Symbolic variables

Symbolic variables are special user-defined variables in one of the following formats:

${variable}
${p:variable}
#variable#

You can use symbolic variables to dynamically provide input for either Jenkins projects or UrbanCode Deploy/HCL Launch component processes.

Types of symbolic variables

Type	Applicable to	Description
Parameter-based variables	Jenkins	These variables are in ${variable} format. BMC AMI DevOps replaces these variables with the default or user-defined value of the corresponding parameter. Example You create a string parameter, Job_ID, with a default value, MME12345. When you build the project, the value of the symbolic variable, ${Job_ID}, is either MME12345 (the default value of the Job_ID parameter) or the value that you enter. To use parameter-based variables, you must select the This project is parameterized check box in the General tab when configuring the project.
Property-based variables	UrbanCode Deploy and HCL Launch	These variables are in ${p:variable} format. Example You create a property variable, ama.job.id, with a default value, MME12345. When you execute the component process, the value of the symbolic variable, ${p:ama.job.id}, is either MME12345 (the default value of the ama.job.id property) or the value that you enter.
Field-based variables	Jenkins, UrbanCode Deploy, and HCL Launch	These variables are in ${variable} format. BMC AMI DevOps replaces these variables with the value of the corresponding fields. Example The value of the symbolic variable, ${Job Card}, is the value of the field, Job Card.
Plug-in variables file-based variables	Jenkins, UrbanCode Deploy, and HCL Launch	These variables are in #variable# format. BMC AMI DevOps replaces these variables with the value of the corresponding variable in the plug-in variables file. Example The value of the symbolic variable, #acctno#, is the value of the variable, acctno, in the plug-in variables file.

Important

In Jenkins, for symbolic variables in ${variable} format, parameter-based variables have priority over field-based variables of the same name.
BMC AMI DevOps searches for symbolic variable values in #variable# format only in the plug-in variables file.
The symbolic variables provided in the samples for each of the deployment tools are not keywords. You can use any variable name in the plug-in variables file and subsequently in the deployment configuration.
If required, you can add more symbolic values to your deployment configuration.
You can delete symbolic variables from the deployment configuration and hard-code values. However, BMC does not recommend this because it prevents you from dynamically providing values for your deployment configuration.

Symbolic variables

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