Azure Data Factory v2 using utcnow() as a pipeline parameter
For context, I currently have a Data Factory v2 pipeline with a ForEach Activity that calls a Copy activity. The Copy Activity simply copies data from an FTP server to a blob storage container.
Here is the pipeline json file :
{
"name": "pipeline1",
"properties": {
"activities": [
{
"name": "ForEach1",
"type": "ForEach",
"typeProperties": {
"items": {
"value": "@pipeline().parameters.InputParams",
"type": "Expression"
},
"isSequential": true,
"activities": [
{
"name": "Copy1",
"type": "Copy",
"policy": {
"timeout": "7.00:00:00",
"retry": 0,
"retryIntervalInSeconds": 30,
"secureOutput": false
},
"typeProperties": {
"source": {
"type": "FileSystemSource",
"recursive": true
},
"sink": {
"type": "BlobSink"
},
"enableStaging": false,
"cloudDataMovementUnits": 0
},
"inputs": [
{
"referenceName": "FtpDataset",
"type": "DatasetReference",
"parameters": {
"FtpFileName": "@item().FtpFileName",
"FtpFolderPath": "@item().FtpFolderPath"
}
}
],
"outputs": [
{
"referenceName": "BlobDataset",
"type": "DatasetReference",
"parameters": {
"BlobFileName": "@item().BlobFileName",
"BlobFolderPath": "@item().BlobFolderPath"
}
}
]
}
]
}
}
],
"parameters": {
"InputParams": {
"type": "Array",
"defaultValue": [
{
"FtpFolderPath": "/Folder1/",
"FtpFileName": "@concat('File_',formatDateTime(utcnow(), 'yyyyMMdd'), '.txt')",
"BlobFolderPath": "blobfolderpath",
"BlobFileName": "blobfile1"
},
{
"FtpFolderPath": "/Folder2/",
"FtpFileName": "@concat('File_',formatDateTime(utcnow(), 'yyyyMMdd'), '.txt')",
"BlobFolderPath": "blobfolderpath",
"BlobFileName": "blobfile2"
}
]
}
}
},
"type": "Microsoft.DataFactory/factories/pipelines"
}
The issue I am having is that when specifying pipeline parameters, it seems I cannot use system variables and functions the same way I can when for example specifying folder paths for a blob storage dataset.
The consequence of this is that formatDateTime(utcnow(), 'yyyyMMdd') is not being interpreted as function calls but rather the actual string with value "formatDateTime(utcnow(), 'yyyyMMdd')".
To counter this I am guessing I should be using a trigger to execute my pipeline and pass the trigger's execution time as a parameter to the pipeline like trigger().startTime but is this the only way ? Am I simply doing something wrong in my pipeline's json ?
Answer
This should work:
File_@{formatDateTime(utcnow(), 'yyyyMMdd')}
Or complex paths as well:
rootfolder/subfolder/@{formatDateTime(utcnow(),'yyyy')}/@{formatDateTime(utcnow(),'MM')}/@{formatDateTime(utcnow(),'dd')}/@{formatDateTime(utcnow(),'HH')}