Automate reporting when experimental builds are created by having CI post to an optional open PR/ticket

[luzpaz]

Thanks to the work of ppd, we now have a more streamlined approach to build experimental builds and test them comfortably.

Re: https://github.com/FreeCAD/FreeCAD-snap/blob/master/docs/index.md#build-snaps-from-freecad-branches-or-forks

It would be sweet if we could also functionality (add a field to the snap.yaml) that would automate posting the instructions on how to install experimental snaps to a specific ticket or PR. Currently the instructions are posted to the PR that triggers the builds, but someone needs to manually post said instructions elsewhere. I remember that TravisCI has this option where you could specify it to connect to an IRC channel and post it's results. Can we do something less fancy by just posting an open ticket/PR ?

[luzpaz]

Hints:

• https://github.com/marketplace/actions/create-or-update-comment#accessing-issues-and-comments-in-other-repositories

Looks like we need a Personal Access Token + leveraging the github.issues.createComment api call ?

[ppd]

So you would like those same comments that are posted on the PR in FreeCAD-snap to be posted to some user-specified issue/PR in FreeCAD/FreeCAD, correct?

In that case: yes, you'd need a PAT.

[ppd]

@luzpaz do you want to take a crack at it?

[luzpaz]

I'll try doing so this week.

[ppd]

@luzpaz

• Port issue posting script to GitHub Script v6
• Copy issue posting script into new action "comment on external issue"
• introduce env variable that points to a FreeCAD/FreeCAD issue number. Alternative: Put issue number into snapcraft.yaml. Advantages: Only one file to edit, everything is in one place, in theory, the issue number could be read from the snap and displayed somewhere ("This is a test build for issue [the link here]" or similar)
• add token to secrets
• Use token in script: https://github.com/actions/github-script#using-a-separate-github-token
• if issue number is set; then also create a comment on the FreeCAD issue

[luzpaz]

Spent sometime researching this and it's out of my scope ATM. Anyone free to take this over?