making awesome automations with Github Actions

Beatriz Milz

rstudio::conf 2022 | July 2022

Slides: beatrizmilz.github.io/rstudioconf2022

Run scripts… 🙋‍♀️️

every day?

every week?

every month?

• So do you have to do a task using R in a regular basis? like every day, once a week, once a month, for example?

Logo of GitHub Actions

• If your answer is yes, GitHub Actions can be usefull to you!

What is GitHub Actions?

How can we run R Scripts with it?

• and Today my aim is to answer these questions: “What is GitHub Actions? How can we run R Scripts with it?”

R packages 📦

# Load usethis
library(usethis)
# run check
use_github_action("check-standard")
# build pkgdown site
use_github_action("pkgdown")

See other examples in: github.com/r-lib/actions/

• So, Actions is a service from GitHub that allows us to automate code executions in the cloud.

• GitHub Actions has been heavily used in some contexts, like runing checks in packages, building the package website, and so on. Package developers can easily start using Acitons with the help of the package usethis and the function use_github_action(). There are several awesome examples in the r-lib/actions repository!

How important is GHA to RStudio?

• Completed action runs
• Public repositories from:
  • rstudio
  • tidyverse
  • r-lib
  • mlverse
  • tidymodels
  • quarto-dev

• But, how importat is GitHub Actions to RStudio? The tidyverse packages that we all use and other projects from RStudio uses Actions. This plot shows how the use of actions has been increasing in repositories in the organizations from Rstudio, such as : rstudio, tidyverse, r-lib, mlverse, tidymodels and quarto. Actions are important to run checks on code changes and pull requests, update the documentation and website of our favorite packages. In two years, the number of action runs per month increased more than 4 times. !

What else can we do?

But what about people that are not package developers? What can be done apart from package development tasks?

Run arbitrary R scripts

• Scrape data from the internet

• Run reports with RMarkdown or Quarto

• Send emails

• Save results

This are some of the things that you can do with Actions: Scrape data from the internet, render reports with RMarkdown or Quarto, save results from an analysis, and even send them on an email!

on: # what triggers the workflow?
  workflow_dispatch: # start when pressing a button
  schedule: 
  - cron: "0 0 * * *" # run everyday

name: execute-r-script # name of the workflow

jobs: # what the workflow should do?
  execute-r-script:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest # Run on Ubuntu
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: r-lib/actions/setup-r@v2 # Install R
        with: 
          use-public-rspm: true    
      - name: run-script
        run: Rscript my_awesome_R_script.R  # Run R script

on: # what triggers the workflow?
  workflow_dispatch: # start when pressing a button
  schedule: 
  - cron: "0 0 * * *" # run everyday

name: execute-r-script # name of the workflow

jobs: # what the workflow should do?
  execute-r-script:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest # Run on Ubuntu
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: r-lib/actions/setup-r@v2 # Install R
        with: 
          use-public-rspm: true    
      - name: run-script
        run: Rscript my_awesome_R_script.R  # Run R script

on: # what triggers the workflow?
  workflow_dispatch: # start when pressing a button
  schedule: 
  - cron: "0 0 * * *" # run everyday

name: execute-r-script # name of the workflow

jobs: # what the workflow should do?
  execute-r-script:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest # Run on Ubuntu
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: r-lib/actions/setup-r@v2 # Install R
        with: 
          use-public-rspm: true    
      - name: run-script
        run: Rscript my_awesome_R_script.R  # Run R script

More examples…

https://beamilz.com/series-gha.html

• I prepared a series of posts that can help you start using Actions, which several examples! Also, there is a repository that you can fork, and explore later!

Thanks!

• RStudio - Thanks for the Diversity Scholarship!

• R-Ladies São Paulo and R-Ladies Global

• Curso-R and Julio Trecenti, Daniel Falbel, Athos Damiani

• Creators and contributors of r-lib/actions

• Articulation Inc.

Beatriz Milz 🇧🇷

• Contact

  • Twitter: @BeaMilz

  • Blog: beamilz.com

• About Bea

  • R-Ladies São Paulo Co-organizer

  • Teacher at Curso-R

  • Tidyverse instructor certified by RStudio