github-pages-deploy-action/README.md

Github Pages Deploy Action 🚀

This Github action will handle the building and deploying process of your project to Github pages. It can be configured to upload your production ready code into any branch you'd like, including gh-pages and docs.

Getting Started ✈️

Before you get started you must first create a fresh branch where the action will deploy the files to. You can replace gh-pages with whatever branch you'd like to use below. This will create a new orphaned branch which is what Github Pages require.

git checkout --orphan gh-pages
git rm -rf .
touch README.md
git add README.md
git commit -m 'Initial gh-pages commit'
git push origin gh-pages

Once setup you can then include the action in your workflow to trigger on any built in event that Github supports.

action "Deploy to Github Pages" {
  uses = "JamesIves/github-pages-deploy-action@master"
  env = {
    BUILD_SCRIPT = "npm install && npm run-script build"
    BRANCH = "gh-pages"
    FOLDER = "build"
    COMMIT_EMAIL = "github-pages-deployer@jamesives.dev"
    COMMIT_NAME = "Github Pages Deployer"
  }
  secrets = ["GITHUB_TOKEN"]
}

Configuration 📁

The env portion of the workflow must be configured before the action will work. Below you'll find a description of what each one does.

Key	Value Information	Required
BUILD_SCRIPT	If you require a build script to compile your code prior to pushing it you can add the script here. The Docker container which powers the action runs Node which means npm commands are valid. If you're using a static site generator I'd suggest building the code prior to pushing it.	No
BRANCH	This is the branch you wish to deploy to, for example gh-pages or docs.	Yes
BASE_BRANCH	The base branch of your repository which you'd like to checkout prior to deploying. This defaults to master.	No
FOLDER	The folder in your repository that you want to deploy. If your build script compiles into a directory named build you'd put it in here.	Yes
COMMIT_NAME	Used to sign the commit, this should be your name.	No
COMMIT_EMAIL	Used to sign the commit, this should be your email.	No