# Whats the best way to get an external variable/input from user in your cookbook,

**URL:** <https://discourse.chef.io/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-an-external-variable-input-from-user-in-your-cookbook/4599>\
**Category:** Chef Infra (archive)\
**Created:** [October 3, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-an-external-variable-input-from-user-in-your-cookbook/4599 "2013-10-03T18:22:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Manoj\_Thakkar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Manoj\_Thakkar](https://discourse.chef.io/u/Manoj_Thakkar)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://discourse.chef.io/t/whats-the-best-way-to-get-an-external-variable-input-from-user-in-your-cookbook/4599/1 "2013-10-03T18:22:03Z")

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Hi,

I ned some advise here, i am using chef to do build deployments , now the  
version of the artifact is one field in the build deployment which will  
keep on changing and there are times when the Devloper or operations  
decide what version of the file they want to pick and deploy.

Whats the best way to expose that variable ? can i add it in a role/node or  
a databag or amy be there is some other easy way.

Please help

Thanks  
Manoj