Trigger External Workflow Action

GitHub Action that triggers a Workflow from another repository using [repository_dispatch](https://docs.github.com/pt/free-pro-team@latest/actions/reference/events-that-trigger-workflows#repository_dispatch) event.

Usage

on: [push, workflow_dispatch]
jobs:
  trigger:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: "📦 Trigger Project Test"
    steps:
    - uses: passeidireto/trigger-external-workflow-action@main
      env:
        PAYLOAD_AUTHOR: ${{ github.author }}
        PAYLOAD_REVISION: "3"
      with:
        repository: my-org/my-repo
        event: doc_update
        github_pat: ${{ secrets.pat_with_access }}

Be sure your github_pat has workflow scope on the target repository.

Any env var you pass using the preffix PAYLOAD_ will be sent to the repository as the client_payload object. For instance, if you have previous example triggered, you could have the following workflow on my-org/my-repo:

name: Repository Dispatch
on:
  repository_dispatch:
    types: [doc_update]
jobs:
  update-docs:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: echo '${{ github.event.client_payload.AUTHOR }} sent this revision: ${{ github.event.client_payload.REVISION }}'

Make sure all your PAYLOAD variables are strings. GHA does not allow different types, such as booleans and integers. Also aware that the PAYLOAD_ preffix is removed before the payload is sent. You can also use this action with matrix strategy, such as:

on: [push, workflow_dispatch]
name: 'Trigger new update'
jobs:
  trigger:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    name: "Notify about update"
    strategy:
      matrix:
        repo: ['repo01', 'repo02']
    steps:
    - uses: passeidireto/trigger-external-workflow-action@main
      env:
        PAYLOAD_REBUILD: "false"
        PAYLOAD_BRANCH: ${{github.ref}}
      with:
        repository: PasseiDireto/${{ matrix.repo }}
        event: update
        github_pat: ${{ secrets.my_super_pat }}

Contributing

PRs welcome! This action is a Docker container, so it is very easy run it locally. Be sure you have all the required inputs represented as envrionment variables. For instance you will need a INPUT_GITHUB_PAT to represent the input github_pat the action will actually pass. Note the INPUT_ preffix and the camel case representation.

Development guide

Be sure you have Python 3.9, otherwise Make won't run as it should. An easy solution is to run make commands inside a Docker container.

Clone the repository using Git:

git clone [email protected]:PasseiDireto/trigger-external-workflow-action.git

You can build the image as:

docker build -t trigger-external-workflow-action .

Have an env file ready with all the variables you need, such as:

INPUT_REPOSITORY=my-org/my-repo
INPUT_EVENT=new_event
INPUT_GITHUB_PAT=my-gh-pat
PAYLOAD_AUTHOR=the-author
PAYLOAD_VAR2=123

You can name it .env and then run it the freshly built image:

docker run --rm --env-file=.env trigger-external-workflow-action

Before you commit

Be sure all the tests and all the checks are passing:

pip install -r requirements/all.txt
make # run all checks
make tests # run all tests

Similar actions

This project is somehow close to this one, with a main difference on the payload strategy.