you set the templateParametersSource to 'inline'. This allows you to directly specify the template parameters inline within your YAML.

Remove the trailing slash (/) in the templateParameters section. Passing the Tags:

Instead of using $(tags), you should reference the tags variable directly within the templateParameters section.

Here’s the modified snippet for your task:

 task: CloudFormationCreateOrUpdateStack@1
  displayName: 'Cloudformation'
  inputs:
    regionName: ${{ parameters.aws_region }}
    stackName: '$(Build.Repository.Name)-task-definition'
    templateSource: 'file'
    templateFile: './template.yaml'
    templateParametersSource: 'inline'
    templateParameters: |
      {
        "ParameterKey": "Name",
        "ParameterValue": "$(Build.Repository.Name)",
        "Tags": "$(tags)"
      }

Make sure to replace Tags with the appropriate key for tags in your CloudFormation template. Now the tags variable should be correctly passed to your CloudFormation stack.

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