Deploying to Heroku using Github Actions

1. Create repository:

1.1. Create a .gitignore for Node.js.

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2. Created Node.js application. For my example, I created a simple "Hello World" Express web server.

2.1. package.json contains dependencies for Express, Morgan and Nodemon.

2.2. Push your code to Github.

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3. Create Actions: Node.js> "Set up this worflow".

3.1. Click "Start Commit">"Commit new file".

3.2. Now Node CI worflow should be triggered. It test is successful, you should see a green check.

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4. Setup Heroku:

4.1. Go to heroku.com and create a new application: New > Create New App.

4.2. Get your Heroku API key. Located at "Account Settings".

4.3. Copy the API key from Heroku to your github repository secrets: Settings > Secrets > Add a new secret.

4.4. Paste the API Key on the Value field, and give it a name, e.g. HEROKU_API_KEY.

4.5. In order to run on the Heroku container, you need to create a Dockerfile and .dockerignore. Read here for more details.

4.6. Update your Dockerfile CMD to: ["node", "<YOUR_SERVER_SCRIPT.JS>*" ] and set EXPOSE to the port the server should run.

Example:

    CMD [ "node", "server.js" ]
    EXPOSE 8080

4.7. Push the changes to your repository.

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5. Create Heroku github workflow:

5.1. Create new workflow: Actions > New workflow > Set up a workflow yourself.

5.2. Rename it to "heroku.yml".

5.3. Paste the following code on the edit window:

name: Deploy to Heroku
jobs:
 release:
   runs-on: ubuntu-latest
   steps:
   - uses: actions/checkout@master
   - name: login
     uses: actions/heroku@master
     env:
       HEROKU_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.HEROKU_API_KEY }}
     with:
       args: container:login
   - name: push
     uses: actions/heroku@master
     env:
       HEROKU_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.HEROKU_API_KEY }}
     with:
       args: container:push -a <YOUR_HEROKU_APP_NAME> web
   - name: release
     uses: actions/heroku@master
     env:
       HEROKU_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.HEROKU_API_KEY }}
     with:
       args: container:release -a <YOUR_HEROKU_APP_NAME> web

5.4. Update <YOUR_HEROKU_APP_NAME> to reflect the application name you created on Heroku.com (4.1).

5.5. HEROKU_API_KEY refers to the secret key we created earlier on the github repository settings (4.4).

5.6. Commit changes: "Start Commit">"Commit new file".

Now your workflow should be triggered. If the job is executed successfully, your code will be deployed to Heroku!

Check <YOUR_HEROKU_APP_NAME>.herokuapp.com and see the results!

Read more about Github Actions here.