How to Set Dynamic Release URLs in Environment with GitHub Actions

#githubactions #cicd

Introduction

This article explains how to dynamically set a release URL in an Environment using GitHub Actions.

Background

GitHub Actions has a feature for defining environments called Environment.
Using environments for deployment - GitHub

For example, by setting up environments like the following, it's possible to switch the release destination. (You can set any name you want.)

Production environment
Staging environment
Testing environment
Development environment

Among these, there is a function to display the URL of the release destination after releasing.

If there's only one fixed environment, it's not a problem. However, if the URL is determined dynamically during the release steps, it was unclear how to display it, so I'm documenting the method here.

If it's a single environment, you can set the URL as follows.



environment:

    name: production

    url: https://example.com

How To

The method is simple: save the value in an output during the step when the URL is confirmed, and then set that output as the environment's URL.

Here is a sample Yaml. You need to assign a reference ID to the step. The format for referencing the output is steps.[step_id].outputs.[output_name].



environment:

    name: development

    url: ${{ steps.get_release_url.outputs.release_url }}

steps:

    - name: Set release url

      id: get_release_url

      run: echo release_url=https://xxx.example.com >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT

Conclusion

The method to dynamically set the URL of a release in GitHub Actions' Environment is to save a value in the output during the release step, and then set that output name as the URL in the environment.