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Rodrigo Kamada
Rodrigo Kamada

Posted on • Updated on

Hosting an Angular application on GitHub Pages using GitHub Actions

Introduction

Angular is a development platform for building WEB, mobile and desktop applications using HTML, CSS and TypeScript (JavaScript). Currently, Angular is at version 15 and Google is the main maintainer of the project.

GitHub is a source code and file storage service with version control using git tool. GitHub Pages is a static file hosting service using a public repository. GitHub Actions is a service to automate the software workflow.

Prerequisites

Before you start, you need to install and configure the tools:

Getting started

Create and configure the account on the GitHub

1. Let's create the account. Access the site https://github.com/ and click on the button Sign up.

GitHub - Home page

2. Fill in the fields Username, Email address, Password, click on the button Verify to solve the challenge and click on the button Create account.

GitHub - Sign up

3. Let's create the repository. Click on the menu with the avatar and click on the menu Your repositories.

GitHub - Menu Your repositories

4. Click on the button New.

GitHub - New repository

5. Fill in the field Repository name and click on the button Create repository.

GitHub - Create repository

6. Ready! Account created and repository https://github.com/rodrigokamada/angular-github-actions created.

GitHub - Repository created

Create the Angular application

1. Let's create the application with the Angular base structure using the @angular/cli with the route file and the SCSS style format.

ng new angular-github-actions
? Would you like to add Angular routing? Yes
? Which stylesheet format would you like to use? SCSS   [ https://sass-lang.com/documentation/syntax#scss                ]
CREATE angular-github-actions/README.md (1066 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/.editorconfig (274 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/.gitignore (604 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/angular.json (3303 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/package.json (1084 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/tsconfig.json (783 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/.browserslistrc (703 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/karma.conf.js (1439 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/tsconfig.app.json (287 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/tsconfig.spec.json (333 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/favicon.ico (948 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/index.html (306 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/main.ts (372 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/polyfills.ts (2820 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/styles.scss (80 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/test.ts (788 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/assets/.gitkeep (0 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/environments/environment.prod.ts (51 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/environments/environment.ts (658 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/app/app-routing.module.ts (245 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/app/app.module.ts (393 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/app/app.component.scss (0 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/app/app.component.html (24617 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/app/app.component.spec.ts (1121 bytes)
CREATE angular-github-actions/src/app/app.component.ts (227 bytes)
✔ Packages installed successfully.
    Successfully initialized git.
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2. Change the package.json file and add the scripts below. Replace the rodrigokamada value with your GitHub username.

  "build:prod": "ng build --configuration production --base-href https://rodrigokamada.github.io/angular-github-actions/",
  "test:headless": "ng test --watch=false --browsers=ChromeHeadless"
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3. Run the test with the command below.

npm run test:headless

> angular-github-actions@1.0.0 test:headless
> ng test --watch=false --browsers=ChromeHeadless

⠋ Generating browser application bundles (phase: setup)...Compiling @angular/core : es2015 as esm2015
Compiling @angular/compiler/testing : es2015 as esm2015
Compiling @angular/common : es2015 as esm2015
Compiling @angular/core/testing : es2015 as esm2015
Compiling @angular/common/testing : es2015 as esm2015
Compiling @angular/platform-browser : es2015 as esm2015
Compiling @angular/router : es2015 as esm2015
Compiling @angular/platform-browser-dynamic : es2015 as esm2015
Compiling @angular/platform-browser/testing : es2015 as esm2015
Compiling @angular/platform-browser-dynamic/testing : es2015 as esm2015
Compiling @angular/router/testing : es2015 as esm2015
⠙ Generating browser application bundles (phase: building)...22 09 2021 20:48:47.533:INFO [karma-server]: Karma v6.3.4 server started at http://localhost:9876/
22 09 2021 20:48:47.537:INFO [launcher]: Launching browsers ChromeHeadless with concurrency unlimited
22 09 2021 20:48:47.541:INFO [launcher]: Starting browser ChromeHeadless
✔ Browser application bundle generation complete.
22 09 2021 20:48:52.326:INFO [Chrome Headless 94.0.4606.54 (Linux x86_64)]: Connected on socket YUmqYxp8kqXTSV63AAAB with id 18515803
Chrome Headless 94.0.4606.54 (Linux x86_64): Executed 3 of 3 SUCCESS (0.185 secs / 0.162 secs)
TOTAL: 3 SUCCESS
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4. Run the application with the command below. Access the URL http://localhost:4200/ and check if the application is working.

npm start

> angular-github-actions@1.0.0 start
> ng serve

✔ Browser application bundle generation complete.

Initial Chunk Files | Names         |      Size
vendor.js           | vendor        |   2.41 MB
polyfills.js        | polyfills     | 128.53 kB
main.js             | main          |  56.84 kB
runtime.js          | runtime       |   6.64 kB
styles.css          | styles        |   1.18 kB

                    | Initial Total |   2.60 MB

Build at: 2021-09-22T23:51:24.809Z - Hash: 491013c58e91631f6f14 - Time: 10491ms

** Angular Live Development Server is listening on localhost:4200, open your browser on http://localhost:4200/ **


✔ Compiled successfully.
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5. Build the application with the command below.

npm run build:prod

> angular-github-actions@1.0.0 build:prod
> ng build --configuration production --base-href https://rodrigokamada.github.io/angular-github-actions/

✔ Browser application bundle generation complete.
✔ Copying assets complete.
✔ Index html generation complete.

Initial Chunk Files               | Names         |      Size
main.4323acf2b7af06c6f196.js      | main          | 215.10 kB
polyfills.846632910956cf45bd88.js | polyfills     |  36.22 kB
runtime.05bbc8c46ec59fd850d7.js   | runtime       |   1.05 kB
styles.31d6cfe0d16ae931b73c.css   | styles        |   0 bytes

                                  | Initial Total | 252.37 kB

Build at: 2021-09-23T01:22:35.870Z - Hash: 3a09fd924c26cb02fafc - Time: 13654ms
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6. Let's create and configure the file with the GitHub Actions flow. Create the .github/workflows/gh-pages.yml file.

mkdir -p .github/workflows
touch .github/workflows/gh-pages.yml
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7. Configure the .github/workflows/gh-pages.yml file with the content below.

name: GitHub Pages

on:
  push:
    branches:
    - main

jobs:
  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Checkout
      uses: actions/checkout@v2

    - name: Setup Node.js
      uses: actions/setup-node@v2
      with:
        node-version: '16'

    - name: Install dependencies
      run: npm install

    - name: Run tests
      run: npm run test:headless

    - name: Build
      run: npm run build:prod

    - name: Deploy
      if: success()
      uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v3
      with:
        github_token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
        publish_dir: dist/angular-github-actions
        enable_jekyll: true
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Note:

8. Syncronize the application on the GitHub repository that was created.

GitHub - Repository

9. Ready! After synchronizing the application on the GitHub repository, the GitHub Actions build the application and synchronize on the branch gh-pages. Access the URL https://rodrigokamada.github.io/angular-github-actions/ and check if the application is working. Replace the rodrigokamada value with your GitHub username.

Validate the run of the GitHub Actions flow

1. Let's validate the run of the GitHub Actions flow. Access the repository https://github.com/rodrigokamada/angular-github-actions created and click on the link Actions.

GitHub Actions - Repository

2. Click on the flow runned.

GitHub Actions - Workflows

3. Click on the job deploy.

GitHub Actions - Jobs

4. Click on each step to validate the run.

GitHub Actions - Steps

5. Ready! We validate the run of the GitHub Actions flow.

Validate the publish of the GitHub Pages

1. Let's validate the publish of the GitHub Pages. Access the repository https://github.com/rodrigokamada/angular-github-actions created and click on the link Settings.

GitHub Pages - Repository

2. Click on the menu Pages.

GitHub Pages - Settings

3. The message Your site is published at https://rodrigokamada.github.io/angular-github-actions/ should be displayed.

GitHub Pages - Pages

4. Ready! We validate the publish of the GitHub Pages.

The application repository is available at https://github.com/rodrigokamada/angular-github-actions.

This tutorial was posted on my blog in portuguese.

Top comments (1)

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nudopnu profile image
nudopnu

Thanks a lot! Here are a few additions:

  • With current version of angular (17), the publish_dir will be nested inside a browser folder
  • To allow routing, you need to add another step after build:prod, which duplicates your index.html to a file with name 404.html
  • you only need --base-href /angular-github-actions/