Trigger Workflow and Wait

Github Action for trigger a workflow from another workflow. The action then waits for a response.

When would you use it?

When deploying an app you may need to deploy additional services, this Github Action helps with that.

Arguments

Argument Name	Required	Default	Description
owner	True	N/A	The owner of the repository where the workflow is contained.
repo	True	N/A	The repository where the workflow is contained.
github_token	True	N/A	The Github access token with access to the repository. Its recommended you put it under secrets.
workflow_file_name	True	N/A	The reference point. For example, you could use main.yml.
github_user	False	N/A	The name of the github user whose access token is being used to trigger the workflow.
ref	False	main	The reference of the workflow run. The reference can be a branch, tag, or a commit SHA.
wait_interval	False	10	The number of seconds delay between checking for result of run.
client_payload	False	{}	Payload to pass to the workflow, must be a JSON string
propagate_failure	False	true	Fail current job if downstream job fails.
trigger_workflow	False	true	Trigger the specified workflow.
wait_workflow	False	true	Wait for workflow to finish.
comment_downstream_url	False	``	A comments API URL to comment the current downstream job URL to. Default: no comment
comment_github_token	False	${{github.token}}	token used for pull_request comments

Example

Simple

- uses: convictional/[email protected]
  with:
    owner: keithconvictional
    repo: myrepo
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}

All Options

- uses: convictional/[email protected]
  with:
    owner: keithconvictional
    repo: myrepo
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
    github_user: github-user
    workflow_file_name: main.yml
    ref: release-branch
    wait_interval: 10
    client_payload: '{}'
    propagate_failure: false
    trigger_workflow: true
    wait_workflow: true

Comment the current running workflow URL for a PR

- uses: convictional/[email protected]
  with:
    owner: keithconvictional
    repo: myrepo
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}
    comment_downstream_url: ${{ github.event.pull_request.comments_url }}

Testing

You can test out the action locally by cloning the repository to your computer. You can run:

INPUT_OWNER="keithconvictional" \
INPUT_REPO="myrepo" \
INPUT_GITHUB_TOKEN="<REDACTED>" \
INPUT_GITHUB_USER="github-user" \
INPUT_WORKFLOW_FILE_NAME="main.yml" \
INPUT_REF="release-branch" \
INPUT_WAIT_INTERVAL=10 \
INPUT_CLIENT_PAYLOAD='{}' \
INPUT_PROPAGATE_FAILURE=false \
INPUT_TRIGGER_WORKFLOW=true \
INPUT_WAIT_WORKFLOW=true \
busybox sh entrypoint.sh

You will have to create a Github Personal access token. You can create a test workflow to be executed. In a repository, add a new main.yml to .github/workflows/. The workflow will be:

name: Main
on:
  workflow_dispatch
jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@master
      - name: Pause for 25 seconds
        run: |
          sleep 25

You can see the example here. For testing a failure case, just add this line after the sleep:

...
- name: Pause for 25 seconds
  run: |
    sleep 25
    echo "For testing failure"
    exit 1

Known issues

When triggering many workflows at the same time (e.g., via matrix), the logic for selecting the workflow ID associated with the parent job will get confused. This leads to the incorrect status often being propagated to the parent job. As a workaround, you can use unique names for the workflows and then set the run-name property.

See the example workflow for an example of how to do this.

Potential Issues

Changes

If you do not want the latest build all of the time, please use a versioned copy of the Github Action. You specify the version after the @ sign.

- uses: convictional/[email protected]
  with:
    owner: keithconvictional
    repo: myrepo
    github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN }}