Create a Release from a template on a remote CloudBees CD/RO instance

Description

This is one of serveral GitHub Actions provided on an "as-is" basis by CloudBees that enable users to write GitHub Action Workflows that send work to an external CloudBees CD/RO instance. This Action enables workflows to create a Release from an existing template on a remote CloudBees CD/RO instance.

Intended audience

For teams utilizing GitHub Actions for build and continuous integration, the CloudBees CD/RO Actions provide a mechanism for releasing software in a secure, governed and auditable manner with deep visibility, as is required in regulated industries, for example. Platform or shared services teams can build reusable content in the CloudBees CD/RO platform that conforms to company standards and removes the burden of release automation from the application teams.

Prerequisites

CloudBees CD/RO is an enterprise "on-premise" product that automates software delivery processes, including production deployments and releases. To use utilize this GitHub Action, it is necessary to have access to a CloudBees CD/RO instance, in particular,

• A CloudBees CD/RO instance that GitHub Actions can access through REST calls (TCP port 443)
• A valid API token for the CloudBees CD/RO instance. A token can be generated from the Access Token link on the user profile page of the CloudBees CD/RO user interface; see Manage access tokens via the UI documentation for details. These values should be stored as GitHub Action secrets to be referenced securely in a GitHub Actions workflow.

Usage

The CloudBees CD/RO GitHub Actions are called from steps in a GitHub Actions workflow. The following workflow extract illustrates how to create a Release from an existing template on a remote CloudBees CD/RO instance.

steps:
  - name: Create release
    env:
      CDRO_URL: ${{ secrets.CDRO_URL }}
      CDRO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.CDRO_TOKEN }}
    uses: cloudbees-github-actions/create-release-from-template@v1
    with:
      templateProjectName: Electric Cloud
      templateCatalogName: Releases
      templateName: Multi-stage CD Release
      actualParameter: |
        releaseProjectName: GHA Test
        releaseName: GHA Release from template
        releaseDescription: desc
        releaseStartDate: 2023-07-31
        releaseEndDate: 2023-08-02

Inputs

Name	Description	Required
templateProjectName	Project name of the release template	yes
templateCatalogName	Template catalog name	yes
templateName	Release template name	yes
actualParameter	Parameters as list of key-value pairs	no
ignore-unverified-cert	Ignore unverified SSL certificate	no

Outputs

Name	Description
response	The JSON data structure emited by the API call. This data can be parsed to retrieve individual values from the response, for example, ${{ fromJson(steps.start-release.outputs.response).flowRuntime.flowRuntimeId }} where start-release is the name of a previous step and .flowRuntime.flowRuntimeId is the selector for the release pipeline runtime ID.

Secrets and Variables

The following GitHub secrets are needed to run the Action. These can be set in the Secrets and variable section of the workflow repository Settings tab.

Name	Description	Required
CDRO_URL	CloudBees CD/RO server URL, e.g., https://my-cdro.net or https://74.125.134.147	yes
CDRO_TOKEN	CloudBees CD/RO API Access token	yes

Examples

Create release from an existing template

1. Set up secrets in the repository settings for Actions. In the GitHub repository, select the Settings tab, Secrets, Variables, and Actions. Use the New Repository button to create the CDRO_URL and CDRO_TOKEN secrets.
2. Create a new workflow file in the .github/workflows directory, for example, create-and-start-release-from-template.yml:

name: Create and start release from template

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
env:
  CDRO_URL: ${{ secrets.CDRO_URL }}
  CDRO_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.CDRO_TOKEN }}
jobs:
  create-and-start-release-from-template:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:

      - name: Create release
        uses: cloudbees-github-actions/create-release-from-template@v1
        with:
          templateProjectName: Electric Cloud
          templateCatalogName: Releases
          templateName: Multi-stage CD Release
          actualParameter:
            projectName: GHA Test
            releaseName: GHA Release from template
            pipelineParameter: |
              releaseProjectName: Default
              releaseName: SSC Generated
              releaseDescription: desc
              releaseStartDate: 2023-06-15
              releaseEndDate: "2023-06-20"
     
      - name: Start release
        uses: cloudbees-github-actions/start-release@v1
        with:
          projectName: Default
          releaseName: SSC Generated

3. Go to the GitHub Actions tab and run the workflow Create and start release from template

Sample build and release repository

The CloudBees CD/RO GitHub Actions Demonstration Repository illustrates how to implement a build and release workflow with the CloudBees CD/RO GitHub Actions.

License

The scripts and documentation in this project are released under the MIT License.

Documentation

For more details about the CloudBees CD/RO product, view the online documentation.