Re-enable the old way of provisioning templates (including custom templates) through the Demo Generator website

[kbdevon]

Considering the previous version of the Azure DevOps demo generator seemed aimed at departments like marketing / sales and training purposes, please consider re-enabling the old method of logging into the Azure DevOps Demo generator website and allowing users to create projects from the UI.

I'd be perfectly OK with that existing next to the new method (so no replacement especially as quite some work will have gone into this as it goes), but I've already noticed a number of our consulting clients now running into issues because they were using the old method before, and do not have the capacity to work with Visual Studio-based solutions from their IDE/terminal.

[AdithyaGauravCanarys]

@kbdevon, please look at this document to see why this new application has evolved.Changes to provisioning Azure DevOps projects using the Azure DevOps Demo Generator

[PatrikRepos]

Please bring back the old version, the new method has so many issues.
Following the documentation will always lead to: Unhandled exception. System.IO.IOException: The process cannot access the file
or other bugs.

[AdithyaGauravCanarys]

@Broomhilde, can you be more specific about the issues you are facing? If you can also share screenshots, we can help you resolve them.

[PatrikRepos]

Artifacts has been generated sccessfully at the location: C:\Users\*\Documents\vscode_projects\*\*\*\src\ADOGeneratorTemplates\CT-template_project

Do you want to update the template settings and move the artifacts to the executable directory? (yes/no): press enter to confirm
yes

Updating template settings...

Template settings updated successfully at C:\Users\*\Documents\vscode_projects\*\*\*\src\ADOGenerator\Templates\TemplateSetting.json
Unhandled exception. System.IO.IOException: The process cannot access the file 'C:\Users\*\Documents\vscode_projects\*\*\*\src\ADOGenerator\Templates\TemplateSetting.json' because it is being used by another process.
   at System.IO.FileSystem.CopyFile(String sourceFullPath, String destFullPath, Boolean overwrite)
   at Program.<<Main>$>g__CopyFileIfExists|0_1(String id, String sourcePath, String destinationPath) in C:\Users\*\Documents\vscode_projects\*\*\*\src\ADOGenerator\Program.cs:line 144
   at Program.<<Main>$>g__HandleTemplateAndArtifactsUpdate|0_0(String template, String id, Project model, String currentPath) in C:\Users\*\Documents\vscode_projects\*\*\*\src\ADOGenerator\Program.cs:line 124
   at Program.<Main>$(String[] args) in C:\Users\*\Documents\vscode_projects\*\*\*\src\ADOGenerator\Program.cs:line 49

[cs04riva]

Following the instructions between the Auth-Device-code-flow.md and the RunApplication.md files keeps giving me the "Project creation failed" error.

Attempting to create a project from the PartsUnlimited template and using a Personal Access Token for the authentication method. Logs don't appear to have anything helpful.

Update:

I was able to get past the "Project creation failed" error but re-building the app and re-generating a PAT but now I get the following error:

Unhandled exception. System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at ADOGenerator.Services.ProjectService.CreateProjectEnvironment(Project model) in C:\Users\*\Documents\AzDevOpsDemoGenerator\src\ADOGenerator\Services\ProjectService.cs:line 446
   at Program.<<Main>$>g__CreateProjectEnvironment|0_14(Project model, <>c__DisplayClass0_0&) in C:\Users\*\Documents\AzDevOpsDemoGenerator\src\ADOGenerator\Program.cs:line 637
   at Program.<<Main>$>g__HandleNewProjectCreation|0_4(IConfiguration configuration, String id, <>c__DisplayClass0_0&) in C:\Users\*\Documents\AzDevOpsDemoGenerator\src\ADOGenerator\Program.cs:line 248
   at Program.<Main>$(String[] args) in C:\Users\*\Documents\AzDevOpsDemoGenerator\src\ADOGenerator\Program.cs:line 42

[AdithyaGauravCanarys]

@Broomhilde and @cs04riva, this issue has been resolved and will be closed once the PR is merged. If you still feel the issue is not resolved, you can reopen it.

[cs04riva]

@AdithyaGauravCanarys I believe I pulled the branch you are merging into main and I'm still getting errors.

I run the project in Visual Studio, select 1 for creating a new project using the demo generator project template, select template 5 (ContosoAir), pick option 2 for the PAT (full access granted with the PAT), enter my organization name, and give the new project a name. It will regularly fail with the "Project creation failed" and restart. If I do get the project to generate I am now getting the following error:

If I allow the code to continue, multiple additional errors appear:

[AdithyaGauravCanarys]

@cs04riva, can you check a couple of scenarios that can fix the issue from your side?

• Check if anything has been modified in the project template files.
• Could you again check that the PAT you are using has the full access grant?
• Alternatively, you can also try to create the project using the device flow authentication.
• Check if you have permissions to create and modify the projects in your organization.

[kbdevon]

@kbdevon, please look at this document to see why this new application has evolved.Changes to provisioning Azure DevOps projects using the Azure DevOps Demo Generator

I understand the need for more secure logins, but to me that doesn't explain the switch from a UI-based application/website to something you need to build yourself in VS. Considering the (at least previous) target audience from my experience was not as dev-savvy as this switch seems to imply: Couldn't the newer authentication method w/ app registrations be integrated in the website-version of this tool? Especially considering the amount of issues popping up, it seems more user-friendly to at least keep that method alive for now.

[svchraghava]

I am facing "Project creation failed" error

[svchraghava]

I am not sure is this the actual error or not but I just try to debug and found below.

When I debug the cloned code, it is getting 203 response code.
StatusCode: 203, ReasonPhrase: 'Non-Authoritative Information' in CreateTeamProject method.

when I google it for solution it shows we need add colon : before token as shown below. Please correct me if I am wrong.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45192108/authenticating-to-visualstudioonline-rest-api-with-personal-access-token-using-p

[kbdevon]

This issue was marked as completed but I don't see anything that fixes the original issue, only the things that were reported underneath my original comment. Please reopen.

[svchraghava]

This issue is still exists, please don't close it.