An export is stored in a date-time stamp folder name. Here's an example of the contents:
Each folder contains all the exported contents of a particular REST API call; items exported from Accounts API (/api/accounts) are in the Accounts folder, etc. One exception to that is the Miscellaneous folder which contains the output of all 'Simple' REST API requests; see type descriptions for more information.
All exported content is stored in JSON files. So, what does a particular JSON look like?
{
"Id": "Environments-8",
"Name": "Staging",
"Description": "Staging environment",
"SortOrder": 1,
"UseGuidedFailure": false,
"AllowDynamicInfrastructure": false,
"Links": {
"Self": "/api/environments/Environments-8",
"Machines": "/api/environments/Environments-8/machines{?skip,take,partialName,roles,isDisabled,healthStatuses,commStyles,tenantIds,tenantTags}",
"SinglyScopedVariableDetails": "/api/environments/Environments-8/singlyScopedVariableDetails"
},
"MachineIds": [
"Machines-44",
"Machines-38",
"Machines-62",
"Machines-20",
"Machines-11",
"Machines-81",
"Machines-31",
"Machines-32",
"Machines-20",
"Machines-16"
],
"MachineNames": [
"STGAUTH01",
"STGAUTH02",
"STGMAP01",
"STGMAP02",
"STGMAP03",
"STGMAP04",
"STGSERV01",
"STGSERV02",
"STGWEB01",
"STGWEB02"
]
}If you are familiar with the Environments API call, or you checked out the Swagger docs, you might notice something peculiar. The MachineIds and MachineNames are not a part of the actual data returned by the Environments API call. What gives?
This is the magic of the post-processing step - it makes the exported data much more useful for you. In the case of Environment data, the post-processing goes and looks through all the Machines, finds ones that list the particular Environment in the machine's EnvironmentIds field and then grabs that machine id and its name and adds that info to the Environment JSON. This is super handy! Do you want to search through every machine just to find out which machines are in a particular environment? Of course not - so ODU does it for you!
This post-processing does a lot of magic! If you are wondering what info gets added to a JSON file during post-processing you can usually find the fields that appear after the first Links instance in the file. Again, you can learn more about post-processing.
Now, let's look at a much more complex example.
Below is a project JSON file that has been post-processed. It's big (even after being edited) so let me summarize the types of changes you can see.
- By default a project export from Octopus is pretty simple, it contains only a fraction of this info. The post-processing looks up and 'joins' all of the external data so it's much more helpful for reporting and processing.
- Fields with suffix a field 'Id' and that have a proper user-friendly name are looked up and added to it. For example "IncludedLibraryVariableSetIds" = "LibraryVariableSets-7" comes with the export but post-processing has added "IncludedLibraryVariableSetNames" = "Global Variables 1". The same is true for ClonedFromProjectName, LifecycleName and ProjectGroupName.
- By default the project only contains a reference to the deploy process; post-processing adds the applicable DeploymentProcess section to it.
- Same is true for both the native project variables (VariableSet) and all IncludedLibraryVariableSets
{
"Id": "Projects-4",
"VariableSetId": "variableset-Projects-4",
"DeploymentProcessId": "deploymentprocess-Projects-4",
"ClonedFromProjectId": null,
"DiscreteChannelRelease": false,
"IncludedLibraryVariableSetIds": [
"LibraryVariableSets-7"
],
"DefaultToSkipIfAlreadyInstalled": false,
"TenantedDeploymentMode": "Untenanted",
"DefaultGuidedFailureMode": "EnvironmentDefault",
"VersioningStrategy": {
"DonorPackageStepId": "d4c0602f-d761-4d75-8cb7-bebe2978d650",
"Template": null
},
"ReleaseCreationStrategy": {
"ReleaseCreationPackageStepId": "",
"ChannelId": null
},
"Templates": [],
"AutoDeployReleaseOverrides": [],
"Name": "MyCo.WebMain",
"Slug": "myco.webmain",
"Description": "Primary front-end web application",
"IsDisabled": false,
"ProjectGroupId": "ProjectGroups-9",
"LifecycleId": "Lifecycles-6",
"AutoCreateRelease": false,
"ProjectConnectivityPolicy": {
"SkipMachineBehavior": "None",
"TargetRoles": [],
"AllowDeploymentsToNoTargets": false
},
"ClonedFromProjectName": null,
"IncludedLibraryVariableSetNames": [
"Global Variables 1"
],
"LifecycleName": "MyCo Lifecycle",
"ProjectGroupName": "MyCo",
"DeploymentProcess": {
"Id": "deploymentprocess-Projects-4",
"ProjectId": "Projects-4",
"Steps": [
{
"Id": "cbe26ac9-18ee-4db8-9e20-aa48aa813abf",
"Name": "Deploy to IIS",
"PackageRequirement": "LetOctopusDecide",
"Properties": {
"Octopus.Action.TargetRoles": "WEB"
},
"Condition": "Always",
"StartTrigger": "StartAfterPrevious",
"Actions": [
{
"Id": "d4c0602f-d761-4d75-8cb7-bebe2978d650",
"Name": "Deploy to IIS",
"ActionType": "Octopus.IIS",
"IsDisabled": false,
"CanBeUsedForProjectVersioning": true,
"IsRequired": false,
"WorkerPoolId": null,
"Environments": [],
"ExcludedEnvironments": [],
"Channels": [],
"TenantTags": [],
"Packages": [
{
"Name": "",
"PackageId": "MyCo.WebMain",
"FeedId": "feeds-builtin",
"AcquisitionLocation": "Server",
"Properties": {}
}
],
"Properties": {
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.DeploymentType": "webSite",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.CreateOrUpdateWebSite": "True",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.Bindings": "[{\"protocol\":\"https\",\"ipAddress\":\"#{IpAddress}\",\"port\":\"#{BindingPortNumber}\",\"host\":\"#{HostName}\",\"thumbprint\":\"#{SSLBindingCertificateThumbprint}\",\"certificateVariable\":null,\"requireSni\":false,\"enabled\":true}]",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.ApplicationPoolFrameworkVersion": "v4.0",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.ApplicationPoolIdentityType": "NetworkService",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.EnableAnonymousAuthentication": "True",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.EnableBasicAuthentication": "False",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.EnableWindowsAuthentication": "False",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.WebApplication.ApplicationPoolFrameworkVersion": "v4.0",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.WebApplication.ApplicationPoolIdentityType": "ApplicationPoolIdentity",
"Octopus.Action.Package.AutomaticallyRunConfigurationTransformationFiles": "True",
"Octopus.Action.Package.AutomaticallyUpdateAppSettingsAndConnectionStrings": "True",
"Octopus.Action.EnabledFeatures": "Octopus.Features.IISWebSite,Octopus.Features.CustomDirectory,Octopus.Features.ConfigurationVariables,Octopus.Features.ConfigurationTransforms,Octopus.Features.SubstituteInFiles",
"Octopus.Action.Package.FeedId": "feeds-builtin",
"Octopus.Action.Package.DownloadOnTentacle": "False",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.StartApplicationPool": "True",
"Octopus.Action.Package.PackageId": "MyCo.WebMain",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.WebSiteName": "#{SiteName}",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.WebRootType": "packageRoot",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.ApplicationPoolName": "#{SiteName}",
"Octopus.Action.Package.CustomInstallationDirectory": "#{ApplicationPath}\\MyCo.WebMain",
"Octopus.Action.Package.AdditionalXmlConfigurationTransforms": "*.Release.xml => *.xml",
"Octopus.Action.SubstituteInFiles.Enabled": "True",
"Octopus.Action.SubstituteInFiles.TargetFiles": "*.config",
"Octopus.Action.IISWebSite.StartWebSite": "True",
"Octopus.Action.Package.CustomInstallationDirectoryShouldBePurgedBeforeDeployment": "True"
},
"Links": {}
}
]
}
],
"Version": 22,
"LastSnapshotId": null,
"Links": {
"Self": "/api/deploymentprocesses/deploymentprocess-Projects-4",
"Project": "/api/projects/Projects-4",
"Template": "/api/deploymentprocesses/deploymentprocess-Projects-4/template{?channel,releaseId}"
},
"LastSnapshotName": null,
"ProjectName": "MyCo.WebMain"
},
"VariableSet": {
"Id": "variableset-Projects-4",
"OwnerId": "Projects-4",
"Version": 5,
"Variables": [
{
"Id": "ad1227ba-525b-4ff7-db9c-f688d0543cda",
"Name": "Hostname",
"Value": "",
"Description": null,
"Scope": {},
"IsEditable": true,
"Prompt": null,
"Type": "String",
"IsSensitive": false
},
{
"Id": "54655063-a823-fa09-7801-767a2b212bda",
"Name": "SiteName",
"Value": "MyCo-Main",
"Description": null,
"Scope": {
"Environment": [
"Environments-8"
],
"EnvironmentName": [
"Staging"
],
"Breadth": [
"Staging"
]
},
"IsEditable": true,
"Prompt": null,
"Type": "String",
"IsSensitive": false
},
...removed for brevity...
],
"ScopeValues": {
...removed for brevity...
},
"Links": {
"Self": "/api/variables/variableset-Projects-4"
},
"OwnerName": "MyCo.WebMain"
},
"IncludedLibraryVariableSets": [
{
"Id": "LibraryVariableSets-7",
"Name": "Global Variables 1",
"Description": "Default global variables for MyCo",
"VariableSetId": "variableset-LibraryVariableSets-7",
"ContentType": "Variables",
"Templates": [],
"Links": {
"Self": "/api/libraryvariablesets/LibraryVariableSets-7",
"Variables": "/api/variables/variableset-LibraryVariableSets-7"
},
"VariableSet": {
"Id": "variableset-LibraryVariableSets-7",
"OwnerId": "LibraryVariableSets-7",
"Version": 12,
"Variables": [
{
"Id": "f4f385c4-d588-43f0-b816-4206187f5744",
"Name": "Connect1Password",
"Value": null,
"Description": "",
"Scope": {
"Environment": [
"Environments-23", "Environments-27"
],
"EnvironmentName": [
"WebDev-4", "WebDev-9"
],
"Breadth": [
"WebDev-4", "WebDev-9"
]
},
"IsEditable": true,
"Prompt": null,
"Type": "Sensitive",
"IsSensitive": true
},
...removed for brevity...
],
"ScopeValues": {
...removed for brevity...
},
"Links": {
"Self": "/api/variables/variableset-LibraryVariableSets-7"
},
"OwnerName": "Global Variables 1"
}
}
]
}