CI CD Workflow

This Section outlines the setup and configuration of GitHub Actions for the project.

Prequisites

Before setting up GitHub Actions, ensure you have the following:

• A Laravel project hosted on GitHub.
• Access to a server for deployment.
• SSH access set up on the server.
• Required secrets stored in GitHub (APP_KEY, SSH_HOST, SSH_USER, SSH_KEY).

Structure

The workflow is defined in a YAML file located in the .github/workflows directory of the repository. Each workflow consists of one or more jobs that can run in parallel or sequentially, and each job consists of a series of steps. This is a sample file created seperately in the dev, staging and production branch that triggers on any change to be automatically tested and deployed

name: Laravel CI <branch-name>

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - <branch-name>
  pull_request:
    branches:
      - <branch-name>

jobs:
  run-tests:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
      - name: Checkout code
        uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Set up PHP
        uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
        with:
          php-version: '8.2'
          extensions: sqlite, zip, bcmath

      - name: Install PHP dependencies
        run: composer install --no-interaction --prefer-dist --optimize-autoloader

      - name: Set environment variables for CI
        run: |
          cp .env.example .env
          echo "APP_KEY=${{ secrets.APP_KEY }}" >> .env
          echo "DB_CONNECTION=sqlite" >> .env
          echo "DB_DATABASE=$(pwd)/database/database.sqlite" >> .env

      - name: Ensure SQLite database file exists
        run: |
          mkdir -p database
          touch database/database.sqlite

      - name: Run database migrations
        run: php artisan migrate --force

      - name: Clear configuration cache
        run: php artisan config:clear

      - name: Generate JWT secret
        run: php artisan jwt:secret

      - name: Run Laravel tests
        run: php artisan test

      - name: Deploy to server
        uses: appleboy/ssh-action@master
        with:
          host: ${{ secrets.SSH_HOST }}
          username: ${{ secrets.SSH_USER }}
          key: ${{ secrets.SSH_KEY }}
          script: |
            echo "About to Deploy"
            cd /var/www/langlearnai-be/<server-enviroment>
            eval $(ssh-agent)
            ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa
            git pull origin <branch-name>
            # exclude the --no-dev flag for dev deployment 
            composer install --no-dev
            php artisan migrate --force
            php artisan jwt:secret

Workflow Steps

Build Process

1. Trigger Events: The workflow triggers on push events to the branch
2. Runs-on: Specifies the type of runner to use, here we use ubuntu-latest.
3. Steps:

• Checkout code: Uses the actions/checkout@v2 action to pull the latest code from the repository.
• Set up PHP: Uses shivammathur/setup-php@v2 to set up the PHP environment with the required version and extensions.
• Install PHP dependencies: Runs composer install to install the necessary dependencies for the application.
• Set environment variables: Creates a .env file from .env.example and appends the necessary environment variables
• Ensure SQLite database file exists: Creates the SQLite database file if it doesnt already exist
• Run Database Migrations: Run php artisan migrate --force to apply database migrations.
• Clear Configuration Cache: Clear any cached configurations to ensure the application runs with the latest configuration.
• Generate JWT secret: Generates a new JWT secret key and sets it in your .env file. (Important if you are including JWT authentication in your Laravel application.)

Test Process

• Run Laravel tests: This step runs the Laravel test suite using php artisan test, which will execute all the defined tests in the Laravel application to ensure that the code changes do not break any existing functionality.

Deployment Process

• Deploy to server: This step uses the appleboy/ssh-action@mster to perform the deployment process. It connects to the server via SSH using the specified credentials stored in GitHub Secrets. Once connected, it navigates to the deployment directory, pulls the latest code from the specified branch, installs dependencies using Composer, and runs database migrations to ensure the latest database schema is applied.