Implementing GitHub action workflows to build and release open source Bitshares applications

I've recently completed initial versions of my Bitshares NFT issuance & viewer applications & chose to utilize GitHub's action workflow system to build and release the distributable files.

I made the decision to use GitHub workflow actions for a few reasons:

• Free automated building of apps vs elecriticty bill vs premium service
  • Free wins out 🍻😅
• The bitshares-ui repo uses it and we were considering the switch to it from appveyor for the bitshares beet repo; The sha256 and accompanying markdown yaml steps were taken from the bitshares-ui action workflow yaml file 👍
• It's pretty simple to configure and there's plenty of actions on the github marketplace to further support our app development

When a commit is tagged e.g. v.1.0.1 a new free workflow run will begin the build and release process.

Within the workflow job the YAML is processed to show the individual steps both in a list and visual component.

Once complete the newly published release will include the built packages and accompanying markdown:

The following is the YAML required to build and release the NFT issuance application; It uses the latest recommended actions to do so.

For the time being only windows and linux are supported as the macos build requires a code signing certificate; macos users can however manually build the apps so fear not.

name: Build/release

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - "v*.*.*"

jobs:
  create_release:
    name: Create Release
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Create Release
      id: create_release
      uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v1
      with:
        name: ${{ github.ref_name }}
        draft: false
        prerelease: false
        generate_release_notes: false

  build:
    name: build_release
    needs: create_release
    strategy:
      matrix:
        os: [windows-latest, ubuntu-latest]
        include:
          - os: windows-latest
            release_suffix: windows
            release_format: exe
          #- os: macos-latest
          #  release_suffix: macos
          #  release_format: dmg
          - os: ubuntu-latest
            release_suffix: ubuntu
            release_format: deb
    runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}

    steps:
    - name: Checkout code
      uses: actions/checkout@v3
    
    - name: Use Node.js 18.x
      uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        node-version: 18.x
        cache: 'yarn'
    
    - run: yarn install
    - run: yarn run electron:package:${{ matrix.os }}

    - name: Upload .${{ matrix.release_format }} file
      uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
      with:
        name: nft_tool.${{ matrix.release_format }}
        path: dist/nft_tool.${{ matrix.release_format }}

  generate:
    name: generate files
    needs: build
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
    - name: Download exe
      id: download
      uses: actions/download-artifact@v3
      with:
        name: nft_tool.exe
        path: ~/
    - name: Download deb
      uses: actions/download-artifact@v3
      with:
        name: nft_tool.deb
        path: ~/
    - name: Calculate hashes
      id: calc_hash
      run: |
          echo "::set-output name=debhash::$(sha256sum /home/runner/nft_tool.deb|cut -c-64)"
          echo "::set-output name=exehash::$(sha256sum /home/runner/nft_tool.exe|cut -c-64)"
    - name: Perform release
      uses: softprops/action-gh-release@v1
      with:
        files: |
            /home/runner/nft_tool.exe
            /home/runner/nft_tool.deb
          #  ${{steps.download.outputs.download-path}}nft_tool.dmg
        tag_name: ${{ needs.create_release.outputs.tag-name }}
        body: |
                Release Notes
                _________________________________
                Binaries for download
                --------
                | Platform | SHA256 Checksum |
                |---|---|
                |[Microsoft Windows](https://github.com/BTS-CM/Bitshares_NFT_Issuance_Tool/releases/download/${{ github.ref_name }}/nft_tool.exe)|`${{steps.calc_hash.outputs.exehash}}`|
                |[Linux](https://github.com/BTS-CM/Bitshares_NFT_Issuance_Tool/releases/download/${{ github.ref_name }}/nft_tool.deb)|`${{steps.calc_hash.outputs.debhash}}`|
      env:
        GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

How could the above be further improved?

• We can submit released deliverables to virustotal for scan to improve user confidence running unsigned code.
• Additional binary checksums
• Caching the build environment to reduce build times (10 mins for windows)
• Code signing for macos support
• Include commit changelog in markdown

Have you used GitHub action workflows before? Any suggestions or ideas?

Don't forget to check out the NFTEA Gallery!