Your tasks: Task automation using GitHub Actions

Step-by-step guide that covers workflow creation, using pre-built actions from the GitHub Marketplace, and automating testing with GitHub Actions.

Task automation using GitHub Actions

Description

GitHub Actions is a powerful automation tool (continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) platform) that allows you to define workflows (called actions) for your repository that help automate tasks such as building, testing and deploying code. GitHub Actions enable you to streamline development processes and improve efficiency.

Considerations

Ensure your repository has a .github/workflows/ directory where workflow files will be stored.
Workflows are defined using YAML files (.yml or .yaml).
Actions can be triggered by various GitHub events, such as push, pull_request, or scheduled times.
GitHub provides a marketplace with reusable actions that can be integrated into workflows.
Understanding basic YAML syntax is essential for configuring GitHub Actions correctly.
The workflow execution environment supports different operating systems, including Ubuntu, Windows, and macOS.
Review the repository’s security settings to control access to sensitive information, such as API keys and credentials, stored as secrets.

Solutions

Creating a basic GitHub Action workflow

Setting up a GitHub Action workflow allows you to automate tasks like testing and deployment. By defining a workflow file, you can specify triggers and actions to execute when specific events occur.

To create a basic workflow follow these steps:
- Navigate to your GitHub repository and create a .github/workflows/ directory if it doesn’t exist.
- Create a new YAML file (e.g., first-action.yml) inside this directory.
- Define a basic workflow that runs on push events:
```
name: First GitHub Action
on: [push]
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Run a simple command
        run: echo "Hello, GitHub Actions!"
```
- Commit and push this file to your repository.
- Go to the Actions tab in your GitHub repository to see the workflow run. The real-time visualization graph displayed here provides a clear sequence of executed jobs, making it easier to track progress and identify potential issues. Click on individual jobs to expand the steps, where you’ll find detailed logs and error messages to help with troubleshooting and debugging efficiently.
Using pre-built actions from the GitHub Marketplace

The GitHub Marketplace provides pre-built actions that can be easily integrated into workflows to automate tasks. To use an action from the Marketplace, follow these steps:
- Search for a relevant action in the Marketplace and open its page.
- Copy the code provided under the “Use latest version” section and add it to your workflow file.
- For example, you could decide to use the pre-built Python setup action to ensure the correct Python version is available for running scripts, tests, or installations. Copy the following step into your workflow file:
```
- name: Setup Python
  uses: actions/setup-python@v4
  with:
    python-version: '3.10'
```

Automating testing with GitHub Actions

Use actions to run tests automatically after each push.

Example: Running unit tests for a Python project using pytest:

  jobs:
    test:
      runs-on: ubuntu-latest
      steps:
        - name: Checkout repository
          uses: actions/checkout@v4
        - name: Setup Python
          uses: actions/setup-python@v4
          with:
            python-version: '3.10'
        - name: Install dependencies
          run: |
            python -m pip install --upgrade pip
            pip install -r requirements.txt
        - name: Run tests
          run: pytest

Further guidance

General documentation:
- GitHub Actions documentation - Official documentation covering all aspects of GitHub Actions.
- GitHub marketplace for actions - Browse and search for actions to use in your workflows.
- GitHub actions examples - Collection of sample workflows and configurations.
- YAML syntax guide - Learn YAML syntax for writing workflow files.
Specific tools used in the examples:
- setup-python Action - Official action for setting up Python in GitHub Actions workflows.
- pytest Documentation - Comprehensive guide for writing and running Python tests with pytest.
Security Considerations:
- Using Secrets in GitHub Actions - Guide on securely managing sensitive information in GitHub Actions workflows.

References

The official GitHub Actions documentation was consulted for accuracy and best practices.

Tools and resources on this page

Tool or resource	Description	Related pages	Registry
GitHub Actions	GitHub's infrastructure for continuous integration, deployment and delivery	Documenting software u... Testing software

Contributors

How to cite this page

Eva Martín del Pico, "Task automation using GitHub Actions". everse.software. http://everse.software/RSQKit/task_automation_github_actions .