How To Test A GitHub Action

My Workflow

The project unfor19/hero-action is an All-In-One action to a test GitHub Action.

Submission Categories

1. Maintainer Must-Haves
2. Wacky Wildcards - I'm adding this one because it's a "hacky" way of using GitHub Actions to test an action (feels like a recursion)

Yaml File or Link to Code

unfor19 / hero-action

All-in-one action to develop and maintain GitHub Actions.

hero-action

An All-In-One action to test a GitHub Action.

Tested in unfor19/hero-action-test

Usage

1. Generate a new Personal Access Token with the scope: repo + workflow. Keep this token in a safe place we'll use it later on.
2. Add the following workflow .github/workflows/testing.yml to your action's repository, e.g. hero-action

   name: testing
   on:
     push:
       branches: [master]
       paths-ignore:
         - "README.md"
     workflow_dispatch:
   
   jobs:
     dispatch_test_action:
       name: Dispatch Test Action
       runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
       steps:
         - uses: actions/checkout@v2
         - name: Workflow Dispatch Status
           uses: unfor19/hero-action@v1.0.2
           with:
             action: "dispatch-status"
             src_repository: ${{ github.repository }}
             src_workflow_name: ${{ github.workflow }}
             src_sha: ${{ github.sha }}
             target_repository: ${{ github.repository }}-test
             target_workflow_name: "test-action.yml"
             gh_token: ${{ secrets.GH_TOKEN }} # scope: repo + workflow
3. Create a new GitHub repository to test your action, e.g. hero-action-test, add…

View on GitHub

1. The action repository, my-repo, triggers a workflow in the test repository, my-repo-test. Meanwhile, the my-repo is "stuck" with the commit status pending.
2. The repository my-repo-test tests the action by using it, see unfor19/hero-action-test
3. Upon success/failure, the test action my-repo-test creates a commit status in the action's repository, this updates the status of the pending workflow with success or failure

Additional Resources / Info

• Using this action in:
  1. unfor19/replacer-action
  2. unfor19/install-aws-cli-action

Comments

[WanBeige1]

Great article. I'm a beginner and like this developer very much. Where can I learn the most basic development courses?

[Meir Gabay]

Thank you!
What's purpose? The "development course" should be picked according to your goals/needs