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Variables can be used throughout Continua and created at certain levels in the hierarchy. Environment variable are there by default and cannot be changed, they're the last variable namespace checked when determining a variable's value. The next level of variables checked at the Application level which is the highest level a user can define a variable. A variable defined in the Application namespace can be used anywhere in Continua. The next level of variables are for projects which are defined on the project wizard page followed by configuration variables which are on the configuration wizard page. The final variable namespace and the one at the top of the hierarchy is the Build Namespace. There are 3 ways to define a build level variable. When a build is triggered (defined when creating the trigger), when manually starting a build that prompts for variables and when setting a variable in a stage using the Set Variable Action. Variables can have a value type of Text, Numeric or Expression. Expression variables can contain references to other variable or objects. Variables can later be referenced using the Objects and Expressions Syntax.
(We need an entry that steps through the usage of queries and the short cut keys %, $, etc...)
Objects & Expressions
Throughout Continua you will come across input fields which accept Expressions in their value. Expressions are built up at design time then evaluated at run time. An Expression can reference a Continua Variable or a Continua Object. The UI differentiates these two types by starting and ending an Expression with the "%" character for variables and a "$" character for objects, these two keys will be referred to as "starting keys". A Variable Expression would look something like "%Configuration.MyOwnVariable%" and an Object Expression would look something like "$Build.BuildNumber$". To determine if an input field accepts Expressions as values, press a starting key and wait for the auto-complete drop down to appear below the input field.
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Note: It's possible for object types with children to evaluate to a value. For example, even though Build is an object type with children, $Build$ can evaluate to a default value. Click ---------- to see a full list of object default values.
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Here's an example of pressing the Continua Variable starting key.
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To select an item you can use either Enter or Space. When using Enter on a value type item, the cursor will be placed after the closing character of the expression since value types have no children you can get values from. If the type is an object then Enter will place the cursor at the end of the selected object's text and before the closing character of the expression. To get the next list of options in the drop down for that object type, press the period key. Alternatively, you can use Space to select an item. If the item selected is a value type then the expression will be completed and a space added at the end of the closing character. If the item selected is an object type, Space will complete the expression and put the cursor immediately after the closing character.
Default Values
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