GitHub Actions: A Beginner's Guide

🚀 GitHub Actions for Beginners

GitHub Actions is a handy tool for automating tasks in your GitHub projects. 🛠️ It helps you create workflows with simple YAML files. 📄 These workflows run tasks like building, testing, and deploying code.

You can set triggers to start these tasks. For example, they can run when you push code or create a pull request. This automation saves you time and reduces errors. ✅ It also keeps your code consistent and reliable. 🌍

⚠️ Challenges Without GitHub Actions

• 👥 Inconsistent Code Quality: When many people work together, keeping everyone on the same page with coding standards can be hard. Some might forget formatting rules, making the code look messy.
• ⏳ Time-Consuming Manual Checks: Checking code by hand takes a lot of time and slows everything down. Plus, it’s easy to miss mistakes when doing things over and over.
• 🔄 Difficulty in Testing Across Multiple Languages: Different programming languages often have their own testing tools. This can create headaches when trying to merge code from different sources.

🌟 How GitHub Actions Can Help

Using GitHub Actions can solve these problems effectively:

• 🌐 Consistent Code Quality: GitHub Actions automatically checks coding styles and rules for every pull request, making sure everything meets the standards before merging.
• 🚀 Automated Testing: Set up workflows to run tests automatically whenever code is updated. This helps catch any issues early, saving you time and effort later.
• 📦 Unified Workflows Across Languages: You can create specific workflows for each programming language in the same repository. This keeps everything organized and makes teamwork easier.

📈 Examples of Open-Source Projects using CI/CD

Below are two of the most popular projects that effectively utilize GitHub Actions for continuous integration and delivery.

🚀 Node.js: Continuous Testing

• ✨ Overview: Node.js runs automated tests for each pull request using GitHub Actions. This checks that new contributions don’t break existing functionality.
• 🛡️ Impact: Developers can merge code confidently, knowing that the automated tests ensure high code quality.

🎉 Django: Cross-Version Compatibility

• 📚 Overview: Django employs GitHub Actions to execute its test suite on multiple Python versions for every code push.
• ✅ Impact: This guarantees that all contributions work seamlessly across supported environments, reducing bugs and increasing reliability.

🌟 Key Advantages of CI/CD in Open Source

🎯 Faster Releases: Continuous integration and delivery allow for rapid iterations and quicker deployments.

💪 Increased Reliability: Automated tests catch bugs early, resulting in fewer issues for users.

🔄 Streamlined Collaboration: Multiple contributors can work simultaneously without the fear of breaking the codebase.

🌟 Understanding The Automation Framework

Let’s dive into the framework itself. Below is a simple repository structure needed to trigger an action.

🗂️ Complete Repository Structure

🗂️ your-repo/
├── .github/
│   └──workflows/
│      └──main.yml
└── src/
    └──main.py

Below shows simple yaml file for example.

name: CI

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Run tests
        run: python -m unittest discover

For further details on YAML syntax, you can refer to the YAML documentation.

⚙️ Understanding the Workflow

📝 Workflow Name

• Description: This defines the workflow as “CI” (Continuous Integration). It helps in automating the testing and integration of code changes to ensure stability.

🔄 Trigger Events

• Details: The workflow runs on two key events:
  • push: Activates when new code is pushed to the repository.
  • pull_request: Activates when a pull request is opened or updated, allowing for early feedback on code changes.

🛠️ Job Definition

• Build Job: This job runs on the latest Ubuntu environment. It provides a consistent and up-to-date platform for testing.

🏗️ Steps in the Job

1. Checkout Code:

   • Function: Uses actions/checkout@v2 to access the repository’s files.
   • Example: Allows the workflow to work with the latest code changes before executing tests.

2. Run Tests:

   • Function: Executes unit tests using the command python -m unittest discover.
   • Importance: Ensures that any new code changes do not break existing functionality, maintaining high code quality.

🚀 Benefits

• Automating these processes helps teams identify issues early, promotes collaboration, and ensures consistent code quality across contributions.

Here is the pictorial representation

graph TD;
    A([🚀 Workflow: CI]):::workflow --> B((🎯 Trigger Events)):::trigger
    B --> C([🔄 Events: Push & Pull Request]):::event
    C --> D([🛠 Job: Build on Ubuntu]):::job
    D --> E((📋 Steps)):::steps
    E --> F([📂 Checkout Code]):::checkout
    F --> G([🧪 Run Tests]):::tests

    classDef workflow fill:#f39c12,stroke:#e67e22,stroke-width:3px,stroke-dasharray:5;
    classDef trigger fill:#3498db,stroke:#2980b9,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef event fill:#e74c3c,stroke:#c0392b,stroke-width:2px,stroke-dasharray:3;
    classDef job fill:#27ae60,stroke:#16a085,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef steps fill:#8e44ad,stroke:#6c3483,stroke-width:3px;
    classDef checkout fill:#f1c40f,stroke:#d4ac0d,stroke-width:2px;
    classDef tests fill:#9b59b6,stroke:#8e44ad,stroke-width:2px;

🚀 Practical Section: Let’s Get Our Hands Dirty

1. Open your terminal.

2. Clone an empty GitHub repository or create a new folder:

   git clone https://github.com/yourusername/your-repo.git
   cd your-repo
   # or create a new folder
   mkdir your-repo
   cd your-repo
   

3. Create the folder structure:.

    mkdir -p .github/workflows src
   

4. Create the main.yml workflow file::.

   vi .github/workflows/main.yml
   

   Add the following content:

   name: CI
   
    on: [push, pull_request]
   
    jobs:
      build:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
   
        steps:
          - name: Checkout code
            uses: actions/checkout@v2
   
          - name: Run script
            run: python src/main.py
   
   

   Save and exit. 📝

5. Create a simple Python script main.py:

   vi src/main.py
   

   Add the following content:

   def add(a, b):
    return a + b
   
   result = add(3, 4)
   print(f"The result of adding 3 and 4 is: {result}")
   

   Save and exit. 🐍

6. Create the verify.py script:

   vi src/verify.py
   

   and paste the below content in it.

     from main import add
   
     print("Verifying the add function...")
     expected = 7
     actual = add(3, 4)
   
     if actual == expected:
       print("Test passed! 🎉")
     else:
       print("Test failed! ❌")
   

   Save and exit. 💾

7. Stage and Commit and push Your Changes:

   git add .
   git commit -m "Initial commit with workflow and Python files"
   git push origin main
   

8. Where to Look for Actions Running:

   • Go to your GitHub repository page.

   • Click on the “Actions” tab.

   • This will show the status of your workflows triggered by the push! 📊

🔗 Useful Resources for Your CI/CD Journey

1. 📚 GitHub Actions Documentation:
   A comprehensive guide to setting up and mastering GitHub Actions 🚀, including workflows, triggers, and more.

2. 📝 YAML Syntax:
   A resource to help you write structured .yml files for your workflows with ease.

3. 🔄 GitHub Actions: Checkout:
   Learn how to use the actions/checkout to access your repo’s code in workflows.
4. 💡 Git Commands Cheat Sheet:
   A quick and handy reference for essential Git commands.

🔥 Recap of Our CI/CD Journey

We walked through the process of setting up GitHub Actions from scratch, explored key elements like workflow triggers, jobs, and steps, and even got our hands dirty by creating a simple Python verification script. We also pushed changes to GitHub and learned where to check the status of actions.

🎯 Final Thoughts

Embracing CI/CD streamlines your workflow, ensuring quality code and faster releases. 🚀 Now it’s your turn to implement this in your projects!

🗨️ What did you think?

Let us know in the comments below! ⬇️