Deploy Publish blog with Github Actions

Table of Contents

Intro
#

Publish is an awesome static site generator created by John Sundell. This website is built with this tool.

One of the steps is to upload to the server all the file generated, the first approach I used was to upload all the files in the output folder, via FTP manually but, then I had an idea.

Deploy
#

For deployment, I use the following code:

.publish(
        withTheme: .nsstudent,
        deployedUsing: DeploymentMethod.gitHub("NSStudent/NSStudent"),
...
}

This is the implementation of the github method:

/// Deploy a website to a given GitHub repository.
    /// - parameter repository: The full name of the repository (including its username).
    /// - parameter useSSH: Whether an SSH connection should be used (preferred).
    static func gitHub(_ repository: String, useSSH: Bool = true) -> Self {
        let prefix = useSSH ? "git@github.com:" : "https://github.com/"
        return git("\(prefix)\(repository).git")
    }

This method searches the repository with the name NSStudent/NSStudent. By default, the implementation tries to clone the repository via SSH with this code inside the git method.

static func git(_ remote: String) -> Self {
        DeploymentMethod(name: "Git (\(remote))") { context in
            let folder = try context.createDeploymentFolder(withPrefix: "Git") { folder in
                if !folder.containsSubfolder(named: ".git") {
                    try shellOut(to: .gitInit(), at: folder.path)

                    try shellOut(
                        to: "git remote add origin \(remote)",
                        at: folder.path
                    )
                }

                try shellOut(
                    to: "git remote set-url origin \(remote)",
                    at: folder.path
                )

                _ = try? shellOut(
                    to: .gitPull(remote: "origin", branch: "master"),
                    at: folder.path
                )

                try folder.empty()
            }

            let dateFormatter = DateFormatter()
            dateFormatter.dateFormat = "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm"
            let dateString = dateFormatter.string(from: Date())

            do {
                try shellOut(
                    to: """
                    git add . && git commit -a -m \"Publish deploy \(dateString)\" --allow-empty
                    """,
                    at: folder.path
                )

                try shellOut(
                    to: .gitPush(remote: "origin", branch: "master"),
                    at: folder.path
                )
            } catch let error as ShellOutError {
                throw PublishingError(infoMessage: error.message)
            } catch {
                throw error
            }
        }
    }

The magic happens when the context calls context.createDeploymentFolder function. This method creates a new folder with the name GitDeploy inside to a hidden folder .publish.

Right now, all the codes are in your repository.

To create the action to upload the website in the server via FTP, you need to add the following main.yml file:

name: Deploy website

on: [push]

jobs:
  FTP-Deploy-Action:
    name: FTP-Deploy-Action
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@master
    - name: FTP-Deploy-Action
      uses: SamKirkland/FTP-Deploy-Action@2.0.0
      env:
        FTP_SERVER: ${{ secrets.FTP_NAME }}
        FTP_USERNAME: ${{ secrets.FTP_USER }}
        FTP_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.FTP_PASSWORD }}
        ARGS: --delete --exclude-glob=.git*/** --exclude-glob=.git** --delete-excluded

This file use the FTP-Deploy-Action. It has three secrets variables secrets.FTP_NAME, secrets.FTP_USER, secrets.FTP_PASSWORD to not expose the real values. The ARGS parameter tries to remove all unused files and it prevents the upload off all the files inside the .git or .github folders.

You need to pull this change in the current GitDeploy repository. Right now, every time you use Publish deploy in the terminal and push a new version in this repository, the action uploads all the files to the FTP.

I will try to write with new things about Publish and how I use them in this blog.

Intro #

Deploy #

Intro
#

Deploy
#