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GitHub Action

project beta automations

v1.2.1-rc.1 Pre-release

project beta automations

terminal

project beta automations

GitHub ProjectV2/Project-Beta automation. It supports management of status and custom fields

Installation

Copy and paste the following snippet into your .yml file.

 
              
- name: project beta automations

              
  uses: leonsteinhaeuser/project-beta-automations@v1.2.1-rc.1
Learn more about this action in leonsteinhaeuser/project-beta-automations

Choose a version

project-beta-automations

latest release release date commits since release open: bugs open: feature requests issues closed license

This repository provides the ability to automate GitHub issues and pull requests for Github Projects (Beta). To do this, it automates the Status and user-defined fields to put issues and pull requests into the desired status, and therefore the desired column in the Board view. If the issue or pull request does not already exist in the project, it will be added.

Note: GITHUB_TOKEN does not have the necessary scopes to access projects (beta). You must create a token with org:write scope and save it as a secret in your repository or organization. For more information, see Creating a personal access token.

⚠️ The GitHub API change of 2022-02-23 results in an error message requiring an upgrade to a new version.

What is the problem?

As of 2022-02-23 , the GitHub API requires that the value of a single select/iteration field be a string instead of an ID!

This causes the automation to throw an error message.

https://github.blog/changelog/2022-02-23-the-new-github-issues-february-23rd-update/

Project board

Since the issues and pull requests from this repository are also managed by this automation, you can take an example from the public project board to see what it looks like.

Project board.

Variables

Variable Required Description
gh_token false The GitHub token to use for the automation. For App instructions refer to GH App Auth. (gh_token or gh_app_* must be defined)
gh_app_ID false The GitHub App ID used for App authentication. For App instructions refer to GH App Auth. (gh_token or gh_app_* must be defined)
gh_app_installation_ID false The Github App installation ID binding the App to the target org. For App instructions refer to GH App Auth. (gh_token or gh_app_* must be defined)
gh_app_secret_key false The Github App Secret key used to sign App JWT tokens. For App instructions refer to GH App Auth. (gh_token or gh_app_* must be defined)
user false The GitHub username that owns the projectboard. Either a user or an organization must be specified.
organization false The GitHub organization that owns the projectboard. Either a user or an organization must be specified.
project_id true The projectboard id.
resource_node_id true The id of the resource node.
status_value false The status value to set. Must be one of the values defined in your project board Status field settings. If left unspecified, new items are added without an explicit status, and existing items are left alone.
operation_mode false The operation mode to use. Must be one of custom_field, status. Defaults to: status
custom_field_values false Provides the possibility to change custom fields. To be applied the operation_mode must be set to custom_field. For the json definition refer to JSON-Definition

Getting started

The following example assumes that you have a project board with the following columns:

  • Todo
  • In Progress
  • Done

Before we start to automate the project board, we need to decide whether we want to manage the Status field using this action or the workflow definition of the project board. Keep in mind that until now there is no way to automatically add issues or pull requests to the project board using the provided workflow functionality by GitHub. The next example assumes that you decided to use this action to manage the Status field.

Current Status Target Status Event name GitHub event Description
any Todo issues github.event.action == 'opened', github.event.action == 'reopened' Define an automation that moves an issue to the Todo column.
any In Progress pull_request github.event.action == 'opened', github.event.action == 'reopened', github.event.action == 'review_requested' Define an automation that moves a pull request to the In Progress column.
any Closed issues, pull_request github.event.action == 'closed' Define an automation that moves an issue or pull request to the Done column.

The resulting workflow file is defined as follows:

name: Project automations
on:
  issues:
    types:
      - opened
      - reopened
      - closed
  pull_request:
    types:
      - opened
      - reopened
      - review_requested
      - closed

# map fields with customized labels
env:
  todo: Todo ✏️
  done: Done ✅
  in_progress: In Progress 🚧

jobs:
  issue_opened_or_reopened:
    name: issue_opened_or_reopened
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'issues' && (github.event.action == 'opened' || github.event.action == 'reopened')
    steps:
      - name: Move issue to ${{ env.todo }}
        uses: leonsteinhaeuser/project-beta-automations@v1.2.0
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
          user: sample-user
          # organization: sample-org
          project_id: 1
          resource_node_id: ${{ github.event.issue.node_id }}
          status_value: ${{ env.todo }} # Target status
  issue_closed:
    name: issue_closed
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'issues' && github.event.action == 'closed'
    steps:
      - name: Moved issue to ${{ env.done }}
        uses: leonsteinhaeuser/project-beta-automations@v1.2.0
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
          user: sample-user
          # organization: sample-org
          project_id: 1
          resource_node_id: ${{ github.event.issue.node_id }}
          status_value: ${{ env.done }} # Target status
  pr_opened_or_reopened_or_reviewrequested:
    name: pr_opened_or_reopened_or_reviewrequested
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request' && (github.event.action == 'opened' || github.event.action == 'reopened' || github.event.action == 'review_requested')
    steps:
      - name: Move PR to ${{ env.in_progress }}
        uses: leonsteinhaeuser/project-beta-automations@v1.2.0
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
          user: sample-user
          # organization: sample-org
          project_id: 1
          resource_node_id: ${{ github.event.pull_request.node_id }}
          status_value: ${{ env.in_progress }} # Target status
  pr_closed:
    name: pr_closed
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request' && github.event.action == 'closed'
    steps:
      - name: Move PR to ${{ env.done }}
        uses: leonsteinhaeuser/project-beta-automations@v1.2.0
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
          user: sample-user
          # organization: sample-org
          project_id: 1
          resource_node_id: ${{ github.event.pull_request.node_id }}
          status_value: ${{ env.done }} # Target status

GH App Auth

To leverage the App authentication with this action the following steps are needed:

  • Create a GitHub App under your user or organisation as described in the GitHub documentation, note the App ID
  • Set the needed GitHub App permissions in order for the newly create App to access and manage Org Project, as described in the GitHub documentation. The minimum required permissions are:
    • Repo: Actions: RW
    • Repo: Checks: RO
    • Repo: Contents: RO
    • Repo: Environments: RO
    • Repo: Metadata: RO
    • Repo: PR: RW
    • Repo: Commit statuses: RO
    • Org: Members: RO
    • Org: Projects: RW
  • Create a private key to authenticate the newly created GitHub App as described in the GitHub documentation, treat the downloaded key as sensitive material, store it in a GitHub secret accessible by this action.
  • Install the app in the target organisation, note the installation ID
  • Configure this action with
    • gh_app_secret_key containing the aforementioned private key
    • gh_app_ID containing the app ID, auto-generated by GitHub in the first step
    • gh_app_installation_ID containing the installation ID, auto-generated by GitHub in the previous step. Binging the App to the Org

JSON-Definition

A single json object is defined as follows:

{
  "name": "Sample Text Field", # defines the name of the custom field
  "type": "text", # can be one of: text, number, date, single_select, iteration
  "value": "High" # defines the value to set (string)
}

The json definition that must be passed to the custom_field_values argument looks like:

[
  {
    "name": "Priority",
    "type": "single_select",
    "value": "High"
  }
  {
    "name": "Context",
    "type": "text",
    "value": "Just a random text"
  }
]

A detailed example can be found inside the test.sh file. Note that json definition must be enclosed in an array and escaped with double quotes and backslashes.

Example:

'[{\"name\": \"Priority\",\"type\": \"text\",\"value\": \"uuid1\"},{\"name\": \"Number\",\"type\": \"number\",\"value\": \"100\"},{\"name\": \"Date\",\"type\": \"date\",\"value\": \"2022-01-28T20:02:27.306+01:00\"},{\"name\": \"Single Select\",\"type\": \"single_select\",\"value\": \"Option 1\"},{\"name\": \"Iteration\",\"type\": \"iteration\",\"value\": \"Iteration 1\"}]'

The following example assumes that your project has the following fields defined:

  • Priority: As text field
  • Number: As number field
  • Date: As date field
  • Single Select: As single_select field with options:
    • Option 1
    • Option 2
    • Option 3
  • Iteration: As iteration field with iterations:
    • Iteration 1
    • Iteration 2
    • Iteration 3
name: Project automations (organization)

on:
  issues:
  pull_request:

env:
  gh_project_token: ${{ secrets.PAC_TOKEN }}
  project_id: 1
  gh_organization: sample-org
  status_todo: "Todo"
  status_in_progress: "In Progress"
  custom_field_values: '[{\"name\": \"Priority\",\"type\": \"text\",\"value\": \"uuid1\"},{\"name\": \"Number\",\"type\": \"number\",\"value\": \"100\"},{\"name\": \"Date\",\"type\": \"date\",\"value\": \"2022-01-28T20:02:27.306+01:00\"},{\"name\": \"Single Select\",\"type\": \"single_select\",\"value\": \"Option 1\"},{\"name\": \"Iteration\",\"type\": \"iteration\",\"value\": \"Iteration 1\"}]'

jobs:
  issue_opened_or_reopened:
    name: issue_opened_or_reopened
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'issues' && (github.event.action == 'opened' || github.event.action == 'reopened')
    steps:
      - name: 'Move issue to ${{ env.status_todo }}'
        uses: leonsteinhaeuser/project-beta-automations@v1.2.0
        env:
          DEBUG_LOG: "true"
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ env.gh_project_token }}
          organization: ${{ env.gh_organization }}
          project_id: ${{ env.project_id }}
          resource_node_id: ${{ github.event.issue.node_id }}
          status_value: ${{ env.status_todo }}

  issue_project_custom_field_update:
    name: issue_opened_or_reopened
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'issues'
    needs:
      - issue_opened_or_reopened
    steps:
      - name: 'Modify custom fields'
        uses: leonsteinhaeuser/project-beta-automations@v1.2.0
        env:
          DEBUG_LOG: "true"
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ env.gh_project_token }}
          organization: ${{ env.gh_organization }}
          project_id: ${{ env.project_id }}
          resource_node_id: ${{ github.event.issue.node_id }}
          operation_mode: custom_field
          custom_field_values: ${{ env.custom_field_values }}

  pr_opened_or_reopened:
    name: pr_opened_or_reopened
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request' && (github.event.action == 'opened' || github.event.action == 'reopened')
    steps:
      - name: 'Move PR to ${{ env.status_in_progress }}'
        uses: leonsteinhaeuser/project-beta-automations@v1.2.0
        env:
          DEBUG_LOG: "true"
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ env.gh_project_token }}
          organization: ${{ env.gh_organization }}
          project_id: ${{ env.project_id }}
          resource_node_id: ${{ github.event.pull_request.node_id }}
          status_value: ${{ env.status_in_progress }}

  pr_custom_field_update_1:
    name: pr_custom_field_update_1 from env
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'pull_request'
    needs:
      - pr_opened_or_reopened
    steps:
      - name: 'Modify custom fields'
        uses: leonsteinhaeuser/project-beta-automations@v1.2.0
        env:
          DEBUG_LOG: "true"
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ env.gh_project_token }}
          organization: ${{ env.gh_organization }}
          project_id: ${{ env.project_id }}
          resource_node_id: ${{ github.event.pull_request.node_id }}
          operation_mode: custom_field
          custom_field_values: ${{ env.custom_field_values }}

Detailed example

Since this repository is also covered by this automation, you can take a look at the definition within the project-automation.yml file to check how it is defined here.

Debugging

Since debugging is key when tracing a bug, we decided to provide a two step debugging process. To enable the different debugging outputs, you can set the following environment variables:

Variable Option Default behaviour Description
DEBUG_COMMANDS true Do nothing Enables the stacktrace for command executions.
DEBUG_LOG true Do nothing Prints out the responses produced by the commands.

Example workflow definition:

env:
  todo: Todo ✏️
  gh_project_token: ${{ secrets.PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
  user: sample-user
  project_id: 1

jobs:
  issue_opened:
    name: issue_opened
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    if: github.event_name == 'issues' && github.event.action == 'opened'
    steps:
      - name: Move issue to ${{ env.todo }}
        uses: leonsteinhaeuser/project-beta-automations@v1.2.0
        env:
          DEBUG_COMMANDS: true
          DEBUG_LOG: true
        with:
          gh_token: ${{ env.gh_project_token }}
          user: ${{ env.user }}
          # organization: sample-org
          project_id: ${{ env.project_id }}
          resource_node_id: ${{ github.event.issue.node_id }}
          status_value: ${{ env.todo }}