This is my Github Profile. The specific thing here is that the weather is updated every 6 hours automatically.
(I know that embedding weather in the readme does nothing; it's just for demonstration purposes in the 'Creating Dynamic README.md File')
In this article, I will walk you through how I did that!
Let's get started!
1. What is Github Actions
GitHub Actions is a continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) platform that allows you to automate your build, test, and deployment pipeline. It's similar to Gitlab CI. In this project, I'm using Github Action to automatically update the weather in the README.md file.
2. Github Action Workflow triggers
Workflow triggers are events that cause a workflow to run. These events can be:
- Events that occur in your workflow's repository such as:
- Push
- Pull request
- Scheduled times
- Manual
In this project, I'm using "Scheduled times" to trigger the Workflow "Update Weather."
3. Go template
Go templates are a powerful way to generate text, HTML, or any other output based on a predefined template structure. It's similar to templates in other frameworks like Laravel and template engines such as Pug.
(Data + Template) = Output
4. Combine them to make Readme up-to-date
- Implement a service to collect weather data (Data).
- Write a template that uses the above data as input.
- Run the Go Template to combine the template and data to generate the output.
- Commit and push the output changes.
- Write a Github action to run the above steps at intervals.
Simply use my Github Action
Source code: huantt/weather-forecast
I've wrapped the four steps above into a Github Action. You can easily use it by following these simple steps:
Step 1: In your repository, create a file named README.md.template
.
Step 2: Write anything you want within the README.md.template
file.
Step 3: Embed one of the following entities within your README.md.template
:
- Today's Weather Table: ```shell
{{ template "hourly-table" $todayWeather.HourlyWeathers }}
- **Daily Weather Table:**
```shell
{{ template "daily-table" .Weathers }}
- Updated at: ```shell
{{ formatTime .UpdatedAt }}
If you are familiar with Go templates, you have access to the `root` variable, which includes the following fields:
- `Weathers`: An array of daily weather data. You can view the weather struct definition in [model/weather.go](model/weather.go).
- `UpdatedAt`: This field contains the timestamp in the format of `time.Date`.
**Step 4**: Register Github Action
- Create a file `.github/workflows/update-weather.yml` in your repository.
```yml
name: "Cronjob"
on:
schedule:
- cron: '15 * * * *'
jobs:
update-weather:
permissions: write-all
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- uses: actions/checkout@v3
- name: Generate README
uses: huantt/weather-forecast@v1.0.5
with:
city: HaNoi
days: 7
weather-api-key: ${{ secrets.WEATHER_API_KEY }}
template-file: 'README.md.template'
out-file: 'README.md'
- name: Commit
run: |
if git diff --exit-code; then
echo "No changes to commit."
exit 0
else
git config user.name github-actions
git config user.email github-actions@github.com
git add .
git commit -m "update"
git push origin main
fi
- Update some variables in this file:
- city: The city for which you want to forecast the weather.
- days: The number of forecast days.
- template-file: The path to the above template file. Eg.
template/README.md.template
- out-file: Your README.md file name.
- weather-api-key:
- Register a free API key at https://www.weatherapi.com.
- Set up secrets with the name
WEATHER_API_KEY
inYour repo > settings > Secrets and variables > Actions > New repository secret
.
Step 5: Commit your changes, and then Github actions will run at the specified cron interval to update the weather in your README.md file.
Other Github Actions
Reference
- GitHub Actions Documentation
- Source code: huantt/weather-forecast
Top comments (43)
Loved it! I would like to make a video about it. I hope that is okay.
I have recently developed another GitHub Action for updating your dev.to articles on your GitHub profile.
dev.to/jacktt/update-your-devto-ar...
I think you can use it in your video.
Awesome. I guess it would be better if I create separate video for that.
Absolutely, you're welcome to use it as video content. Please share your video in the comments once you've completed it. I'm looking forward to seeing it!
Sure!
The
weather-forecast
action was not working till now. I was trying for several hours back then. It seems now it is online. I will try to make the video within tonight.Could you share me your repo or action log?
Here it is: github.com/FahimFBA/test/actions
I made it private but making it public for you to check. The latest build also failed suddenly.
I found the problem. Because nothing has changed, the commit command returns an error.
Please update the run block to:
I updated the docs.
Let's see whether it works then. If it works, then I am going to create the video.
This is pretty cool. You could even combine it with the Github API to get a breakdown on all of your used languages over your repositories or perhaps your LOC count
nice article 🌟
Just a little comment, I faced this problem: level=ERROR msg="html/template:article:36:12: no such template \"article-table\"". Seem we should use huantt/article-listing@v1.1.0 instead of huantt/article-listing@v1.0.0
You're right.
I will update the docs and this article.
Thank you.
Thank you I'am going to try this out
Great post ❤️. I'm going to try it!
Thanks for the tutorial 🙌
Nice post ❤️
Thank you. I hope it's useful for you.
When using your
it errors out in GitHub Actions:
but when I update it to the way you're using it
it works just fine. Probably worth updating your post
Which Action are you using?
I was using it with the Dev.to articles action
But also, thank you for these 2 posts. Great work!
Time is variable in article action, CreatedAt is in weather
my GitHub
Didn't know that Github actions can be triggered with a cron expression! This is really a good post 👏