Create Build Definition using Azure Devops API

Question

We are trying to create build definition by copy another build definition information using Azure Devops Rest API however getting the below error:

HttpError BadRequest - Value cannot be null. Parameter name: definition.Repository.Mappings.Mapping.ServerPath.

Here are the steps we are following

1. Get the build information using API - This step is working fine
2. Modify the name of the build definition
3. Create the new build definition by passing the above build definitions request Body

Sample code

var buildDefinitionGet = client.GetBuildDefinitionsAsync("XXX.DevOps", "15");

var newBuildDefinition = buildDefinitionGet;
newBuildDefinition.name = "MVC2017-1";

var buildDefinition = await client               
   .CreateBuildDefinitionsAsync("XXX.DevOps", newBuildDefinition)
   .ConfigureAwait(false);

Here is the request body structure:

public class BuildDefinitionRequestBody
{
    public Process process { get; set; }
    public Repository repository { get; set; }
    public ProcessParameters processParameters { get; set; }
    public List<object> drafts { get; set; }
    public Queue queue { get; set; }
    public string name { get; set; }
    public string type { get; set; }
    public string queueStatus { get; set; }
}

We are using TFVC as source control.

Are we missing anything?

Answer 1

In these scenarios, there are two type error,

“definition.Repository.Mappings.Mapping.ServerPath” and “definition.Repository.Mappings.Mapping.LocalPath”.

Following situation in your path will cause above error.

definition.Repository.Mappings.Mapping.LocalPath:

---

1. unc paths are not allowed
2. local mappings are not allowed to be absolute paths or to navigate out of the s dir
3. two mappings should not have the same local path
4. Local Path number is 0 or mapping number is 0

definition.Repository.Mappings.Mapping.ServerPath:

---

1. no invalid characters allowed
2. no empty fields allowed for server path or type
3. two mappings should not have the same server path

Since the screenshots doesn’t show the whole local path and the server path , please check the paths based on above rules on your side. And I suggest you copy the Server Path value from the corresponding project’s Code -> Files, on the top of the page, which could make sure the server paths are correct. For the local paths, I suggest you remove the one by one to make sure which one caused this issue.

Powershell equivalent code for cloning build.

$uri = 'https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/build/definitions/{definitionId}'

$result = Invoke-RestMethod -Method Get -Uri $uri -UseDefaultCredentials
$result.path = '\NewFolder\Location'
$result.name = "Testing"

$body = $result | ConvertTo-Json -Depth 7

Invoke-RestMethod -Method POST -uri 'https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/_apis/build/definitions?api-version=4.0' -UseDefaultCredentials -Body $body -ContentType 'application/json'

Hope it helps.