Github Actions Basics

Github Actions are used to automate project management tasks by using workflows.

• Each Workflow contains a series of tasks, which are implemented or run automatically everytime when the workflow runs.

Github Action is a CI/CD(Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery) platform that allows you to automate your build, test and deployment pipelines

The Components of Github Actions:

1.Workflow:

• Workflow is a configurable automated process that will run one or more jobs,
• defined by a YAML file/Syntax,
• and it's placed inside .github/workflows path

2.Events:

• it is Something that triggers Workflows

3.Jobs:

• Job is a set of steps in a workflow, each step is either a Shell script or an action
• Steps are executed in order, and are dependent on each other.
• Data Sharing mechanism is integrated into the steps, since they are dependent on each other

4.Actions:

• Custom application for the Github Actions platform that performs a complex but frequently repeated tasks

5.Runners:

• is a server that runs your workflow when they are triggered.

Let us Understand the Workflow file(YAML):

name: learn-github-actions

• it will appear in the 'Actions' tab of the Github Repository
• it is an optional step

run-name: ${{github.actor}} is learning Github actions

• it specifies the name of workflow run, that will appear in the list of workflow runs on 'Actions' Tab

on: [push]

• specifies the trigger for the Workflow

jobs:

• Groups all the jobs that run in the learn-github-action workflow

check-bats-version:

• Defines a job named check-bats-version. The child keys will define properties of the job.

runs-on: ubuntu-latest

• configures the job to run on the latest version of the Ubuntu Linux runner(Fresh virtual machine hosted by Github)

steps:

• groups together all the steps that runs in this job. Each item nested under this section is a separate action or a shell script.

-uses: actions/checkout@v4

• The uses keyword specifies that this step will run v4 of the actions/checkout action.
• This actions checks out your repository onto the runner, allowing you to run scripts or other actions against your code.

-uses: actions/setup-node@v3
 with:
    node-version: '14'

• This step uses the actions/setup-node@v3 action to install the specified version of the Node that will be used for the project
• This puts both the node & npm commands in your Path

-run: npm install -g bats

• The run keyword tells the job to execute a command on the Runner.
• In this case, you're using npm to install bats software testing package.

-run:bats-v

• Finally you'll run the bats command with a parameter that outputs the software version.

Thanks for reading the tutorial!
If you have any feedback, then you can DM me on Twitter or Linkedin.