Environment Variables are now Always Visible and Editable during Solution Import and Pipeline Deployments

We have just released a change that allows makers, who are using pipelines and solution import, to view and change the values of a solution’s environment variables with any deployment. Previously, we conditionally hid the environment variables if there was a value available for them. This created some confusion and ambiguity on how environment variables were obtaining their values and limited the environment variable update experience. Now, makers will be able to validate the values that are going to be used in their components (such as their apps) in the target environment. 

This is a huge step forward for environment variables ease–of–use and transparency, so makers of all experience levels can participate in healthy ALM practices, especially with pipelines which makes it all even easier. Each environment variable in the solution will have one of three value sources in this new experience: solution value, target environment value, or default value.

See for yourself today, now that the feature has been released everywhere!

Coming soon: automatic segmentation of environment variable values

Next month, the default experience will no longer export environment variable values in your solution. This makes it easier to follow best practices and avoid inadvertent mistakes. A new “Export value” toggle within the environment variable settings will allow you to opt-in to exporting the value, if needed.

 

Paired with the new change during deployment, now environment variables will work transparently and as intended by your organization. Of course, if what you have now works for your use-cases, we won’t be overwriting your existing environment variables’ current behavior. But for every new environment variable created (or if you manually turn off the toggle), if you would like to dynamically change the values of your environment variables every time you import or deploy, you won’t have to clear the values since they will already be excluded! 

We hope this recent change demystifies the inner workings of environment variables and enables more makers to use them in their solutions. Look out for the change next month too, enabling all makers to use environment variables with smart defaults that make it easier to follow best practices. As always, thank you to all the makers and admins who expressed passionate feedback that drove these improvements; we hear you!

 

Learn more about environment variables

• Use environment variables in solutions. Microsoft docs