Upload File as a parameter to job in Azure DevOps

After searching through various blogs and posts, I realized that there is no way to get this done directly in VSTS. However, I was able to get a work around for the same.

1. I created a VSTS User story and uploaded my attachment there
2. Using the Work Item ID, I used the work Item api to get the attachment ID.
3. Using the attachment API I was able to write a python script to download this attachment as a part of a pre-step in the Pipeline. Then this was available to use through out my automation script.

I don't think you can load a file before the build start and read the variables, but, you can add a task that read the variables from a file and put him in the beginning (the first step in your pipeline).

There are few extensions to read variable from a JSON file, for example: Json to Variable.

If you want to read from excel I think you should write a script that does it.

Using local hosted agent, you can publish artifact from local share, then move to i.e. ms-hosted agent and use it normally.

      - task: DownloadFileshareArtifacts@1
        inputs:
          filesharePath: '\\myhost\myshare\myfolder'
          artifactName: 'my-artifact'
          downloadPath: '$(System.ArtifactsDirectory)'
          parallelizationLimit: '8'

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/pipelines/tasks/utility/download-fileshare-artifacts?view=azure-devops