How to pass a String parameter with spaces in Jenkins to environment variable

Question

In jenkins Job, I am taking a String parameter as below:

FoldersList = test1,test2,test3,Folder name1,Folder name2,Folder name3

when I pass this value to environment variable the jenkins job fails with error : Unknown lifecycle phase etc etc since spaces are not allowed in folder names.

I am passing the environment variable like this in goals and options section :

exec:java -Dexec.classpathScope="test" -Dexec.mainClass="com.mypackage.main.TestNGRunner" -Dexec.cleanupDaemonThreads=false "-Dexec.args=-inputexcel=Data.xlsx -jenkinsJobName=testJob -layer=MultiplefolderTest -InpFoldersList="\"$inpFoldersList"\" -threadCount=12 -retryCount=3"

If I pass a single string within double quotes it works but the user will enter multiple folder names possibly with spaces. Please can somebody help since I tried different options but none work. Is there a way to manipulate the string and pass it to the environment variable.

Answer 1

If the input string is failing due to folders with spaces not having quotes around them, try adding quotes around every object.

The InpFolderList already adds end quotes:

InpFoldersList="\"$inpFoldersList"\"

Add the quotes around every object.

groovy:

class Example { 
   static void main(String[] args) { 
        String FolderList = "test1,test2,test3,Folder name1,Folder name2,Folder name3";
        println(FolderList.replaceAll(",","\",\""));
   } 
}

Output: (End quotes are left off)

test1","test2","test3","Folder name1","Folder name2","Folder name3

Test Code: https://www.jdoodle.com/execute-groovy-online/ (Copy / Paste Code and Execute)

Using above as an example, you could also add the end quotes and have a complete String variable to pass as $InpFoldersList, which would remove confusion if attempting to debug.

Reference: http://docs.groovy-lang.org/latest/html/api/org/codehaus/groovy/runtime/StringGroovyMethods.html#replaceAll(java.lang.CharSequence,java.util.regex.Pattern,java.lang.CharSequence)

Answer 2

What about save the env variable within a file and read from it after, you can encrypt/decrypt or use another type of parameter if that is a problem.