Trigger a GitHub Actions workflow¶

Iter8 provides a github task that can be used in a performance test to send a repository_dispatch event to trigger workflows in the default branch of a GitHub repository.

Example¶

In this example, you will run the Your first performance test but at the end of the performance test, Iter8 will trigger a workflow on GitHub.

In this simple example, the workflow will simply print out a test summary that it will receive with the repository_dispatch. In a more sophisticated scenario, the workflow could, for example, read from the test summary and determine what to do next.

To summarize what will happen, you will create a new GitHub repository, add a workflow that will respond to the github task, set up and run a performance test, and check if the workflow was triggered.

The github task requires the name of a repository, the name of the owner, as well as an authentication token in order to send the repository_dispatch. To see a full list of the github task parameters, see here.

1. Create a new repository on GitHub.
2. Add the following workflow.

name: iter8 `github` task test
on:
  repository_dispatch:
    types: iter8
jobs:
  my-job:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - run: 'echo "payload: ${{ toJson(github.event.client_payload) }}"'

Note that this workflow has one job that will print out the client_payload. The default github task payload is configured with client_payload set to .Report, a summary of the performance test.

Also note that the on.repository_dispatch.types is set to iter8. The default github task payload is configured with event_type set to iter8. This indicates that once the repository_dispatch has been sent, only workflows on the default branch with on.repository_dispatch.types set to iter8 will be triggered.

1. Create a GitHub personal access token for the token parameter.
2. Ensure that you have a Kubernetes cluster and the kubectl CLI. You can create a local Kubernetes cluster using tools like Kind or Minikube.

3. Install the Iter8 controller

   Iter8 can be installed and configured to watch resources either in a single namespace (namespace-scoped) or in the whole cluster (cluster-scoped).

   Namespace-scopedCluster-scoped

   helm install --repo https://iter8-tools.github.io/iter8 --version 1.1 iter8 controller
   

   helm install --repo https://iter8-tools.github.io/iter8 --version 1.1 iter8 controller \
   --set clusterScoped=true
   

   For additional install options, see Iter8 Installation.

4. Deploy the sample HTTP service in the Kubernetes cluster.

   kubectl create deploy httpbin --image=kennethreitz/httpbin --port=80
   kubectl expose deploy httpbin --port=80
   

5. Launch the performance test using the github task with the appropriate values.

   helm upgrade --install \
   --repo https://iter8-tools.github.io/iter8 --version 1.1 httpbin-test iter8 \
   --set "tasks={http,github}" \
   --set http.url=http://httpbin.default/get \
   --set github.owner=<GitHub owner> \
   --set github.repo=<GitHub repository> \
   --set github.token=<GitHub token>
   

6. Verify that the workflow has been triggered after the performance test has completed.