Append to Job properties

Question

My job parameters defined in job-dsl.groovy are overwritten by those defined in pipeline.

I am using job-dsl-plugin and Jenkins pipeline to generate Jenkins job for each git branch. Sine my code is stored in gitLab they require gitLab integration. I am providing that using gitlab-plugin. The problem is with the 'gitLabConnection' it looks like it can be only applied from inside the Jenkins pipeline.

So if in job-dsl I would do:

branches.each { branch ->
String safeBranchName = branch.name.replaceAll('/', '-')
if (safeBranchName ==~ "^release.*")
{
    return
}

def branch_folder = "${basePath}/${safeBranchName}"
folder branch_folder

pipelineJob("$branch_folder/build") {
    logRotator {
        numToKeep 20
    }
    parameters {
        stringParam("BRANCH_NAME", "${safeBranchName}", "")

        stringParam("PROJECT_NAME", "${basePath}", "")
    {
}

And then in my Jenkins pipeline I would add the 'gitLabConnection'

node('node_A') {
properties([
    gitLabConnection('gitlab.internal')
])

stage('clean up') {
    deleteDir()
}
///(...)

I have to do it like:

node('node_A') {
properties([
    gitLabConnection('gitlab.internal'),
    parameters([
        string(name: 'BRANCH_NAME', defaultValue: BRANCH_NAME, description: ''),
        string(name: 'PROJECT_NAME', defaultValue: PROJECT_NAME, description: '')
    ])
])

stage('clean up') {
    deleteDir()
}
///(...)

So that my BRANCH_NAME and PROJECT_NAME are not overwritten. Is there another way to tackle this ? Is it possible to append the 'gitLabConnection('gitlab.internal')' to the properties in the Jenkins pipeline ?

Answer 1

There are 2 ways for solving this. The first one uses only Jenkins pipeline code, but if you choose this path the initial job run will most likely fail. This initial fail will happen, because at the time of first job run, the pipeline creates Jenkins job parameters. Once the parameters are created, job will work.

1. Option '1' - using Jenkins pipeline Only.
   In 'Pipeline Syntax'/'Snippet Generator' check:
   'This project is parameterised'.
   Add parameter(s) you need, and hit 'Generate Pipeline Script'. In my case I get:

   properties([ gitLabConnection(gitLabConnection: 'my_gitlab_connection', jobCredentialId: '', useAlternativeCredential: false), [$class: 'JobRestrictionProperty'], parameters([ string(defaultValue: 'test', description: 'test', name: 'test', trim: false) ]), throttleJobProperty(categories: [], limitOneJobWithMatchingParams: false, maxConcurrentPerNode: 0, maxConcurrentTotal: 0, paramsToUseForLimit: '', throttleEnabled: false, throttleOption: 'project') ])

2. Option '2' - It's more complicated but, also far more powerfull. The one I finally took, because of the issues described above.
   Use Jenkins job DSL plugin - https://github.com/jenkinsci/job-dsl-plugin Gitlab plugin works quite well with it https://github.com/jenkinsci/gitlab-plugin#declarative-pipeline-jobs

Answer 2

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like there is a way to do this yet. There's some discussion about this at https://issues.jenkins-ci.org/browse/JENKINS-43758 and I may end up opening a feature request to allow people to "append to properties"