Blog post workflow

preview

How to use

Star this repo 😉
Go to your repository
Add the following section to your README.md file, you can give whatever title you want. Just make sure that you use  in your readme. The workflow will replace this comment with the actual blog post list:
```
markdown
# Blog posts


```
Create a folder named .github and create a workflows folder inside it, if it doesn't exist.

Create a new file named blog-post-workflow.yml with the following contents inside the workflows folder:

yaml
name: Latest blog post workflow
on:
  schedule: # Run workflow automatically
    - cron: '0 0 * * *' # Runs once a day at 00:00 UTC
  workflow_dispatch: # Run workflow manually (without waiting for the cron to be called), through the GitHub Actions Workflow page directly
permissions:
  contents: write # To write the generated contents to the readme

jobs:
  update-readme-with-blog:
    name: Update this repo's README with latest blog posts
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout
        uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - name: Pull in dev.to posts
        uses: gautamkrishnar/blog-post-workflow@v1
        with:
          feed_list: "https://dev.to/feed/gautamkrishnar,https://www.gautamkrishnar.com/feed/"

Replace the above URL list with your own RSS feed URLs. See popular-sources for a list of common RSS feed urls. Commit the changes.
Note on workflow frequency: The default schedule above runs once daily at 00:00 UTC, which is suitable for most users. You can adjust the schedule based on how frequently you publish content:
- Daily: cron: '0 0 * * *' (recommended for most users)
- Weekly: cron: '0 0 * * 0' (every Sunday at 00:00 UTC)
- Monthly: cron: '0 0 1 * *' (1st day of every month at 00:00 UTC)
Running the workflow too frequently (e.g., hourly) may be unnecessary unless you publish content very often. You can always trigger the workflow manually using workflow_dispatch whenever needed.
Go to repository settings, Click on Actions > General. Update the "Workflow permissions" to "Read and write permissions". Click on save.
Wait for it to run automatically, or you can also trigger it manually to see the result instantly. To trigger the workflow manually, please follow the steps in the video.

Options

This workflow has additional options that you can use to customize it for your use case. The following are the list of options available:

Option	Default Value	Description	Required
`feed_list`	`""`	Comma-separated list of RSS feed urls, eg: `https://example1.com,https://example2.com`	Yes
`max_post_count`	`5`	Maximum number of posts you want to show on your readme, all feeds combined	No
`readme_path`	`./README.md`	Comma separated paths of the readme files you want to update	No
`gh_token`	your GitHub token with repo scope	Use this to configure the token of the user that commits the workflow result to GitHub	No
`comment_tag_name`	`BLOG-POST-LIST`	Allows you to override the default comment tag name (`<!-- BLOG-POST-LIST:START --><!-- BLOG-POST-LIST:END -->`), if you want to show multiple instances of the action on the same repo, see advanced usage for more info	No
`disable_sort`	`false`	Disables the sorting of the list based on publish date	No
`sort_order`	`desc`	Specifies the sort order of posts when date sorting is enabled (`disable_sort` is `false`). Supports `asc` (ascending, oldest first) and `desc` (descending, newest first). Has no effect if `disable_sort` is `true`. Works even without `pubDate` in RSS feeds (items without dates are placed at the end).	No
`reverse_order`	`false`	Reverses the order of posts when `disable_sort` is set to `true`	No
`feed_names`	`""`	Comma-separated list of RSS feed names, this is intended to be used with `template` option. eg: `Blog,Dev.to`	No
`template`	`default`	Allows you to change the structure of the posts list by using different variables. By default this workflow uses markdown list format to render the posts, you can override this behavior using this option. Eg: `[$title]($url)` will give you a space-separated list of posts.<br/><br/>Supported variables <ul><li>`$title`: Title of the post</li><li>`$url`: URL of the post</li><li>`$description`: Description of the post</li><li>`$newline`: Inserts a newline</li><li>`$date`: Inserts the post date based on the `date_format` specified</li><li>`$randomEmoji`: Allow you to use random emojis in the post, pass emojis as the parameter to chose one of it randomly in each post item. Eg: `$randomEmoji(💯,🔥,💫,🚀,🌮)`. See the issue comment for more details</li><li>`$emojiKey`: You can use this argument to show emojis on each of your post item sequentially in the order you specify. Example: `$emojiKey(💯,🔥,💫)`. See the issue comment for more details</li><li>`$counter`: You can use this argument to show a serial number on each of your post items.</li><li>`$feedName`: You can use this argument to show a string that represents your website name, use feed_names argument to specify it for each feed item. Eg: `feed_list: "https://dev.to/feed/gautamkrishnar,https://www.gautamkrishnar.com/feed/"`, `feed_names: "Dev.to,Personal Website"`</li><li>`$categories`: You can use this to show a comma separated list of post categories if available. See this issue for more details</li></ul>	No
`categories_template`	`default`	By default `$categories` variable in the template is a comma separated string of categories. This option will allow you override it and customize the category item according to your use case. Following are the variables available: <ul><li>`$category`: Represents individual category item</li></ul> eg: `<code>$category</code>` will show category list as `category1` `category2` `category3` etc	No
`date_format`	`UTC:ddd mmm dd yyyy h:MM TT`	Allows you to change the format of the date or time displayed when using the $date in the template option. This uses NPM dateformat library, please read the library documentation for the supported formats	No
`user_agent`	`rss-parser`	Allows you to customize the user agent used by the RSS feed crawler	No
`accept_header`	`application/rss+xml`	Allows you to customize the accept header of the http requests	No
`tag_post_pre_newline`	`true` if you are not using template option	Allows you to insert a newline before the closing tag and after the opening tag when using the template option if needed, for better formatting	No
`filter_comments`	`stackoverflow/Comment by $author/,stackexchange/Comment by $author/`	Comma separated list of platforms you want to enable the comment filter.<br/><br/>Available filters<ul><li>`stackoverflow/Comment by $author/`: Allows you to filter out the StackOverflow comments. Argument to this filter is optional, it defaults to 'Comment by $author'. If you use any language other than English on StackOverflow, you can use this argument to customize it. See #16 for more info.</li><li>`stackexchange/Comment by $author/`: Allows you to filter out the StackExchange comments. Argument to this filter follows the same format as `stackoverflow` filter's argument.</li></ul>	No
`custom_tags`	`""`	Allows you to use the custom tags from your feed items in your template. Format: `variableName/tagName/,variableName/tagName/`. Please see the issue comment for more details	No
`title_max_length`	`""`	Allows you to trim the title in the posts list, excess text will be appended with an ellipsis `...`	No
`description_max_length`	`""`	Allows you to trim the description in the posts list, excess text will be appended with an ellipsis `...`	No
`item_exec`	`""`	Allows you to execute custom JavaScript code on each post item fetched from the xml to do advanced text manipulation. Please see the issue comment as an example	No
`commit_message`	`Updated with the latest blog posts`	Allows you to customize the commit message	No
`committer_username`	`blog-post-bot`	Allows you to customize the committer username	No
`committer_email`	`blog-post-bot@example.com`	Allows you to customize the committer email	No
`output_only`	`false`	Sets the generated array as `results` output variable so that it can be consumed in other actions and parsed via utilities like jq. This will also prevent committing to readme. See #51 for more details about the output format and how to use it. This will also generate a JSON file named `/tmp/blog_post_workflow_output.json` that you can use to consume the generated data and avoid issues like #110.	No
`enable_keepalive`	`true`	Workflow will automatically do a dummy commit to keep the repository active if there is no commit activity for the last 50 days. GitHub will stop running all cron based triggers if the repository is not active for more than 60 days. This flag allows you to disable this feature. See #53 for more details.	No
`retry_count`	`0`	Maximum number of times to retry the fetch operation if it fails, See #66 for more details.	No
`retry_wait_time`	`1`	Time to wait before each retry operation in seconds.	No
`disable_html_encoding`	`false`	Disables html encoding of the feed contents.	No
`disable_item_validation`	`false`	Disables the validation checks for Title, publish date and URL.	No
`filter_dates`	`""`	Allows you to filter post items based on date range. <br/><br/>Supported Values <ul><li>`daysAgo/N/`: Use this value to display only the posts from the last N days. eg: `daysAgo/10/` will show only posts from last 10 days.</li><li>`currentMonth`: Use this value to display the post that are published on current month.</li><li>`currentYear`: Use this value to display the post that are published on current year.</li></ul> Make sure that you set the `max_post_count` to a higher value to get rid of max post count filtering, before using the above options.	No
`rand_seed`	`"username/repository"`	Provide your own seeding string for the randomness. More info: #152	No
`remove_duplicates`	`false`	Allows you to remove duplicate blog posts from multiple sources, if are cross posting. This filters contents based on blog post's title.	No
`skip_commit`	`false`	Allows you to prevent the workflow from creating a new commit in the repository. Nevertheless of this option, changes to the readme will be made. This is particularly useful if you want to do the commits manually using the git cli or another workflow. One of the important thing to note is that the workflow will still do the keepalive commits, if you want to disable it you can use the `enable_keepalive` option instead.	No
`dummy_commit_message`	`dummy commit to keep the repository active, see https://git.io/Jtm4V`	Dummy commit message, This is when the workflow is doing automated commits to keep the repository active	No

Advanced usage examples

Click to expand:

<details> <summary> StackOverflow example </summary>

The following configuration allows you to show your latest StackOverflow activity along with your latest blog posts in the GitHub profile or project readme:

Follow the steps mentioned in the how to use section.
Add the following section to your README.md file, you can give whatever title you want. Just make sure that you use  in your readme. The workflow will replace this comment with the actual StackOverflow activity:
```
markdown
# StackOverflow Activity


```

Create stack-overflow-workflow.yml in your workflows folder with the following contents, replace 4214976 with your StackOverflow user ID:

yaml
name: Latest stack overflow activity
on:
  schedule:
    # Runs every 5 minutes
    - cron: '*/5 * * * *'
  workflow_dispatch:
permissions:
  contents: write

jobs:
  update-readme-with-stack-overflow:
    name: Update this repo's README with latest activity from StackOverflow
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: gautamkrishnar/blog-post-workflow@v1
        with:
          comment_tag_name: "STACKOVERFLOW"
          commit_message: "Updated readme with the latest stackOverflow data"
          feed_list: "https://stackoverflow.com/feeds/user/4214976"

See the result!

advanced