What is a DevOps Pipeline?
A DevOps pipeline is a set of automated processes and actions that help you build, test, and deploy your API quickly and reliably. It helps development and operation teams to collaborate efficiently, improve consistency and reduce errors.
What is a task?
A task performs an action in a pipeline. For example, a task can deploy an API, publish an API, unpublish an API or run a test. Tasks are the building blocks for defining automation in a pipeline.
Hence, a task performs an action in a pipeline as a wrapped or packaged script or procedure with a set of inputs. When you run a Find and Use an API DevOps Pipeline tasks job, all the tasks within it run in sequence, one after the other.
DevOps Pipeline Tasks Inputs
These are simplified set of information given to the DevOps Pipeline task operation as part of the task property required to process a task.
Pipeline Task Input Aliases
Inputs to a task are identified by a label and name. And may include the use of one or more optional aliases.
Why FaUAPI DevOps Pipeline Tasks?
DfE Find and Use an API DevOps Pipeline Tasks will help you automate various operations by providing you with pre-built DevOps Pipeline tasks and templates. It provides you with a convenient and effective way to automate DevOps Pipeline tasks without the need to individually configure or make API calls for each step of that process - improving efficiency, maintain consistency and reducing the chances of errors.
DfE Find and Use an API DevOps Pipeline Tasks is eseentially a wrapper that allows a set of pre-built Azure DevOps pipeline tasks to be called or executed without the need to setup and configure them separately. Users simply upload a schema file and have the wrapper perform all the DevOps tasks.
For example, you can deploy an API using the relevant pre-built FaUAPI DevOps task with all the steps required to configure and deploy the API including passing the Workspace automation tokens, environment, policies details etc. All you have to do is simply supply the FauAPI DevOps Pipeline Task with a simple set of inputs such as the location of the schema and API definition file and the automated task will do the rest. This means that you wouldn't need to through finding out what elements are required for deploying an API and configuring all those elements individually to deploy and publish your API, but rather than using FaUAPI DevOps Task to automate the process - reducing the risk of any errors. On completion of the DevOps Pipeline tasks, a simple successful or failure message is returned.
What is DevOps Tenant?
A DevOps tenant typically refers to a managed space within a DevOps platform, such as Azure DevOps, where projects, teams, and resources including development are organised and managed. Within the context of Azure DevOps, a tenant is associated with the DfE (dfe-gov-uk) organization. This allows you to collaborate and setup automated build and deployment processes as can be achieved with FaUAPI DevOps pipeline tasks extension.
Finding, installing and using the FaUAPI DevOps Pipeline tasks extension, requires users to be part of the DevOps organisation (dfe-gov-uk). If you can access https://dfe-gov-uk.visualstudio.com/, then you are part of the DevOps tenant, an the extension should already be installed and ready to use.
If you can't find the FaUAPI DevOps Pipeline tasks extension, you will need to raise a request to the Service Desk Team (SDT) to add the relevant permission or add your user account to the relevant tenant (in this case, DfE DevOps).
What is Visual Studio Marketplace
The Marketplace is a global repository for private and public extensions, integrations, and other offers from Microsoft.
FaUAPI DevOps pipeline tasks is available as an extension within the Visual Studio Marketplace where you can request, install and activate it.