Github actions: build and deploy Craft sites (WIP)

deploy.yaml

name: Craft CMS deployments

on:
  push:
    branches: [master]

jobs:
  build-and-deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      # Pull repository into the current pipeline
      - name: pull repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      # Setup container with private SSH Key (used by rsync)
      - name: Loads private SSH key
        uses: webfactory/ssh-agent@v0.4.1
        with:
          ssh-private-key: ${{ secrets.SSH_KEY }}

      # Use a specific version of Node
      - name: Use Node.js 12.x
        uses: actions/setup-node@v1
        with:
          node-version: "12.x"

      # Install PHP dependencies
      - name: Composer install
        run: composer install --no-interaction --no-progress --no-suggest --optimize-autoloader

      # Install NPM dependencies
      - name: NPM install
        run: npm ci

      # Build assets using locally installed Gulp
      - name: Build assets with Gulp
        run: npx gulp build

      # rsync
      # exclude web/uploads is there to avoid deleting user uploaded files
      # The StrictHostKeyChecking option avoids a failure when the client does not know the SSH host already
      - name: deploy with rsync
        run: |
          rsync -azh --delete-after --exclude={'/web/uploads/','/node_modules/','/.git/','/.github/'} -e 'ssh -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no' ./ ${{ secrets.SSH_USER }}@${{ secrets.ssh_HOST }}:~/

      # execute Craft commands on remote server
      - name: Execute SSH commmands on remote server
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@master
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.ssh_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.SSH_USER }}
          key: ${{ secrets.SSH_KEY }}
          script: |
            chmod a+x craft
            php craft backup/db
            php craft migrate/all
            php craft project-config/apply
            php craft clear-caches/all

I wanted to reproduce a simplified version of what services like Buddy.Works are doing w/ Github Actions
Still a WIP but already tested it successfully with a small custom Craft website.

Basic steps

1. pull repository in container
2. load SSH key to use with rsync
3. use specific version of Node
4. Install PHP dependencies via Composer
5. Install Node dependencies
6. Build assets using Gulp, Gulp is driving Webpack for JS in my case (you could run NPM scripts instead)
7. Deploy with rsync
8. Execute Craft commands on destination server

This blogpost by the fine people at Fortrabbit helped a lot: https://blog.fortrabbit.com/how-to-use-github-actions

run: composer install --no-interaction --no-progress --no-suggest --optimize-autoloader

I usually do

run: composer install --no-ansi --no-dev --no-interaction --no-progress --no-scripts --optimize-autoloader

On production builds.

@dingo-d thank you for chiming in, not a PHP or composer expert here but I'll make sure I have a closer look at those options with regards to standard Craft builds. Thanks again!

Interesting! I use buddy too for private stuff but it's to expensive. How long runs a build with GH Actions?

@davidhellmann Build times can vary but, looking at the last 20 builds on the live project I am testing this, they are hovering around 2 minutes, give or take.

Thanks for sharing this!

I'm not a Craft CMS user, but I stumbled upon this while attempting to troubleshoot a similar build process (PHP with composer and npm).

I'm not clear as to how composer appears to be available in your environment automatically, i.e., you simply run composer install ... without installing Composer anywhere explicitly.

Do you mind sharing how this works, exactly? Thank you!

@cbj4074 No problem. Glad it helped. The straightforward answer is that php and composer are included in the ubuntu-latest image used as the virtual environment by Github actions, as per the doc