Working with Azure Pipeline APIs 101: Made Easy

Developers, DevOps teams, and others can use a pipeline to create and deploy dependable code. Azure DevOps has a feature called Azure Pipelines that can be used to create a pipeline in Microsoft.

Azure Pipelines can automate builds, tests, and code deployment to various development and production environments. REST APIs are service endpoints that support a set of HTTP operations that allow users to Create, Retrieve, Update, and Delete resources from a service.

This article talks about the critical aspects of Azure Pipeline APIs. In addition to that, it also describes Azure Pipeline and REST API. It also demonstrates how to create, build and deploy an Azure Pipeline and how the logs and specific artifacts can be retrieved.

Table Of Contents

• What is Azure Pipeline?
• What is REST API?
• Working with Azure Pipeline APIs
  • Azure Pipeline APIs: Artifacts
  • Azure Pipeline APIs: Logs
  • Azure Pipeline APIs: Create Pipeline
  • Azure Pipeline APIs: Run the Pipeline
• Conclusion

What is Azure Pipeline?

Azure Pipelines builds and tests code projects automatically before making them available to others. It can be used with almost any language or project type. To test and build your code and ship it to any target, Azure Pipelines combines Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD).

Continuous Integration (CI) is a development practice that automates the merging and testing of code. Implementing CI allows you to catch bugs early in the development cycle, saving you money on bug fixes. To ensure quality, automated tests are run as part of the CI process. To enable frequent deployments, artifacts from CI systems are fed into release processes. The Build service in Azure DevOps Server assists you in setting up and managing continuous integration (CI) for your applications.

Code is built, tested, and deployed to one or more test and production environments using the Continuous Delivery (CD) process. Quality is improved by deploying and testing in multiple environments. Infrastructure and apps are among the artifacts produced by CI systems. These artifacts are used by automated release processes to distribute new versions and fixes to existing systems. Continuous monitoring and alerting systems provide visibility into the entire CD process.

Continuous Testing (CT) is the use of automated build-deploy-test workflows, using a variety of technologies and frameworks, to test your changes continuously in a fast, scalable, and efficient manner, whether on-premises or in the cloud.

Azure Pipeline is a cloud service that allows you to automatically build and test your code project. The Azure pipeline has many features, such as continuous integration and continuous delivery, that allows you to test and build your code regularly and ship to any target.

Java, JavaScript, Node.js, Python,.NET, C++, Go, PHP, and XCode are all supported by Azure Pipelines.

To build and test your application, Azure DevOps has several tasks. Tasks for developing.NET, Java, Node, Android, Xcode, and C++ applications, for example, are available. Similarly, tasks to run tests using a variety of testing frameworks and services are also available. In your automation, you can also use the command line, PowerShell, or Shell scripts.

Implementing CI and CD pipelines ensure that users have access to consistent and high-quality code. Additionally, Azure Pipelines offers a quick, simple, and secure way to automate the creation and distribution of your projects.

Because Azure Pipelines supports the following scenarios, you should use it:

• Any language or platform can be used.
• At the same time, it deploys to various types of targets.
• Connects to Azure deployments.
• Builds for Windows, Linux, and Mac.
• It’s compatible with GitHub.
• Participates in open-source projects.

What is REST API?

REST (Representational State Transfer) is a software architectural style that was developed to guide the design and development of the World Wide Web’s architecture. REST establishes a set of guidelines for how an Internet-scale distributed hypermedia system, such as the Web, should be designed. The REST architectural style emphasizes scalability of component interactions, uniform interfaces, component deployment independence, and the creation of a layered architecture to enable caching components to reduce user-perceived latency, enforce security, and encapsulate legacy systems.

REST is a widely accepted set of guidelines for creating stateless, dependable web APIs that have been used throughout the software industry. RESTful is an informal term for a web API that follows the REST constraints. RESTful web APIs are typically based on HTTP methods for accessing resources via URL-encoded parameters and data transmission using JSON or XML.

On the World Wide Web, “web resources” were first defined as URL-identified documents or files. Today’s definition is far more broad and abstract, encompassing an entity or action that can be identified, named, addressed, handled, or performed in any way on the Internet. Requests to a resource’s URI in a RESTful Web service elicit a response with a payload formatted in HTML, XML, JSON, or another format.

The response could, for example, confirm that the resource state has changed. Hypertext links to related resources can also be included in the response. HTTP is the most commonly used protocol for these requests and responses. It supports GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE operations (HTTP methods).

RESTful systems aim for fast performance, reliability, and the ability to grow by reusing components that can be managed and updated without affecting the system as a whole, even while it is running, thanks to the use of a stateless protocol and standard operations.

REST is designed to Boost Performance, Scalability, Simplicity, Modifiability, Visibility, Portability, and Reliability. This is accomplished by adhering to REST principles like Client-server Architecture, Statelessness, Cacheability, Layered Systems, Code on-demand Support, and a Uniform Interface. For a system to be classified as RESTful, it must adhere to these guidelines.

Working with Azure Pipeline APIs

• Azure Pipeline APIs: Artifacts
• Azure Pipeline APIs: Logs
• Azure Pipeline APIs: Create Pipeline
• Azure Pipeline APIs: Run the Pipeline

Azure Pipeline APIs: Artifacts

To get a specific artifact from a pipeline run, do the following:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines/{pipelineId}/runs/{runId}/artifacts?artifactName={artifactName}&api-version=6.0-preview.1

With Optional Parameters:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines/{pipelineId}/runs/{runId}/artifacts?artifactName={artifactName}&$expand={$expand}&api-version=6.0-preview.1

URI Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
organization	path	True	string	The Azure DevOps organization’s name.
pipelineId	path	True	integerint32	The pipeline’s ID.
project	path	True	string	Project ID or project name
runId	path	True	integerint32	ID of the run of that pipeline.
api-version	query	True	string	The API version to use. To use this version of the API, set this to ‘6.0-preview.1.’
artifactName	query	True	string	Name of the artifact.
$expand	query		GetArtifactExpandOptions	Expand options. Default is None.

Responses

Name	Type	Description
200 OK	Artifact	successful operation

Security

accessToken

This is the most basic kind of personal token. The password is the token, and the user name can be anything you want.

Artifact

A pipeline produces artifacts that are collections of files. Artifacts can be used to share files between pipeline stages or between pipelines.

Name	Type	Description
name	string	The name of the artifact.
signedContent	SignedUrl	Signed url for downloading this artifact
url	string	Self-referential url

GetArtifactExpandOptions

 This expands the number of choices available for artifacts. By default, it is None.

Name	Type	Description
none	string	No expansion.
signedContent	string	Includes signed content.

SignedUrl

A signed url that allows anonymous access to private resources for a limited time.

Name	Type	Description
signatureExpires	string	Timestamp when access expires.
url	string	The URL to allow access to.

Azure Pipeline APIs: Logs

Logs – Get

To obtain a particular log from a pipeline run, enter the following:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines/{pipelineId}/runs/{runId}/logs/{logId}?api-version=6.0-preview.1

With optional parameters:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines/{pipelineId}/runs/{runId}/logs/{logId}?$expand={$expand}&api-version=6.0-preview.1

URI Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
logId	path	True	integerint32	ID of the log.
organization	path	True	string	The name of the Azure DevOps organization.
pipelineId	path	True	integerint32	ID of the pipeline.
project	path	True	string	Project ID or project name
runId	path	True	integerint32	ID of the run of that pipeline.
api-version	query	True	string	Version of the API to use. This should be set to ‘6.0-preview.1’ to use this version of the api.
$expand	query		GetLogExpandOptions	Expand options. Default is None.

Responses

Name	Type	Description
200 OK	Log	successful operation

Log

The log of Azure Pipeline API is as follows:

Name	Type	Description
createdOn	string	The date and time the log was created.
id	integer	The ID of the log.
lastChangedOn	string	The date and time the log was last changed.
lineCount	integer	The number of lines in the log.
signedContent	SignedUrl	A signed url allowing limited-time anonymous access to private resources.
url	string

Logs – List

To obtain a list of Azure Pipeline API logs, enter the following command:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines/{pipelineId}/runs/{runId}/logs?api-version=6.0-preview.1

With optional parameters:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines/{pipelineId}/runs/{runId}/logs?$expand={$expand}&api-version=6.0-preview.1

URI Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
organization	path	True	string	The name of the Azure DevOps organization.
pipelineId	path	True	integerint32	ID of the pipeline.
project	path	True	string	Project ID or project name
runId	path	True	integerint32	ID of the run of that pipeline.
api-version	query	True	string	Version of the API to use. This should be set to ‘6.0-preview.1’ to use this version of the api.
$expand	query		GetLogExpandOptions	Expand options. Default

Responses

Name	Type	Description
200 OK	LogCollection	successful operation

Definitions

GetLogExpandOptions	Expand options. Default is None.
Log	Log for a pipeline.
LogCollection	A collection of logs.
SignedUrl	A signed url allowing limited-time anonymous access to private resources.

GetLogExpandOptions

This expands the number of choices for getting logs. By default, it is none.

Name	Type
none	string
signedContent	string

LogCollection

This is a collection of logs. They are collected by navigating to the pipeline summary.

Name	Type	Description
logs	Log[]	The list of logs.
signedContent	SignedUrl	A signed url allowing limited-time anonymous access to private resources.
url	string	URL of the log.

Azure Pipeline APIs: Create Pipeline

To Build an Azure Pipeline API, enter the following command:

POST https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines?api-version=6.0-preview.1

URI Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
organization	path	True	string	The name of the Azure DevOps organization.
project	path	True	string	Project ID or project name
api-version	query	True	string	Version of the API to use. This should be set to ‘6.0-preview.1’ to use this version of the api.

Request Body

Name	Type	Description
configuration	CreatePipelineConfigurationParameters	Configuration parameters of the pipeline.
folder	string	Folder of the pipeline.
name	string	Name of the pipeline.

Responses

Name	Type	Description
200 OK	Pipeline	successful operation

Definitions

ConfigurationType	Type of configuration.
CreatePipelineConfigurationParameters	Configuration parameters of the pipeline.
CreatePipelineParameters	Parameters to create a pipeline.
Pipeline	Definition of a pipeline.
PipelineConfiguration
ReferenceLinks	The class to represent a collection of REST reference links.

ConfigurationType

This explains the Type of Configuration that is used in the Azure Pipeline API.

Name	Type	Description
designerHyphenJson	string	Designer-JSON.
designerJson	string	Designer JSON.
justInTime	string	Just-in-time.
unknown	string	Unknown type.
yaml	string	YAML.

CreatePipelineConfigurationParameters

These are the Azure Pipeline API configuration parameters:

Name	Type	Description
type	ConfigurationType	Type of configuration.

CreatePipelineParameters

This creates the parameters required to create a Azure Pipeline API.

Name	Type	Description
configuration	CreatePipelineConfigurationParameters	Configuration parameters of the pipeline.
folder	string	Folder of the pipeline.
name	string	Name of the pipeline.

Pipeline

This depicts the Azure Pipeline API definition.

Name	Type	Description
_links	ReferenceLinks	The class to represent a collection of REST reference links.
configuration	PipelineConfiguration
folder	string	Pipeline folder
id	integer	Pipeline ID
name	string	Pipeline name
revision	integer	Revision number
url	string	URL of the pipeline

PipelineConfiguration

Name	Type
type	ConfigurationType

ReferenceLinks

This class encapsulates a collection of REST reference links. Each response from a REST API includes hyperlinks to other related resources.

Name	Type	Description
links	object	The readonly view of the links. Because Reference links are readonly, we only want to expose them as read only.

Pipelines – Get

To get an Azure pipeline, with the option of specifying the version, enter the following command:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines/{pipelineId}?api-version=6.0-preview.1

With optional parameters:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines/{pipelineId}?pipelineVersion={pipelineVersion}&api-version=6.0-preview.1

URI Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
organization	path	True	string	The name of the Azure DevOps organization.
pipelineId	path	True	integerint32	The pipeline ID
project	path	True	string	Project ID or project name
api-version	query	True	string	Version of the API to use. This should be set to ‘6.0-preview.1’ to use this version of the api.
pipelineVersion	query		integerint32	The pipeline version

Responses

Name	Type	Description
200 OK	Pipeline	successful operation

Definitions

ConfigurationType	Type of configuration.
Pipeline	Definition of a pipeline.
PipelineConfiguration
ReferenceLinks	The class represents a collection of REST reference links.

Pipelines – List

To create an Azure pipeline API list, enter the following command:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines?api-version=6.0-preview.1GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines?api-version=6.0-preview.1

With optional parameters:

GET https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines?orderBy={orderBy}&$top={$top}&continuationToken={continuationToken}&api-version=6.0-preview.1

URI Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
organization	path	True	string	The name of the Azure DevOps organization.
project	path	True	string	Project ID or project name
api-version	query	True	string	Version of the API to use. This should be set to ‘6.0-preview.1’ to use this version of the api.
$top	query		integerint32	The maximum number of pipelines to return
continuationToken	query		string	A continuation token from a previous request, to retrieve the next page of results
orderBy	query		string	A sort expression. Defaults to “name asc”

Responses

Name	Type	Description
200 OK	Pipeline[]	successful operation

Definitions

ConfigurationType	Type of configuration.
Pipeline	Definition of a pipeline.
PipelineConfiguration
ReferenceLinks	The class to represent a collection of REST reference links.

Azure Pipeline APIs: Run the Pipeline

To activate a Azure Pipeline API, enter the following command:

POST https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines/{pipelineId}/runs?api-version=6.0-preview.1

With optional parameters:

POST https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/pipelines/{pipelineId}/runs?pipelineVersion={pipelineVersion}&api-version=6.0-preview.1

URI Parameters

Name	In	Required	Type	Description
organization	path	True	string	The name of the Azure DevOps organization.
pipelineId	path	True	integerint32	The pipeline ID.
project	path	True	string	Project ID or project name
api-version	query	True	string	Version of the API to use. This should be set to ‘6.0-preview.1’ to use this version of the api.
pipelineVersion	query		integerint32	The pipeline version.

Request Body

Name	Type	Description
previewRun	boolean	If this is the case, don’t start a new run. Instead, after parsing templates, return the final YAML document.
resources	RunResourcesParameters	The resources the run requires.
stagesToSkip	string[]
templateParameters	object
variables	<string,  Variable>
yamlOverride	string	You can optionally supply different YAML when using the preview run option. This allows you to see how the final YAML document will look before committing any changes.

Responses

Name	Type	Description
200 OK	Run	successful operation

Definitions

BuildResourceParameters

Name	Type
version	string

ContainerResourceParameters

Name	Type
version	string

PackageResourceParameters

Name	Type
version	string

PipelineReference

This depicts a reference to a pipeline. It contains data objects that are used to describe a pipeline.

Name	Type	Description
folder	string	Pipeline folder
id	integer	Pipeline ID
name	string	Pipeline name
revision	integer	Revision number
url	string

PipelineResourceParameters

Name	Type
version	string

ReferenceLinks

A collection of REST reference links are represented by this class. Every REST API has links that help a link relating one URL with another

Name	Type	Description
links	object	The readonly view of the links. Because Reference links are readonly, we only want to expose them as read only.

Repository

Name	Type
type	RepositoryType

RepositoryResource

Name	Type
refName	string
repository	Repository
version	string

RepositoryResourceParameters

Name	Type	Description
refName	string
token	string	This is the security token to use when connecting to the repository.
tokenType	string	Optional. This is the type of the token given. If not provided, a type of “Bearer” is assumed. Note: Use “Basic” for a PAT token.
version	string

RepositoryType

Name	Type
azureReposGit	string
azureReposGitHyphenated	string
gitHub	string
unknown	string

Run

Name	Type	Description
_links	ReferenceLinks	The class to represent a collection of REST reference links.
createdDate	string
finalYaml	string
finishedDate	string
id	integer
name	string
pipeline	PipelineReference	A reference to a Pipeline.
resources	RunResources
result	RunResult
state	RunState
url	string
variables	<string,  Variable>

RunPipelineParameters

These are the settings that you need to adjust as they affect the execution of Azure pipeline API.

Name	Type	Description
previewRun	boolean	If true, don’t actually create a new run. Instead, return the final YAML document after parsing templates.
resources	RunResourcesParameters	The resources the run requires.
stagesToSkip	string[]
templateParameters	object
variables	<string,  Variable>
yamlOverride	string	If you use the preview run option, you may optionally supply different YAML. This allows you to preview the final YAML document without committing a changed file.

RunResources

Name	Type
repositories	<string,  RepositoryResource>

RunResourcesParameters

Name	Type
builds	<string,  BuildResourceParameters>
containers	<string,  ContainerResourceParameters>
packages	<string,  PackageResourceParameters>
pipelines	<string,  PipelineResourceParameters>
repositories	<string,  RepositoryResourceParameters>

RunResult

Name	Type
canceled	string
failed	string
succeeded	string
unknown	string

RunState

Name	Type
canceling	string
completed	string
inProgress	string
unknown	string

Variable

Name	Type
isSecret	boolean
value	string

Conclusion

This article discusses the Azure Pipeline APIs extensively. It also gives a brief introduction to Azure Pipeline and REST API. It also shows how to create and run a pipeline using the Azure REST API, as well as how to retrieve logs and specific artifacts.

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