Overview
When manually running a GitHub Action with configured choice parameters, it’s ideal to have the values dynamically generated and displayed in a drop-down menu. This can be accomplished by creating a GitHub Action that updates the parameters in the YAML file of the main action whenever changes are pushed.
GitHub Action to Update YAML File
Here is a GitHub Action designed to populate the option values:
on:
push:
branches:
– ‘main’
jobs:
eslint:
name: Populate Option Values
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
– name: Check out Code
uses: actions/checkout@v2
with:
token: ${{ secrets.GH_TOKEN }}
– name: Run Populator
run: ./scripts/populate-option-value.sh
– name: Commit Changes
run: |
if git diff –quiet; then
echo “ℹ️ No new Component names to update”
else
git config –global user.email “${{ github.actor }}@email.com }}”
git config –global user.name “${{ github.actor }}”
git status
git add .github/workflows/release-it.yml
git commit -m “✅ Populated option values”
git push
fi
Note: You’ll need to create a GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT) with push permissions, as the default GitHub PAT does not allow changes to be pushed from the GitHub Action. This should be configured as a secret in your repository.
Populator Script
A script is used to read the current parameter values, compare them to the dynamic values, and update the YAML file if they differ:
Note: here I use yq to manipulate YAML. Further you need to allow GH Action to run the script otherwise you will get Permision Denied error when run Action.
git update-index –chmod=+x your_script.sh
SCRIPT_DIR=$( cd — “$( dirname — “${BASH_SOURCE[0]}“ )“ &> /dev/null && pwd )
SOURCE_YAML_FILE=“$SCRIPT_DIR/../.github/workflows/target-action.yml”
# dynamically generate values.
# ex. could read repository or file to get values
OPTIONS=(major minor patch prerelease)
current_options=$(yq eval ‘.on.workflow_dispatch.inputs.version.options’ $SOURCE_YAML_FILE )
current_options_array=()
while read -r word; do
current_options_array+=(“$word“)
done <<< “$current_options“
declare -a output_array=()
for i in $OPTIONS; do
output_array+=(“$i“)
done
# Check if the values in the arrays are equal
if [[ “${current_options_array[*]}“ == “${output_array[*]}“ ]]; then
echo “Values in YAML file are equal to values in array. No update needed.”
else
echo “Values in YAML file are not equal to values in array. Updating YAML file.”
# Construct YAML-compatible string
options_string=“[“
for option in “${output_array[@]}“; do
options_string+=“\“$option\“, “
done
options_string=“${options_string%, }]”
yq eval “.on.workflow_dispatch.inputs.version.options = $options_string“ $SOURCE_YAML_FILE > temp.yml && mv temp.yml $SOURCE_YAML_FILE
fi
The action file with the choice parameter might look like this:
on:
workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
version:
type: choice
options:
– ‘major’
– ‘minor’
required: true
default: ‘patch’
jobs:
release:
runs-on: [ubuntu-latest]
name: Release it
environment: NPM_Feed
steps:
– name: Check out Code
uses: actions/checkout@v2
with:
fetch-depth: 0
When the populator action is triggered (any changes pushed to the branch), it will execute the script, populate the target action YAML, and create a commit pushing the changes. The updated YAML might look like this:
on:
workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
version:
type: choice
options:
– ‘major’
– ‘minor’
– ‘patch’
– ‘prerelease’
required: true
default: ‘patch’
jobs:
release:
runs-on: [ubuntu-latest]
name: Release it
steps:
– name: Check out Code
uses: actions/checkout@v2
with:
fetch-depth: 0
…….
This strategy allows for dynamic population of choice parameters in your GitHub Actions.
