TL; DR
Is there any way that I can use JSON variable substitution with default Release variables in VSTS?
Description
With VSTS, I can use JSON variable substitution to set values in an appsettings.json file at release time. For example, with an appsettings.json file that looks like this:
{
"ConnectionStrings": {
"DM_ADJ": "placeholder",
"DM_SALES": "placeholder"
},
// And so on. Placeholders get replaced
}
I can define a Release variable in VSTS called ConnectionStrings.DM_ADJ, and the value I provide there will replace "placeholder" in the corresponding JSON line.
Now, I would also like to use some of the default Release variables in my app's configuration. For example, there are default Release variables called Release.DefinitionName and Release.DefinitionId. I thought that I could substitute them into an appsettings.json config section like below, but unfortunately, when the Release completes, the "placeholder" strings do not get replaced. Am I missing something?
{
"Release": {
"DefinitionName": "placeholder",
"DefinitionId": "placeholder",
}
// And so on. Placeholders do not get replaced
}




