Setting Output for Integration testing

This guide shows you how to dynamically fetch your Kubernetes Ingress host, expose it as a job output in a dev-deploy job, and consume that output in an integration-testing job to verify your /live endpoint. By the end, you’ll have a seamless flow where the Ingress URL travels between jobs in the same workflow.

Overview

Capture the Ingress host URL after deployment
Export it as a job output
Use the output in a downstream integration test

1. Deploying to Dev and Capturing the Ingress URL

In the dev-deploy job, we apply Kubernetes manifests and query the Ingress host name. We then write it to $GITHUB_OUTPUT so it becomes available to other jobs.

jobs:
  dev-deploy:
    needs: docker
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install kubectl CLI
        uses: azure/setup-kubectl@v3
        with:
          version: 'v1.26.0'

      - name: Configure kubeconfig
        uses: azure/k8s-set-context@v3
        with:
          method: kubeconfig
          kubeconfig: ${{ secrets.KUBECONFIG }}

      - name: Deploy to Dev Environment
        run: kubectl apply -f kubernetes/development

      - name: Set App Ingress Host URL
        id: set-ingress-host-address
        run: |
          HOST=$(kubectl -n ${{ vars.NAMESPACE }} \
            get ingress -o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.tls[0].hosts[0]}')
          echo "APP_INGRESS_URL=$HOST" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"

    outputs:
      APP_INGRESS_URL: ${{ steps.set-ingress-host-address.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL }}

Note

Ensure your Kubernetes context and namespace (${{ vars.NAMESPACE }}) are correctly configured before running kubectl.

2. Defining the Integration Testing Job

After dev-deploy completes, integration-testing retrieves the APP_INGRESS_URL output and calls the /live endpoint using curl and jq.

  integration-testing:
    name: Dev Integration Testing
    needs: dev-deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Test `/live` Endpoint
        env:
          URL: ${{ needs.dev-deploy.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL }}
        run: |
          echo "Testing endpoint: https://$URL/live"
          curl https://$URL/live -s -k | jq -r .status | grep -iq live

Note

The Ubuntu runner includes both curl and jq by default. If you use a custom runner, install these tools before running the test.

3. Passing Values Between Jobs

GitHub Actions lets you map step outputs to job outputs and then reference them in downstream jobs via the needs context.

Level	Syntax	Example
Step output	`steps.<step_id>.outputs.<output_name>`	`steps.set-ingress-host-address.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL`
Job output	`needs.<job_id>.outputs.<output_name>`	`needs.dev-deploy.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL`

The image shows a GitHub Docs page about passing values between steps and jobs in a workflow, with information on using environment variables and job outputs.

For more details, see the GitHub Actions contexts documentation.

4. Complete Workflow Example

Here’s how the full .github/workflows/solar-system.yml might look with both jobs defined:

name: Deploy and Test

on:
  push:
    branches: [ main ]

jobs:
  dev-deploy:
    needs: docker
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Checkout Repository
        uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Install kubectl CLI
        uses: azure/setup-kubectl@v3
        with:
          version: 'v1.26.0'

      - name: Configure kubeconfig
        uses: azure/k8s-set-context@v3
        with:
          method: kubeconfig
          kubeconfig: ${{ secrets.KUBECONFIG }}

      - name: Deploy to Dev Environment
        run: kubectl apply -f kubernetes/development

      - name: Set App Ingress Host URL
        id: set-ingress-host-address
        run: |
          HOST=$(kubectl -n ${{ vars.NAMESPACE }} \
            get ingress -o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.tls[0].hosts[0]}')
          echo "APP_INGRESS_URL=$HOST" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"

    outputs:
      APP_INGRESS_URL: ${{ steps.set-ingress-host-address.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL }}

  integration-testing:
    name: Dev Integration Testing
    needs: dev-deploy
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Test `/live` Endpoint
        env:
          URL: ${{ needs.dev-deploy.outputs.APP_INGRESS_URL }}
        run: |
          echo "Testing endpoint: https://$URL/live"
          curl https://$URL/live -s -k | jq -r .status | grep -iq live

The image shows a GitHub Actions workflow summary for a project, indicating successful completion of various jobs such as unit testing, code coverage, and deployment. The workflow is named "solar-system.yml" and includes steps like containerization and integration testing.

References

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