<p>After seeing Git Actions at work at my job, I decided that I wanted to see what I could do for my personal projects with GitHub Actions.</p>
<p>At work in order for our PRs to be completed, our code needs to match our ESLint guidelines and our unit tests need to pass. I like those rules so I wanted to apply them to my personal projects on GitHub. I knew GitHub had the ability to do the same thing so I sat down and taught myself how to set them up. A little while later, I was able to get them up and running and am quite happy with the results so I figured I’d share how I did it.</p>
<h2>Some Background</h2>
<p>I set this up for my re-write of <a href="https://github.com/kpwags/digital-family-cookbook" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Digital Family Cookbook in .NET</a>. I have my backend broken up into 3 projects.</p>
<ol>
<li>The Web API (DigitalFamilyCookbook)</li>
<li>A “Core” Class Library (DigitalFamilyCookbook.Core)</li>
<li>A “Data” Class Library (Digital Family Cookbook.Data)</li>
</ol>
<p>I have a separate .NET Unit Test project for the Web API and the core class library. One for the data class library will be added soon. Because of this, I ended up creating two actions, one to run the API unit tests, and a second to run the core library unit tests.</p>
<h3>Step 1: Create the Workflows Folder</h3>
<p>In your root directory create a folder named <code>.github</code> and inside that folder create a folder named <code>workflows</code>.</p>
<h3>Step 2: Create an Action</h3>
<p>Create a file called <code>unittests.yml</code></p>
<h3>Step 3: Build the Action</h3>
<p>Start by giving the action a name</p>
<pre><code class="language-yaml">name: DigitalFamilyCookbook Unit Tests
</code></pre>
<p>This is pretty self-explanatory. We want each action to have a name that is descriptive of what the action does.</p>
<p>Next, we want to define when we want the action to be run.</p>
<pre><code class="language-yaml">on:
    push:
        branches: [main]
    pull_request:
        branches: [main]
</code></pre>
<p>This tells GitHub that we want these actions run when we push code to the main branch (I don&#39;t really do this, but put it here anyway), or when a pull request is submitted against the main branch.</p>
<p>Finally, we want to set up the action itself.</p>
<pre><code class="language-yaml">jobs:
    build:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest

        steps:
            - uses: actions/checkout@v2
            - name: Setup .NET
              uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v1
              with:
                  dotnet-version: 6.0.x
            - name: Restore dependencies
              run: dotnet restore
              working-directory: ./backend/tests/DigitalFamilyCookbook.Tests
            - name: Build
              run: dotnet build --no-restore
              working-directory: ./backend/tests/DigitalFamilyCookbook.Tests
            - name: Test
              run: dotnet test --no-build --verbosity normal
              working-directory: ./backend/tests/DigitalFamilyCookbook.Tests
</code></pre>
<p>Let&#39;s look at how this is structured.</p>
<ol>
<li>We tell GitHub to run this on the latest version of Ubuntu.</li>
<li>Next, we define the steps to take to run the action. Each bullet point is basically a step in the process<ol>
<li><code>uses: actions/checkout@v2</code> is the official GitHub action that will checkout the code in order to run the actions we define</li>
<li><code>name: Setup .NET</code> is the name of this step which we use the official GitHub action to setup .NET for the action, specifying we want to use .NET 6. This is important as I am taking advantage of some of the new .NET 6 functionality that will break on previous versions.</li>
<li><code>name: Restore dependencies</code> is where we tell the action to install the project&#39;s dependencies. you can see the next line defines the actual command. Just like we&#39;d do in the terminal on our own machine. We tell the action to run <code>dotnet restore</code> The final part is to specify the directory to run this command in. Since I&#39;m running the tests for the API project, we specify it as <code>./backend/tests/DigitalFamilyCookbook.Tests</code> which is the path from the root of the repository to where the <code>.csproj</code> defining the unit test project lies.</li>
<li><code>name: Build</code> is where we tell the action to build the project, again just like we&#39;d do in our terminal. Again, we need to specify the working folder.</li>
<li><code>name: Test</code> is where the butter is at. This tells us to run the test command to execute our unit tests. Like the <code>restore</code> and <code>build</code> steps, we also need to specify the working folder here as well.</li>
</ol>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>Final Result</h3>
<pre><code class="language-yaml">name: DigitalFamilyCookbook Unit Tests

on:
    push:
        branches: [main]
    pull_request:
        branches: [main]

jobs:
    build:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest

        steps:
            - uses: actions/checkout@v2
            - name: Setup .NET
              uses: actions/setup-dotnet@v1
              with:
                  dotnet-version: 6.0.x
            - name: Restore dependencies
              run: dotnet restore
              working-directory: ./backend/tests/DigitalFamilyCookbook.Tests
            - name: Build
              run: dotnet build --no-restore
              working-directory: ./backend/tests/DigitalFamilyCookbook.Tests
            - name: Test
              run: dotnet test --no-build --verbosity normal
              working-directory: ./backend/tests/DigitalFamilyCookbook.Tests
</code></pre>
<p>That&#39;s it. It was not nearly as difficult to setup as I initially thought. Now whenever I open a pull request, it will run the unit tests and make sure they pass before I can complete it and merge it with the main branch. I ended up creating a second action file and run the same steps, only with the <code>DigitalFamilyCookbook.Core.Tests</code> project.</p>
<h2>Bonus: Run the React Unit Tests Too!</h2>
<p>As an added bonus, I&#39;ll add how I set up the action to run Jest for the frontend unit tests.</p>
<pre><code class="language-yaml">name: Front End Unit Tests

on:
    push:
        branches: [main]
    pull_request:
        branches: [main]

jobs:
    build:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest

        strategy:
            matrix:
                node-version: [15.x]

        steps:
            - uses: actions/checkout@v2
            - name: Use Node.js ${{ matrix.node-version }}
              uses: actions/setup-node@v1
              with:
                  node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
            - run: npm install
              working-directory: ./frontend
            - run: npm run test
              working-directory: ./frontend
</code></pre>
<p>It&#39;s very similar to the .NET actions, only in this case we specify the node version instead of .NET, and run the npm commands in the frontend directory.</p>


Setting Up GitHub Actions on .NET Projects

<p>I can&#39;t believe it&#39;s already February. It feels like January just came and went.</p>
<p>January as a whole wasn&#39;t a super busy month. The biggest thing that happened was me taking an all-grain brewing class at the end of the month. Over the course of the last several years I&#39;ve been brewing beer at home as a hobby, but I&#39;ve been limited to extract brewing. It can turn out some good brews, but I know there is so much more I can do moving beyond extract and mashing the grains myself. I was hoping to learn how to do it before the pandemic, and when my local homebrew shop was offering a class, I signed right up. It was a good class and I am now itching to try my hand at an all-grain brew. I’m planning on brewing this weekend but it will be one more extract brew before I try my hand at some more advanced recipes.</p>
<p>Other than that, not much to really report so far.</p>
<h3><strong>Monthly Roundup</strong></h3>
<p><strong>Running &amp; Biking:</strong> Ran 43 miles and biked 9 in January. Braved the cold quite a bit.</p>
<p><strong>Reading:</strong> Finished <strong><em>Leviathan Falls</em></strong>, and with it, <em>The Expanse</em> series.</p>
<p><strong>Writing:</strong> Wrote about the <a href="https://kpwags.com/posts/2022/01/19/books-i-read-in-2021">books I read in 2021</a> and my new <a href="https://kpwags.com/posts/2022/01/25/tracking-my-2022-goals">2022 goals page</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Gaming:</strong> Continued my play-through of the Halo series. Beat Halo 2 and started Halo 3. Also picked up a PS5.</p>


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