You may automate your build, test, and deployment workflow using the continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) technology known as GitHub Actions. You may design processes that deploy merged pull requests to production or build and test each pull request before adding it to your repository.
1. What is GitHub Action?
GitHub just added a feature called GitHub Actions that enables process automation. GitHub can now handle several tasks that might be triggered by various events, such as submitting code, making a release, or handling bugs.
The event-driven automation platform GitHub Actions enables you to execute a set of instructions once a certain event has taken place. For instance, you could wish to build, test, and then deploy the changes to your staging environment when a commit is made to your staging branch. You may use Actions to automate development lifecycle processes within GitHub.
2. Build into GitHub
GitHub Actions is completely integrated into GitHub; as a result, an extra website is not necessary. It may therefore be maintained in the same location as all the other repository-related functionality, such as pull requests and problems.
3. Workflow
A workflow is represented by the file you added. A workflow is an automatic procedure that may be configured and consists of one or more tasks. It can be planned or triggered by an event. A project can be developed, tested, packaged, released, or deployed using a process.
The name of your process is shown on GitHub‘s Actions page for your repository. If the name key is left blank, GitHub defaults the name to the file path relative to the root of the repository. You may change the name by using the name key in your YAML file. The name was supplied as Hello-World-Actions in the aforementioned example.
4. Events
Anything that may occur in a GitHub repository is considered an event. This includes submitting a piece of code, making a branch, starting a pull request, and even leaving a comment on a bug.
5. Jobs
A job is a collection of actions that are carried out as part of a workflow after being sparked by an event. Either a script or a GitHub action makes up each stage. Multiple concurrent jobs may execute in a workflow.
Tasks run concurrently and, by default, do not have any dependencies. However, you may set a job’s dependencies with other jobs. When a job assumes a reliance on another job, it will hold off on starting until the dependent job has finished. For instance, you may have a number of independent build tasks for various architectures and a packaging process that is reliant on those builds. When all of the build tasks have successfully finished, the packaging job will start running in parallel with the build processes.
6. Viewing the Workflow Activity
With the modifications you made, the workflow will now be executed each time a change is pushed to the main branch. Your procedure ought to have been carried out as you’ve already published the update to GitHub. The workflow executions are visible on GitHub‘s Actions page. You may delve down into the specifics of each phase as well as view a visual graph of the execution’s progress for each execution.
To view the workflow executions, adhere to the directions below:
- Go to the home page of your repository on GitHub.
- The Actions tab may be seen following Pull Requests. To access the Actions page, click Actions.
- The process should be displayed on the left sidebar, and the run for the workflow should be displayed.
- The process should be mentioned in the left sidebar and its run should be listed on the home page. Click on each workflow run to get additional details about how it was carried out.
7. Runners
When a workflow is initiated, it is executed by runners, which are server-based processes. A certain job is carried out by each runner.
Although runners can be self-hosted in unique cloud environments, they are often hosted on the cloud.
8. Conclusion
The GitHub environment has significantly improved thanks to GitHub Actions. Actions offers straightforward constructs, excellent GitHub integration, and a sizable community-driven market for actions. It is positioned ideally for public open-source projects in particular because it offers infinite free usage for these projects.
I hope you enjoyed the post and got a taste of GitHub Actions. Connect with us on Twitter and LinkedIn to share your GitHub Actions experience. TechDel is the best mobile app development company based in London. We have a team of talented developers and designers who can design the best iOS, Android, native and hybrid apps for your firm. For more details, please visit TechDel Mobile App Services.
We’d be pleased to answer any questions you have about GitHub Actions and how it may benefit your business. For further information, please Contact Us.
