Looking at GitHub Actions in 2024

Introduction To GitHub Action

This platform can be utilized for deploy code, compile and test and that permit the formulation of workflow. This has many characteristics as well it contains CI and CD Continuous Integration and Continuous deployment or in the other word it’s an CI/CD platform that automates, build and test deployment pipelines. Microsoft developed GitHub and GitHub Action is one of the functions that was added by Microsoft and beside that the other functions and features are also added.  It facilitates the users to develop the workflows (SDLC) Software Development Life Cycle in their GitHub storage.  GitHub is like a market place where people can share the action with the other people and then utilize it for their desire. GitHub Action permits you to safely utilize and collect secretes within your workflows and these secretes are utilized to authenticate with external services, store API keys.

As per Wikipedia:

GitHub is a developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage and share their code. It uses Git software, providing the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continuous integration, and wikis for every project. Headquartered in California, it has been a subsidiary of Microsoft since 2018.

It gives Windows, macOs virtual machine, Linux to operate your workflows and the best part is if you want host your runner by yourself then you can host in your own cloud infrastructure or data center. GitHub action is a platform for open source project that anyone who want’s, they can use it and also contribute to the project.

Basic Concept Of GitHub Action

Image Credit: https://programmingpercy.tech/blog/github-actions-in-action/

Some of the basis concept that is used in GitHub Action are discussed below :

Steps: Steps operate a command or actions & in a job it is an individual tasks that represents the action that require to performed as like running a command, utilizing pre-built actions and executing a script. It can also be based on the outcome of previous steps and can be configured with numerous settings as like conditionals, outputs, inputs and environment variables.

Environments: It is an sensible deployment targets where it becomes easy for you to deploy your applications and also you can define numerous environments such as staging, production and has to configure specific settings for particular environment. environment also utilized to promote code through several stages of your deployment pipeline.

Event: Events are specific activities that can activate the performance of workflow. Event can consists actions as like push events, update, issue comments, pull request creation and more. You can also specify one or many triggers for your workflow.

Action: For building a job as a step it is the tiniest construction block of a workflow. From the market area you can easily develop your own action and can borrow the shared action of the public. Actions can be used again that perform particular tasks within your workflows. It can be used privately in the organization or directly within the workflow files as dependencies in other actions.

Runner: The main function of Runner is to defer the work which is accessible and then report the progress and be eligible to perform the action. It can be self-hosted on your machines and hosted on GitHub.

Workflow: This is a natural process that earns one or more multiple jobs and can be activated by the events. It can be distinguished by the utilization of YAML files in the GitHub/workflows directory. It is an automated process that outlines the series of actions to be performed in response to specific events.

Benefit of GitHub Action

Some of the benefit of GitHub Action are as follow:

•         On GitHub Action you have all the commands of API as input and output.
•         It’s like a people hub or in other word you can say a marketplace where people investment on action and utilities it as per there necessity.
•         It’s an open source GitHub action with again doing the process of Enactment.
•         In GitHub Action, users have with relatively restriction and have willing to permit to the GitHub API.
•         It is just a successive  docker run and rocker build.
•         It is constructed to assist you to create dynamic automation and robust.
•         It proposes a free plan and it supports some other platforms and creates the environment such as Windows, Linux, container and macOS.
•         By using GitHub Action, you are going to save your time as well money.
•         It provides many characteristics on a quick basis and it detects error.

Conclusion: To conclude, GitHub Actions emerges as a game-changer, offering a seamless integration of workflows directly within the familiar GitHub environment. Throughout the exploration of GitHub Actions, we have uncovered its versatility from automating CI/CD pipelines to orchestrating complex workflows tailored to your needs. GitHub is like a market place where people can share the action with the other people and then utilize it for their desire.