Trigger CI Action

A container-based GitHub Action that triggers execution of a remote CI process. This can be used to chain CI builds that might exist in disperate repositories. The action essentially allows the build process in repository "A" to trigger a named CI process in repository "B".

The Trigger CI action supports the triggering the following remotes CI processes: -

• GitHub Workflow Dispatch (ci-type: github-workflow-dispatch)

Inputs

ci-type

Optional The type of remote CI process to trigger. At the moment we support the following types: -

• github-workflow-dispatch

ci-owner

Required The remote repository owner, i.e. informaticsmatters if the remote CI repository is informaticsmatters/squonk

ci-repository

Required The repository name, i.e. squonk if the remote CI repository is informaticsmatters/squonk

ci-ref

Optional The repository reference to trigger. It's the fully qualified remote reference, a branch or a tag. Default is refs/heads/main, but can be a branch, i.e. refs/heads/dev-branch or a tag, i.e. refs/tags/2021.3, or any valid reference.

For new-style GitHub repositories the default will be sufficient to trigger a build on the main branch (where the main branch is now called main). For older repositories you may have to use this input and set it to the old main name, e.g. refs/heads/master

ci-user

Required A user that can access the remote repository

ci-user-token

Required The repository user's access token

ci-name

Required The name of the remote CI process, for GitHub Workflow Dispatch types this will be the name assigned to the workflow you're running, which is the name defined in the workflow file, not the workflow file name.

ci-inputs

Optional The remote repository's build inputs or arguments. If used, it is used to set build arguments and values in remote CI processes that support this mechanism. For GitHub Workflow Dispatch types these will be used to set corresponding workflow inputs. The inputs are declared here using a space-separated set of names and values, i.e. target_input_1=xyx target_input_2=abc, where target_input_1 and target_input_2 are inputs declared in the remote workflow's workflow_dispatch configuration.

Do not put spaces around the input's '='. The action expects each key and value in the form =.

Example usage

In this first example we trigger the default type of workflow (a GitHub Workflow Dispatch workflow) on the branch dev-branch (refs/heads/dev-branch) of the repository informaticsmatters/squonk. The workflow name being executed is build main.

Every trigger needs a user (and user token) that can activate the remote CI process, illustrated here using secrets available to the triggering repository's workflow.

- name: Trigger squonk
  uses: informaticsmatters/trigger-ci-action@v1
  with:
    ci-owner: informaticsmatters
    ci-repository: squonk
    ci-ref: refs/heads/dev-branch
    ci-name: build main
    ci-user: ${{ secrets.SQUONK_USER }}
    ci-user-token: ${{ secrets.SQUONK_USER_TOKEN }}

If the remote CI process accepts inputs we can provide values for them using the action's ci-inputs property by providing a space-separated set of keys and values.

Here we provide values xyz and abc for the inputs target_input_1 and target_input_2: -

- name: Trigger squonk with inputs
  uses: informaticsmatters/trigger-ci-action@v1
  with:
    ci-owner: informaticsmatters
    ci-repository: squonk
    ci-name: build main
    ci-inputs: >-
      target_input_1=xyx
      target_input_2=abc
    ci-user: ${{ secrets.SQUONK_USER }}
    ci-user-token: ${{ secrets.SQUONK_USER_TOKEN }}

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