Update your dev.to articles into your Github profile

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 [e-mail]
                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

Comments

[Mohammad Jawad (Kasir) Barati]

Just a small feedback, there are those of us who have a README.md already and just want to append this at the end of existing README.md file. It is good to mention that in your article somewhere 🙂.

[Barry Michael Doyle]

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]

Thank you.

[Barry Michael Doyle]

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 ;)

[Abdikhaliq Mohamoud]

Can it work with Substack?

[JackTT]

I've written an ArticleService interface that you can implement for data sources. If Substack has an API, I will do it for you.

[tharos70]

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

[Yeom suyun]

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.

[JackTT]

You can do it by placing your image in data/images/default-thumbnail.png

[Godot]

It is giving me this error.

Error: .github#L1
No event triggers defined in on

What might've caused it?

[JackTT]

Could you share your repo?

[Godot]

This is the profile
This is the profile repository for the Readme

[JackTT]

Please update this block:

on:
 schedule:
  - cron: '15 0 * * *'

[Je Phiri]

Great

[Godot]

The cron will run once every day right? Also would this work on Github organization page? ie. something like this.

[JackTT]

Regarding cron, you can define it as needed, such as every 6 hours, every 1 hour, or even every 5 minutes.
As for a GitHub organization page, I think it's the same as a personal page.

[Kumar Kalyan]

Great article definitely gonna try this out