How to pass values to a Gitlab CI Job

Question

I have a GitLab ci job to download and build few files and then publish to another server. I have done a POC and was successful. The problem is that I would like to customize the job when triggered manually or via API. How can i pass the dynamic values(user given) to reflect in CI job (like a filename, format etc)?

I am using Windows runner.

I saw trigger variables and environment variables but can be retrieved while execution once the value is set in UI. I want a bit different where I will get the values from user.

Is it not possible in GitLab?

Edit:

A bit more info on how I'm using the pipeline. My pipeline has two stages - build and deploy. I want the build to run once, but I want to be able to call deploy multiple to deploy to different server. I can use the variable to determine to which server I want to deploy. Through GitLab UI this is possible - i can set variables for pipeline and also for job that overrides the pipeline variable. I just want to do the same thing through API.

Answer 1

The problem is that I would like to customize the job when triggered manually or via API

This should be possible with GitLab 14.9 (March 2022)

Specify variables when running manual jobs via the API

When running a manual job, it can be useful to input CI/CD variables to overwrite the existing variables, or to add new ones.

Previously, the only way to do this, was to do it through the UI.

In this release we’ve added the ability to specify variables when running a job by using the REST API, which will give you more options for automating your CI/CD pipelines.

See Documentation and Issue.

Example:

curl --request POST "https://gitlab.example.com/api/v4/projects/1/jobs/1/play
     --header "PRIVATE-TOKEN: <your_access_token>"
     --data @variables.json

@variables.json is structured like:

{
  "job_variables_attributes": [
    {
      "key": "TEST_VAR_1",
      "value": "test1"
    },
    {
      "key": "TEST_VAR_2",
      "value": "test2"
    }
  ]
}