Cannot update variable group with Azure DevOps API _apis/distributedtask/variablegroups

Question

I am trying to update a variable group from an Azure DevOps Pipeline. This is the API documentation from Microsoft. I am calling this API via Postman with HTTP PUT and a Header Authorization Basic {PAT}. The URL is https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/_apis/distributedtask/variablegroups/{groupId}?api-version=6.0-preview.2 Regardless of the JSON body it always returns:

{
  "$id": "1",
  "innerException": null,
  "message": "Project information name is not valid for variable group.",
  "typeName": "System.ArgumentException, mscorlib",
  "typeKey": "ArgumentException",
  "errorCode": 0,
  "eventId": 0
 }

Sample JSON Bodies:

Test 1

{
  "type": "Vsts",
  "name":"JobStatus"
}

Test 2

{
  "variables": {
      "rest-var1": {
          "isSecret": false,
          "value": "rest-var-value-1"
      },
      "rest-var2": {
          "isSecret": false,
          "value": "rest-var-value-2"
      },
      "rest-var3": {
          "isSecret": false,
          "value": "rest-var-value-3"
      }
  },
  "name":"JobStatus"
}

If I call this same API with HTTP GET it returns all of the details of the group. This was reported as a bug to Microsoft but the page didn't provide any details as to the solution.

Kevin Lu · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-12 01:59:00Z

3

"Project information name is not valid for variable group."

The error means that you need to define the project information in the Request Body.

Here is the Rest API example:

Rest API url:

PUT https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/_apis/distributedtask/variablegroups/{groupId}?api-version=6.0-preview.2

Request Body:

{
    "name":"{variablegroupname}",

    "type":"Vsts",
    "variables":{
        "var1":{
            "isSecret":false,
            "value": "xx"
            },
        "var2":{
            "isSecret":false,
            "value": "xx"
            },
        "var3":{
            "isSecret":false,
            "value": "xx"
            }
        },
        "variableGroupProjectReferences":[
            {
                "name":"{variablegroupname}",
                "projectReference":
                    {
                        "id":"{projectid}"  
                    }
            }
        ]
}

answered Sep 12, 2022 at 1:59

Kevin Lu

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6 Comments

Jeff Fol Over a year ago

Thank you so much for your input. To find the {projectid} which is mentioned in this answer you can use this question stackoverflow.com/questions/53866107/…. The first answer did not work for me but with the 2nd answer I was able to find the correct projectid.

Rod Over a year ago

So this works for me, thank you. One question: I noticed that if the group starts with several variables and I only specify one variable to update, it wipes all the other variables out. Is there a way to update a variable without wiping out the others in the group?

itiic Over a year ago

My variableGroupProjectReferences is null when i GET. I tries to put as it is (null) on [] I mean @() and always i get:

Invoke-RestMethod: {"$id":"1","innerException":null,"message":"Project information name is not valid for variable group.","typeName":"System.ArgumentException, mscorlib","typeKey":"ArgumentException","errorCode":0,"eventId":0}

Michéle Johl Over a year ago

Same for me: "Project information name is not valid for variable group." Getting rather frustrated how documentation does not have the error

Rubenisme Over a year ago

I also got the variableGroupProjectReferences as null but only when I get the variable group by name (query parameter: groupName=some-name). When I use ID I do get the variableGroupProjectReferences

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