Introducing Automated Testing with GitHub Actions: A Quick Guide

In collaborative coding, code quality is paramount.

Discover the power of GitHub Actions for seamless automated testing on each pull request. This concise guide equips developers with the technical know-how to effortlessly integrate and receive quick feedback on their code changes.

Concepts

• Desired prior knowledge: YAML, Git versioning

What are GitHub actions?

GitHub Actions is a powerful automation feature integrated into the GitHub platform, enabling developers to define custom workflows directly within their repositories.

Why use GitHub actions?

GitHub Actions facilitates a streamlined and customizable continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) process, automating repetitive tasks and enhancing collaboration among the development team.

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Implementing GitHub Actions

Let’s say you’re working on a React project and use Jest to test your App. Now, you want to implement GitHub Actions to automatically run tests when a Pull Request (PR) is created. In this use case, you would create a workflow in your repository’s YAML file. This workflow would trigger each time a PR is opened, executing tests to ensure the integrity of the proposed code.

The YAML file looks like this:

name: Running Test...
on:
   pull_request:
     branches: [develop]
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      with:
        fetch-depth: 0
    - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        node-version: 18
    - name: Install dependencies
      run: npm install
    - name: Run Tests
      run: npm run test

• Note: Put this file in the right folder (.github/workflows) to allow GitHub access to your workflow.

Understanding the YAML file:

• Name the workflow and specify the event/branches that trigger it.

name: Running Test...
on:
   pull_request:
     branches: [develop]

• A job named ‘test’ is defined in the list, which runs on Ubuntu.

jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

• Check out your repository’s code and ensure that the full commit history is fetched.

- uses: actions/checkout@v3
  with:
    fetch-depth: 0

• Set up the Node.js environment and specify the version to use (in this case, version 18).

- uses: actions/setup-node@v3
  with:
    node-version: 18

• Install the project dependencies using NPM package manager.

- name: Install dependencies
  run: npm install

• Execute the command to run your tests.

- name: Run Tests
  run: npm run test

Finally

You can dive into this by reading the official documentation

In short, GitHub Actions is a powerful tool for automating workflows within a GitHub repository. It enhances development efficiency, boosts code quality, and fosters collaboration among team members.

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