We have many dependencies between our projects. So for example we have cross database dependencies which mean that a particular version of the database must be installed prior to another version. Similarly we have base services that are required by all others that must be installed first. There is currently no way of telling Octopus that one project depends upon another.

We could create one great big Octopus deployment with all the steps in it to deploy the TFS projects/libraries in the correct order. But this would be very complicated because of the large number of dependencies.

It would be great if it was possible to say Project z version a to b depends upon project y version x? So if the user attempts to deploy project z version a through to b without first deploying project y version x. Octopus would automatically deploy project y version x first. Similarly if project y version x itself depends upon another project /version that would be deployed before project y version x. Before a project/version is deployed the list of dependent project/versions that will be deployed could be shown. It would also be great to be able to view a diagram showing the dependency tree between projects.

Cannot find another idea on this forum which describes this so adding new suggestion (original question http://help.octopusdeploy.com/discussions/questions/5627).

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

We deploy to a sub app on the site for our Web services with the major/minor version number in the URL to allow for easy side by side deployments. We don't deploy every version to a new URL because of the volume of builds we get for dev/testing etc. and we like to give a friend URL out to 3rd parties that use them.

e.g. https://MyWebService.com/v1.2/MyService.svc

currently we have custom powershell to update the IIS location in predeploy, we hard set it to something like "MyIIS.Site/v1.2", would be good if we could get the specific number using variables and use this

e.g. MyIIS.Site/v#{MajorVersion}.#{MinorVersion}

Regards,
Joel

We would really like to have an option to leave bindings alone in IIS if they already exist.

I configure a single binding as a templated deployment step. I would like octopus to automatically create the IIS app and bindings in the event the app pool and website doesn't exist - but if it does already exist I'd prefer it not to reconfigure the bindings.

This is useful when we create website aliases for production environments which don't fit the normal QA and UAT environment setup (but they happen to use the same steps).

Best would be a checkbox:

"Overwrite any existing bindings" - defaulted to true for backwards compatibility.

Source: http://help.octopusdeploy.com/discussions/questions/2727-deploying-a-site-with-existing-iis-bindings

It would be nice to have the option to reorder step template parameters just like one can reorder the environments.

Right now step template parameters are displayed in the same order they have been created. If one does not pay attention to the order at that time then I can only export the json string, change the parameter order, delete the step template and reimport my modified version.

Also if a step template is modified at a later time and parameters are added or removed, then the order of the parameters might be now incorrect. Imagine that I want to put parameters into logical groups indicated by the order they appear in the step form.

So I think a similar drag & drop functionality would be very nice.

Is there a way to make a step skippable by default?

I know the request might sound strange, but we're run into a scenario where a step may need to be run in certain scenarios. Obviously the user could skip the step by hand each time, but considering the default is to run each step, we're trying to avoid a scenario where someone doesn't look and just runs the default. This would make it very apparent that the step isn't run (as it will be marked as skipped) and force the user to look into it with more detail.

Odd request, I know, but we would find it useful.

Source: http://help.octopusdeploy.com/discussions/questions/2496