{"id":9305,"date":"2024-05-31T14:19:46","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T12:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webdeasy.de\/?p=9305"},"modified":"2024-11-05T17:07:57","modified_gmt":"2024-11-05T16:07:57","slug":"github-actions-tutorial-en","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webdeasy.de\/en\/github-actions-tutorial-en\/","title":{"rendered":"GitHub Actions: Tutorial for beginners – basics & examples"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In this tutorial, I want to introduce you to GitHub Actions and show you how you can use GitHub Actions to create CI\/CD pipelines to automate boring, repetitive tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

GitHub Actions is a versatile tool that developers can use to organise their software development processes more efficiently. You can mainly use GitHub Actions as a CI\/CD pipeline (CI = Continuous Integration, CD = Continuous Delivery) and is therefore comparable with Jenkins<\/a>, CircleCI<\/a> or Azure DevOps<\/a>, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I myself actually use GitHub Actions in every repo that I have created in GitHub. For example, to deploy changes in this blog or as a complete CI\/CD pipeline<\/a> for my JavaScript Challenge platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

Table of Contents<\/span>\u2212<\/span><\/div>
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What is GitHub Actions?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

GitHub Actions is a powerful automation tool that is directly integrated into GitHub and enables developers to create automated workflows for their software development projects. GitHub Actions can be used to set up CI\/CD pipelines, run tests, analyse code and much more. It offers a flexible and customisable way to automate development processes by combining different actions and workflows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be more precise, you can actually do anything you can think of: Execute unit tests, deploy to a VM<\/a>, deploy to a Kubernetes cluster, create\/build apps, deploy to various services of all common cloud providers, code security scans, etc. This list can be extended almost endlessly \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do the terms CI\/CD (pipeline, tools) and DevOps actually mean?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A workflow in GitHub Actions consists of one or more actions that are executed as steps in a defined sequence. These workflows are defined in YAML files and saved in the .github\/workflows<\/code> directory of the repository.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"GitHub
GitHub Actions – CD-Pipeline of webdeasy.de<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The screenshot is the result of executing the GitHub Actions Workflow of this blog, whereby changes in the repository are automatically rolled out on the production server. If an error occurs, a rollback to the last stable version is performed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And what does the fun cost me?<\/strong> Nothing<\/span>! GitHub provides the service for public repos completely free of charge and there is also a generous free quota<\/a> for private repositories, which lasts for quite a while and resets every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creating a GitHub Actions Workflow<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To create a new GitHub actions workflow, you can simply use the \u2018Actions\u2019 tab in your GitHub repo or alternatively create a YAML file in the path .github\/workflows<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"GitHub<\/a>
GitHub Actions Tab<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To understand how a workflow in GitHub Actions is structured, I have a very simple CI pipeline for you here, which I will explain step by step.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

name: CI Pipeline\n\non: [push]\n\njobs:\n  build:\n\n    runs-on: ubuntu-latest\n\n    steps:\n    - name: Check out repository\n      uses: actions\/checkout@v2\n\n    - name: Set up Node.js\n      uses: actions\/setup-node@v2\n      with:\n        node-version: '20'\n\n    - name: Install dependencies\n      run: npm install\n\n    - name: Run tests\n      run: npm test\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
What exactly happens here? The pipeline is triggered every time a push is executed in the repository. You can find out more about triggers and events later in this GitHub Actions tutorial. Let’s go through the steps one by one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Check out repository<\/strong>: This step checks out the code in the repository.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Set up Node.js<\/strong>: Deploys Node.js<\/a> version 20 in the current environment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Install dependencies<\/strong>: Executes the npm install<\/code> command to install the project dependencies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Run tests<\/strong>: Executes the npm test<\/code> command to run the tests of the project.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    This example shows you the basic structure of a pipeline. You can execute any number of steps and jobs per GitHub Actions workflow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Triggers & Events<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    GitHub Actions provides a flexible way to execute workflows based on various triggers and events. These triggers determine when a workflow is started and can respond to a variety of GitHub events, such as code changes, issues and schedules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Code changes\/new commits on a specific branch:<\/strong>
    This workflow is only executed when a commit is pushed to the develop<\/code> branch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    on:\n  push:\n    branches:\n      - develop<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    Tags that correspond to a specific pattern:<\/strong>
    Here, the workflow is only started if a tag beginning with release-<\/code> (e.g. release-1.0.0<\/code>) is pushed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    on:\n  push:\n    tags:\n      - 'release-*'<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    Regular execution:<\/strong>
    This workflow is executed every Monday at 12 noon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    on:\n  schedule:\n    - cron: '0 12 * * 1'<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    It is also very useful to carry out tests and linting, for example, before a pull request can be confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    \"GitHub<\/a>
    GitHub Pull Request: Executing a workflow<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    GitHub Marketplace<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
    You don’t have to programme all actions yourself. That’s why the GitHub Marketplace<\/a> is a central point of contact for predefined actions that you can integrate into your workflows to speed up and simplify the development process. Here you will find a variety of actions created by the community and GitHub itself to automate common tasks such as testing, code analysis and much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Suppose you want to use an action that automatically checks your code for formatting errors. A popular action for this purpose is the Prettier action, which formats the code with Prettier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Here is an example of how you can integrate this action into your workflow:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    name: Format Code\n\non: [push, pull_request]\n\njobs:\n  format:\n\n    runs-on: ubuntu-latest\n\n    steps:\n    - name: Check out repository\n      uses: actions\/checkout@v2\n\n    - name: Run Prettier\n      uses: creyD\/prettier_action@v3.3\n      with:\n        prettier_options: --write **\/*.js\n<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
    This workflow is executed for every push and pull request and checks whether the JavaScript code is formatted correctly. The prettier_action<\/code> is integrated from the GitHub Marketplace and configured with the desired options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Using the GitHub Marketplace offers considerable advantages, such as time savings, as you have immediate access to numerous ready-made actions without having to develop your own solutions. In addition, the regular maintenance and updating of the actions ensures high quality and security. Thanks to the support of the GitHub community, you benefit from constantly improved and new actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
    Other useful actions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n