Lab: Scheduled Workflow

Introduction

In this lab, you will create a scheduled workflow that runs at regular intervals using a cron expression. The workflow will also support manual triggering and will run when specific changes are pushed. This will help you understand how to configure workflows with schedules and additional triggers.

Estimated Duration: 10-20 minutes

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Instructions

Step 1: Create the Workflow File

1. In your repository, create a new directory .github/workflows if it doesn’t exist.

2. Create a new workflow file named intro-scheduled-workflow.yml inside .github/workflows.

3. Add the following YAML content to the file to define the workflow name:

   name: Intro - Scheduled Workflow
   

4. Save and commit the file to the main branch.

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Step 2: Add Workflow Triggers

1. Open the intro-scheduled-workflow.yml file.

2. Add the following on section below the name field:

   on:
     workflow_dispatch:
     schedule:
       - cron: '*/5 * * * *' # Every 5 minutes
     push:
       paths:
         - '.github/workflows/intro-scheduled-workflow.yml'
   

3. Commit the updated file.

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Step 3: Add Workflow Jobs and Steps

1. Open the intro-scheduled-workflow.yml file again.

2. Add the following job definition below the triggers:

   jobs:
     execute:
       runs-on: ubuntu-latest
   
       steps:
         - name: Display current date and time
           run: echo "The current date and time is $(date)"
   

3. Commit your changes.

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Step 4: Run and Test the Workflow

• Wait for the scheduled run (every 5 minutes),
• Or manually trigger it from the Actions tab,
• Or commit a change to .github/workflows/intro-scheduled-workflow.yml to trigger it on push.

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Step 5: View Workflow Results

• Go to the Actions tab,
• Click the latest workflow run,
• Open the execute job and expand the Display current date and time step to see the output.

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Optional: Customize the Schedule

• Change the cron expression in the schedule section to run at different intervals,
• Commit your changes and observe the updated schedule.

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Summary

You created a scheduled GitHub Actions workflow from scratch, configured triggers for schedule, manual dispatch, and push events, added steps to the job, ran the workflow, and checked its output.