Book Image

Automating Workflows with GitHub Actions

By : Priscila Heller
Book Image

Automating Workflows with GitHub Actions

By: Priscila Heller

Overview of this book

GitHub Actions is one of the most popular products that enables you to automate development tasks and improve your software development workflow. Automating Workflows with GitHub Actions uses real-world examples to help you automate everyday tasks and use your resources efficiently. This book takes a practical approach to helping you develop the skills needed to create complex YAML files to automate your daily tasks. You'll learn how to find and use existing workflows, allowing you to get started with GitHub Actions right away. Moving on, you'll discover complex concepts and practices such as self-hosted runners and writing workflow files that leverage other platforms such as Docker as well as programming languages such as Java and JavaScript. As you advance, you'll be able to write your own JavaScript, Docker, and composite run steps actions, and publish them in GitHub Marketplace! You'll also find instructions to migrate your existing CI/CD workflows into GitHub Actions from platforms like Travis CI and GitLab. Finally, you'll explore tools that'll help you stay informed of additions to GitHub Actions along with finding technical support and staying engaged with the community. By the end of this GitHub book, you'll have developed the skills and experience needed to build and maintain your own CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
1
Section 1:Introduction and Overview of Technologies Used with GitHub Actions
4
Section 2: Advanced Concepts and Hands-On Exercises to Create Actions
9
Section 3: Customizing Existing Actions, Migrations, and the Future of GitHub Actions

Reviewing the metadata syntax

The metadata syntax required to create an action must be written using YAML. If you are not familiar with YAML, start by reading the Introduction to YAML section in Chapter 1, Learning the Foundations for GitHub Actions.

Important note

The metadata filename must be either action.yaml or action.yml.

Most elements in a YAML file are organized in key-value pairs. That format is also used in the action metadata syntax. This chapter presents a list of all required keys that you must add to an action metadata file, as follows:

  • name: The name of your action, which will also be displayed in the Actions tab of your GitHub repository.
  • description: A description of your action.
  • runs: Determines the application used to run the code.

    For Docker actions, this key configures the image used for the Docker action.

    For JavaScript actions, this key configures the path to the location where the code that builds the action lives.

    For composite run...