Release Workflows

Release Workflows automate the process of creating releases based on the CHANGELOG.md file in the project.

How it works.

The release workflow is triggered when changes are pushed to the main branch and there are updates in the CHANELOG.md file. When a new release is initiated, the workflow executes the following steps:

1. It parses the CHANGELOG.md file to extract the release notes and identifies the most recent version of the release.
2. Next, it checks if a tag for the latest version already exists. If a tag is found, the subsequent workflows are halted to avoid duplication.
3. If there is no existing tag for the latest version, a new branch is created from the main branch. The new branch is named as releases/<latest-release-version>.
4. Once the release branch is set up, the workflow publishes the release to the GitHub repository. The release is tagged with the corresponding version number.

Usage

1. Start by creating a CHANGELOG.md file to record the changes made in each release of your project.

2. Next, create a workflow YAML file in your project that will be triggered whenever a push is made to the main branch with changes in CHANGELOG.md file.

3. Your release.yaml workflow file should follow a structure similar to the one outlined below:

name: release project

on:
   push:
      branches:
         - main
      paths:
         - CHANGELOG.md
   workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
   release:
      uses: bosesuneha/action-release-workflows/.github/workflows/release_js_project.yaml@main
      with:
         changelogPath: ./CHANGELOG.md
   

The release project workflow can be triggered in two ways: automatically when changes are made to the CHANGELOG.md file and pushed to the main branch, or manually through the GitHub Actions UI.

The release job calls the reusable workflow in action-release-workflows and takes as input the path to the CHANELOG.md file.