Architect.io Docs

Automated Preview Environments

One of the largest benefits of Architects framework is that provisioning new environments is always limited to a single step, architect deploy. No matter how complex the application is or how many dependencies it has, architect deploy is able to automatically provision it in a new environment.

What this means is that not only can developers run the stack privately, but the stack can also be provisioned automatically whenever there is a new branch or pull request. This automation is perfect for creating previews of impending code changes so that product managers can review and integration tests can be run end to end.

Github Actions

Create preview environment

The workflow below can be pasted into a file in your repository in the .github/workflows folder to trigger automated preview environments via Architect. These previews will be created whenever a pull request is submitted that targets the master branch. Be sure to set values in Github Secrets for the architect fields: ARCHITECT_EMAIL and ARCHITECT_PASSWORD. Replace <account-name>, <cluster-name>, and <component-file-path> with the appropriate values. With the --ttl flag set to 1d, the environment will be destroyed automatically in a day after creation.

ARCHITECT_PASSWORD must be a personal access token.

name: Architect Preview

on:
  pull_request:
    types:
      - opened
      - synchronize
      - reopened
      - closed

env:
  ARCHITECT_EMAIL: ${{ secrets.ARCHITECT_EMAIL }}
  ARCHITECT_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.ARCHITECT_PASSWORD }}
  ARCHITECT_ACCOUNT: <account-name> # Change to your Architect account name
  CLUSTER_NAME: <cluster-name> # Ex. "architect" to use the managed cluster
  COMPONENT_FILE_PATH: <component-file-path> # Change to the path of your architect.yml
  PREVIEW_TAG: preview-${{ github.event.number }}

jobs:
  architect_create_preview:
    if: github.event.action != 'closed'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '16'
      - uses: crazy-max/ghaction-github-runtime@v2 # Exports internal envs for Github Actions. Required for register caching to work.
      - name: Install Architect CLI
        run:  npm install -g @architect-io/cli
      - name: Login to Architect Cloud
        run: architect login
      - name: Create env if not exists
        run: architect environment:create ${{ env.PREVIEW_TAG }} --cluster ${{ env.CLUSTER_NAME }} --ttl=1d
      - name: Register and deploy component
        run: architect deploy --auto-approve -e ${{ env.PREVIEW_TAG }} ${{ env.COMPONENT_FILE_PATH }}

  architect_remove_preview:
    if: github.event.action == 'closed'
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: actions/setup-node@v3
        with:
          node-version: '16'
      - name: Install Architect CLI
        run:  npm install -g @architect-io/cli
      - name: Login to Architect Cloud
        run: architect login
      - name: Remove preview environment
        run: architect environment:destroy ${{ env.PREVIEW_TAG }} --auto-approve -f || exit 0

Comment on pull request discussion

Use the snippet below in GitHub workflows to automatically create a comment in the pull request discussion for reviewers to be able to quickly view either the preview environment or the running appplication created by Architect.

...
- name: Architect preview information PR comment
  uses: actions/github-script@v3
  env:
    ACCOUNT: ${{ secrets.ARCHITECT_ACCOUNT }}
    COMPONENT: ${{ secrets.ARCHITECT_COMPONENT }}
  with:
    script: |
      const {data: comments} = await github.issues.listComments({
        issue_number: ${{ github.event.number }},
        owner: context.repo.owner,
        repo: context.repo.repo,
      })
      const architectComment = comments.find(comment => comment.body.startsWith('### Architect'));
      if (architectComment) {
        return;
      }
      github.issues.createComment({
        issue_number: ${{ github.event.number }},
        owner: context.repo.owner,
        repo: context.repo.repo,
        body: `### Architect
        Preview environment: [${process.env.ENVIRONMENT}](https://cloud.architect.io/${process.env.ACCOUNT}/environments/${process.env.ENVIRONMENT})
        Running application: [${process.env.COMPONENT}](https://hello.${process.env.ENVIRONMENT}.${process.env.ACCOUNT}.arc.domains)`
      })
...

Post to Slack

Use the code below in a GitHub workflow to post to a Slack channel on specified events if collaborators on a feature or issue want to be notified when it is ready to be reviewed or tested.

...
- name: Post Architect preview information to Slack
  id: slack
  uses: slackapi/slack-github-action@v1.14.0
  with:
    payload: "{\"preview_env\":\"https://cloud.architect.io/${{ secrets.ARCHITECT_ACCOUNT }}/environments/preview-${{ github.event.number }}\",\"app_endpoint\":\"https://hello.preview-${{ github.event.number }}.${{ secrets.ARCHITECT_ACCOUNT }}.arc.domains\"}"
  env:
    SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL: ${{ secrets.SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL }}
...

Caching between workflow runs

The Architect CLI can take advantage of caching Docker image layers between workflow runs. This can dramatically speed up workflows that include registering a component as one of the steps. This is accomplished by using the Github Actions cache api directly. The only change is to add the following action ghaction-github-runtime before registering to expose the necessary environment variables.

Gitlab CI

This job can be pasted into your .gitlab-ci.yml at the root of your repository. You are welcome to change the stage to whatever fits your needs to allow you to run tests before the preview is generated, and please be sure to assign correct values for the variables in the job. Additionally, you'll need to assign values for variables in the below config not prefixed with $CI_ in your repository's CI variables configuration so that the architect commands will run successfully.

This configuration takes advantage of GitLab environments in order to give you better control and visibility into what environments exist and what's deployed to them. On PR creation, both a GitLab and Architect environment will be created. The component specified in the repository will be registered with the Architect Cloud and deployed to the environment. When the PR is either merged or closed, the GitLab environment will be automatically deleted and the component deployed to the environment in the Architect Cloud will be destroyed.