Readme Download Button Action

GitHub Action workflow configuration for keeping a direct download link of the latest version in your README.md file.

Example

With a single click of the button below, a zip of this repository will start downloading.

The URL this button leads to is automatically updated on each release by this workflow.

Basic Usage

This workflow consists mainly of four parts:

• Checkout the latest version of the repo with actions/checkout
• Get the latest release with InsonusK/get-latest-release
• Insert a download button for the latest version in the readme using a custom shell script
• Update the readme with EndBug/add-and-commit

Step 1

Add the following snippet within your README.md file anywhere you want the button to appear:

<!-- BEGIN LATEST DOWNLOAD BUTTON -->
<!-- END LATEST DOWNLOAD BUTTON -->

Step 2

Create a workflow by placing the following in a .yml file in your .github/workflows/ directory:

name: "Download Button Action"

on:
  release:
    types:
      - published
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Get latest release
        id: get-latest-release
        uses: InsonusK/get-latest-release@v1.0.1
        with:
          myToken: ${{ github.token }}
          view_top: 1

      - name: Readme Download Button Action
        env:
          GITHUB_USER: "DenverCoder1"
          REPO: "readme-download-button-action"
          FORMAT: "zip"
          VERSION: "${{ steps.get-latest-release.outputs.tag_name }}"
          COLOR: "blue"
          BEGIN_TAG: "<!-- BEGIN LATEST DOWNLOAD BUTTON -->"
          END_TAG: "<!-- END LATEST DOWNLOAD BUTTON -->"
        run: |
          UPDATE=$(cat README.md | perl -0777 -pe 's#(${{ env.BEGIN_TAG }})(?:.|\n)*?(${{ env.END_TAG }})#${1}\n[![Download ${{ env.FORMAT }}](https://custom-icon-badges.demolab.com/badge/-Download-${{ env.COLOR }}?style=for-the-badge&logo=download&logoColor=white "Download ${{ env.FORMAT }}")](https://github.com/${{ env.GITHUB_USER }}/${{ env.REPO }}/archive/${{ env.VERSION }}.${{ env.FORMAT }})\n${2}#g')
          echo "${UPDATE}" > README.md

      - uses: EndBug/add-and-commit@v7
        with:
          message: "docs(readme): Bump download button version to ${{ steps.get-latest-release.outputs.tag_name }}"
          default_author: github_actions
          branch: main

Step 3

Update the variables in the env section of the Readme Download Button Action step to include your username and repo along with any configuration you want as described below in the Options section.

Options

In the Readme Download Button Action step of the workflow, the following environment variables must be set:

Variable	Example	Description
GITHUB_USER	"DenverCoder1"	The GitHub username of the user who owns the repository
REPO	"readme-download-button-action"	The name of the repository
FORMAT	"zip", "tar.gz"	The file format to download (zip or tar.gz)
VERSION	"0.0.1", <tag of latest release>*	The tag name of the release
COLOR	"blue", "0088AA"	The color of the download button (name or hex code)
BEGIN_TAG	<!-- BEGIN LATEST DOWNLOAD BUTTON -->	The beginning tag of the download button
END_TAG	<!-- END LATEST DOWNLOAD BUTTON -->	The ending tag of the download button

*For using the latest release, include the get-latest-release step and set VERSION to ${{ steps.get-latest-release.outputs.tag_name }}

Advanced Usage

This workflow can also be used in combination with other actions for automatically creating tags and releases in addition to updating the readme.

For example:

• Calculate the next version number based on the latest release with a shell script or an action for Semantic Versioning
• Create a tag with tvdias/github-tagger
• Create a release with a changelog using fregante/release-with-changelog

name: "Automatic Release"

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - master
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2

      - name: Get latest release
        id: get-latest-release
        uses: InsonusK/get-latest-release@v1.0.1
        with:
          myToken: ${{ github.token }}
          view_top: 1
      
      - name: Get next tag
        id: next-tag
        run: |
          prev_version=$(echo "${{ steps.get-latest-release.outputs.tag_name }}" | sed -E 's/\..*//g')
          echo "Previous version: $((prev_version))"
          echo "Next version: $((prev_version+1))"
          echo "::set-output name=tag::$((prev_version+1)).0"
          
      - name: Create tag
        uses: tvdias/github-tagger@v0.0.1
        with:
          repo-token: "${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}"
          tag: ${{ steps.next-tag.outputs.tag }}

      - uses: fregante/release-with-changelog@v3
        id: release-with-changelog
        with:
          token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          exclude: '^meta|^docs|^document|^lint|^ci|^refactor|readme|workflow|bump|dependencies|yml|^v?\d+\.\d+\.\d+'
          tag: ${{ steps.next-tag.outputs.tag }}
          title: 'Version ${{ steps.next-tag.outputs.tag }}'
          commit-template: '- {hash} {title}'
          skip-on-empty: true
          template: |
            ### Changelog

            {commits}

            {range}
            
      - name: Delete tag if release skipped
        if: ${{ steps.release-with-changelog.outputs.skipped == 'true' }}
        run: |
          git tag -d ${{ steps.next-tag.outputs.tag }}
          git push origin :refs/tags/${{ steps.next-tag.outputs.tag }}

      - name: Readme Download Button Action
        if: ${{ steps.release-with-changelog.outputs.skipped == 'false' }}
        env:
          GITHUB_USER: "DenverCoder1"
          REPO: "readme-download-button-action"
          FORMAT: "zip"
          VERSION: "${{ steps.next-tag.outputs.tag }}"
          COLOR: "blue"
          BEGIN_TAG: "<!-- BEGIN LATEST DOWNLOAD BUTTON -->"
          END_TAG: "<!-- END LATEST DOWNLOAD BUTTON -->"
        run: |
          UPDATE=$(cat README.md | perl -0777 -pe 's#(${{ env.BEGIN_TAG }})(?:.|\n)*?(${{ env.END_TAG }})#${1}\n[![Download ${{ env.FORMAT }}](https://custom-icon-badges.demolab.com/badge/-Download-${{ env.COLOR }}?style=for-the-badge&logo=download&logoColor=white "Download ${{ env.FORMAT }}")](https://github.com/${{ env.GITHUB_USER }}/${{ env.REPO }}/archive/${{ env.VERSION }}.${{ env.FORMAT }})\n${2}#g')
          echo "${UPDATE}" > README.md

      - uses: EndBug/add-and-commit@v7
        if: ${{ steps.release-with-changelog.outputs.skipped == 'false' }}
        with:
          message: 'docs: Bump version to ${{ steps.next-tag.outputs.tag }}'
          default_author: github_actions

License

This work is under an MIT license

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