Launching Automation Jobs in GitHub

Testmo enables you to launch automated test runs using GitHub Actions workflows directly from the Testmo Automation Jobs view in any project. This only requires an existing GitHub integration configuration of one or more GitHub targets. Any test automation tool, framework and platform can be used.

You can launch simple GitHub Actions Workflows (such as running just a single test automation suite) as well as complex pipelines with multiple test suites (e.g. frontend, backend, API etc.) and even parallel testing jobs with multiple threads. See our GitHub Actions test automation article for a complete guide.

Overview

Regardless of your specific configuration and workflow, the basic concept of launching Automation Jobs from Testmo is always the same.

1. From the Automation > Jobs view in Testmo, click on the Add Automation Job button.
2. Select the desired target (the CI/CD pipeline) for the job, and confirm the job.
3. Testmo will trigger the job and let you know whether it was started successfully.

Configuring the GitHub Actions automation launching integration

To launch automated tests in GitHub Actions, you first need to set up a secured integration with GitHub. If you have already configured the GitHub Issues integration for your Testmo instance and updated the permissions for your GitHub Testmo app, you may be able skip to the next step (as the GitHub Issues integration and GitHub Action automation launching integration can use the same connection). Otherwise, follow the steps below to connect your GitHub account.

Setting up GitHub Actions automation targets

Once you have connected to your GitHub account, you can set up an automation target in Testmo. Automation targets give you a way to specify pipelines, branches, or tags that you would like to be able to trigger ahead of time. While setting up automation targets, you can also include unique parameters, inputs, or variables to trigger pipelines for particular environments, datasets, etc.

To create a new target for your automation job, simply follow these steps:

• In the Admin > Automation view, under Job Launching, click the + Target button
• In the Add target dialogue:
  • Name: Give your target a suitably descriptive name (you’ll need to be able to easily identify it when adding jobs, later)
  • Connection: Select the CI/CD connection you would like to use for this target, GitHub in this scenario.
  • Repository: Add the Repository path from GitHub
    • Testmo expects your GitHub account owner & name of the repository will be entered here.
    • When you navigate to a repository in GitHub, it’ll be the following string from the URL: owner/repository (after https://github.com/), e.g. “mike1234/myapp”
  • Workflow: Add the Workflow ID from GitHub
    • Use the full name of the workflow file including the .yml suffix, e.g. “test-parallel.yml”.
    • Note that the workflow must be configured to use workflow dispatching. The workflow_dispatch event enables Testmo to trigger this workflow via GitHub's API.
  • Reference: Add the repository branch or tag name to be used in the pipeline
    • This will be specific to your repository, and can be found in various GitHub views.
  • Inputs: Under the Inputs tab in the target setup dialogue, add any inputs you wish to supply to GitHub as part of the workflow
    • We expect automation launching may be used alongside parameters such as the browser, environment or platform to be tested, although you may define many other kinds of variables in your workflow's .yml file!
    • You may also wish to set up more advanced logic/switching scenarios. Please refer to GitHub documentation for how variables may be used in the context of a pipeline.
    • The Testmo CLI also provides advanced switching mechanisms, for which more information is supplied here: Reference | Testmo Docs
  • Under the Projects tab, you can select which Testmo projects you would like this target to be available for
    • By default, automation targets will be available for all Testmo projects.
  • Click Add target to save the target once you’ve added all the settings & inputs

Your automation target is now ready to trigger with an automation job in the Automation > Jobs view of any enabled project in your Testmo instance.

Using Automation Jobs to launch GitHub Actions workflows

Once you have set up an automation target, you can use Automation jobs to trigger your GitHub Actions workflows right from Testmo.

Navigate to the Automation > Jobs view of one of your projects, then click Add job.

For more on automation jobs, see Automation jobs.

Basic automation launching workflow with Testmo & GitHub Actions

Automation launching is designed to build on your existing pipeline workflow by providing testers with a capability to launch their automation pipelines directly from Testmo’s Automation > Jobs area.

A basic workflow might look like this:

Add an automation job to launch your target GitHub Actions workflow

GitHub Actions executes your automated tests controlled by the workflowGitHub Actions submits test results back to Testmo using the Testmo CLI

Permissions and Access to Automation Launching

Testmo makes it easy for you to control where your jobs can be launched and by whom.

• When setting up GitHub targets, you can select which projects they may be used in via the Target > Projects tab. Simply enable the target for all projects, or select which one(s) you wish to use it in:

• If you want to limit which user types are able to launch automation jobs from the Testmo UI, you can control this via the Users & Roles > Roles & Permissions settings in the Admin area. Simply create or edit the user role and apply or deselect the permissions from it:

FAQs

To read more about frequently asked questions around automation launching and GitHub Actions, see our Automation Jobs FAQs page.

Further links, references and guides

Refer to the documentation below for more information about GitHub integration and usage alongside Testmo:

• Product: GitHub integration features
• Guide: GitHub Actions Test Automation & Reporting
• Guide: GitHub Actions Parallel Test Automation Jobs
• Guide: Complete GitHub Actions & Selenium Guide
• Code: GitHub Actions test automation example
• Code: GitHub Actions parallel test automation example
• Code: GitHub Actions Selenium test automation example
• Docs: Testmo CI/CD integration
• Docs: Testmo CLI tool
• Docs: Testmo test automation