JackTT

Posted on Sep 14, 2023 • Edited on Sep 21, 2023

Update your dev.to articles into your Github profile

#go #cicd #devops #opensource

In this article, I'll share you how to update your latest articles on dev.to into your Github profile.

What is Github profile

GitHub will display your profile README on your profile page if all of the following are true.

You've created a repository with a name that matches your GitHub username.
The repository is public.
The repository contains a file named README.md in its root.
The README.md file contains any content.

How to update articles into your repository

Follow the same approach as outlined in my previous article, Creating a Dynamic README.md File, I have recently developed another GitHub Action for updating your dev.to articles on your GitHub profile.

To do that, let's follow these straightforward steps:

Step 1: In your repository, create a file named README.md.template.

Step 2: Write anything you want within the README.md.template file.

Step 3: Embed one of the following entities within your README.md.template:

Article listing:

{{ template "article-list" .Articles }}

Article table:

{{ template "article-table" .Articles }}

If you are familiar with Go templates, you have access to the root variable, which includes the following fields:

Articles: An array of Article. You can view the Article struct definition in model/article.go.
Time: Updated Time

Step 4: Register Github Action

Create a file .github/workflows/update-articles.yml in your repository.

name: "Cronjob"
on:
 schedule:
  - cron: '15 0 * * *'

jobs:
    update-articles:
        permissions: write-all
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        steps:
            - uses: actions/checkout@v3
            - name: Generate README
              uses: huantt/article-listing@v1.1.0
              with:
                username: YOUR_USERNAME_ON_DEV_TO                
                template-file: 'README.md.template'
                out-file: 'README.md'
                limit: 5
            - name: Commit
              run: |
                git config user.name github-actions
                git config user.email github-actions@github.com
                git add .
                git commit -m "update articles"
                git push origin main

Step 5: Commit your change, then Github actions will run as your specified cron to update Articles into your README.md file

Source Code

See the source code and an example here: https://github.com/huantt/article-listing

Reference

https://docs.github.com/en/account-and-profile/setting-up-and-managing-your-github-profile/customizing-your-profile/managing-your-profile-readme

Top comments (23)

ruthmoog • Sep 14 '23

Really cool using jobs for updating the articles. 👍

Barry Michael Doyle • Sep 21 '23 • Edited

Awesome article!

It's probably worth noting for those who don't know, the update-articles.yml is a cron job that is set to run everyday 0:15 AM. So don't expect your GitHub profile to be updated immediately... You can obviously tweak that at the start to just check that it is working sooner rather than waiting overnight ;)

Sebastian Wessel • Sep 14 '23

Thanks for this!
I added it, and it works as you can see here on my profile

Kumar Kalyan • Sep 14 '23

Great article definitely gonna try this out

Barry Michael Doyle • Sep 23 '23

Just incase this catches anyone else out...

If your main branch is called 'master' instead of 'main', be sure to update that in the cron job, that caught me out :P

JackTT • Sep 23 '23

Thank you.

Tanushree Aggarwal • Sep 14 '23

Nice stuff! will definitely try this out!

tharos70 • Sep 18 '23

Thanks a lot! It looks like something I was looking for!

Je Phiri • Sep 15 '23

Great

Yeom suyun • Sep 17 '23

I think it would be really cool to use GitHub Actions to update the README in real time, even for library code.
However, I'm not a fan of dev.to's default thumbnails, so I think it would be essential to include an image if I'm going to connect dev.to posts to my GitHub profile.