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Improve variables UI

The variables view is very basic and it generally needs improving since it quickly gets hard to use when you begin adding lots of variables.

  1. You have to add the same variable name for multiple environments and the ordering of environments is not the same. This is error prone and makes the list hard to parse.
  2. There is no description for variables so you need to add very long names sometimes. This has already been covered, but I added it for completeness. See https://octopusdeploy.uservoice.com/forums/170787-general/suggestions/6079578-enhance-the-variable-maintenance-screen-with-varia
  3. There can be different types of variables which are changed for different reasons. It would be great to have a category concept to group them with.
  4. For very large numbers of variables it would be great with a search box which filters the variables as you type. It should also search in the description.

See the following mockup for an example:
http://s288.photobucket.com/user/withoutprecedence/media/OD%20variables%20view_zpsfesl13ke.png.html

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Morten Christiansen shared this idea  ·   ·  Flag idea as inappropriate…  ·  Admin →
completed  ·  AdminOctopus Developer (Software Engineer, Octopus Deploy) responded  · 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. We are happy to announce that a new version of the Variable Editor has shipped in Octopus 4.0! See https://octopus.com/blog/octopus-release-4-0 for more details.

In this first release, we have focused on providing a great variable editing experience, which we hope you will love! Although we haven’t yet been able to implement all of your great suggestions, we have been able to build an extensible variable editor that we will continue to improve in future.

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47 comments

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  • Arjan commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I prefer a plain list, without the popups. The 4.0 UI is hard to have an overview (1 MORE, why hide it?). On big screens it may work well, on my laptop 1920 x 1080 it is very easy to make mistakes. :(

  • Arnoud Dekker commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I really like the variable preview functionality. However, when I have different environments for different channels, changing the channel will not update the environment list. The environment list will always show environments for the main channel. This way I can never preview variables for (in our case) release environments. It would be great if this could be fixed.

  • Darren Ball commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Please allow variables to be set from the channel screen instead of globally requiring scoping for every variable added.

  • Ranjith K commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I agree with Nick. Adding variables for each Octopus project we create, is a tedious task. Cloning functionality would be very helpful.

  • Michael commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    This are the exact suggestions I have after being a UI user of Octopus for the last year. I would like to suggestion another one:
    Add ability to set variable active\inactive. This is needed for setting a service config for internal vs external test cases.

  • Nick commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    It would be SO HELPFUL being able to clone a variable set. If you could override the scope that'd be great, but just a clone would be super great.

  • Ryan commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I'd like to see what variables are inherited from Library Variable Sets as well. At the moment this is not clear, it's also not clear when a variable from a library set is being overridden at the project level.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Just one more column named "Comment" so I could describe the particular value would be a great start.

  • Colin Winning commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Having a Set of Variables per Environment and/or Channel would make setting up complex projects much easier. Just now it is very time consuming and error prone copying individual settings.

  • Anton Swart commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Show a count of the number of variables. During setup and changing my steps and environments I've had variables dissapearing. A count could help towards noticing this issue. Better would be to warn when a process/environment change is going to delete variables.

  • Eric Williams commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    It's a small thing but this screen would be a good candidate for a mono-spaced / fixed width font

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    It would be helpful to see what the current environments are for the variable I have selected. Instead it shows 'press enter to edit scope', and when using keyboard navigation, it often results in toggling up a line to see what the scope on the selected line is only to toggle down and immediately forget again. I'd like to be able to see the current scope for a variable while deciding whether I need to modify it. Resting the cursor (selected marker) the line above the one I'm considering just isn't intuitive despite a few weeks of trying to get used to it.

  • Eric Bosman commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    I also vote for a better UI

    What I think that important is:
    1) Help the installer (the one who is making the environments) with choosing the values of the variables in such a way that the resulting environments are as much as possible the same.
    2) Give the installer an easy UI to add an environment.

    If I may make a suggestion:
    Make in the interface a page with 3 columns for adding/changing an environment.
    *First column filled with all the different known variable names which are available in a variable set
    *Second column filled with the current values
    **has a filter for scopes - possibilities are Environment, Role, Target.
    **If scope = Environment, then show in this column all the variables with the scope of environment = empty
    **Third column – show the value of scope=role belonging to the variable left of it
    **Fourth column – show the value of scope=target belonging to the variable left of it
    *Fifth column the new environment, this is where you can specify the value’s for the new environment.
    **The installer has to specify in the top the name of the new environment and is then able to fill all the values of the variables.
    **If you fill a field with a value over here, this will result in a new variable with a value and environment=name of new environment

    You have to be able to walk through the 5 column with the tab-key

    If selected in second column scope filter = Role then show in this column all the variables with the scope of role = empty
    **Third column – show the value of scope=target belonging to the variable left of it
    **Fourth column – show the value of scope=environment belonging to the variable left of it
    *Fifth column the new role, this is where you can specify the value’s for the new role
    **The installer has to specify in the top the name of the new role and is then able to fill all the values of the variables.
    **If you fill a field with a value over here, this will result in a new variable with a value and role=name of new role

    If selected in second column scope filter = Target then show in this column all the variables with the scope of target = empty
    **Third column – show the value of scope=environment belonging to the variable left of it
    **Fourth column – show the value of scope=role belonging to the variable left of it
    *Fifth column the new role, this is where you can specify the value’s for the new target
    **The installer has to specify in the top the name of the new target and is then able to fill all the values of the variables.
    **If you fill a field with a value over here, this will result in a new variable with a value and target=name of new target

    This gives a simple sheet for filling variables for a new environment or role or target.

    Eric Bosman

  • Fernando commented  ·   ·  Flag as inappropriate

    Also add the feature of clone entire variable set (filter by enviroment || role || machine....) to a new destination scope.

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