TL;DR

After cloning the right template for you (R, Python, or both), verify the .github/workflows/build.yml, it should contain exactly what is on the Computo Workflow repository’s build.yml :

name: Main Workflows

on:
  push:
    branches: ["main","master"]
  repository_dispatch:
    types: [custom-event] 
  workflow_dispatch:
  pull_request:
    branches: ["main","master"]

jobs:
  call_env_workflow:
    uses: computorg/workflows/.github/workflows/global-env.yml@main
  call_quartopublish_workflow:
    uses: computorg/workflows/.github/workflows/publish-render.yml@main
    needs: call_env_workflow

Second, in your Settings > Pages on your repository, select the GitHub Actions as the source of your website.

Then, you can customize the setup-env-ci.sh and setup-render-ci.sh scripts to fit your needs.

• setup-env-ci.sh is for setting up the environment and typically adding system dependencies. The virtual machine on github (runner) may need to install some packages with apt-get for R or Python packages.
• setup-render-ci.sh is for taking care of specific dependencies outside of quarto, related to rendering, like plotting software or running a script to generate data.

Note

You can safely delete the gh-pages branch if you have one, as we don’t need anymore to push the HTML files to the site.

Computo Workflow Structure

The Computo workflows provide a streamlined publishing pipeline for authors to submit and render Quarto articles directly on GitHub Pages without requiring technical expertise.

Workflow Summary

The publication process consists of two main phases:

1. Environment Setup and Caching (global-env.yml)
   • Detects and installs required dependencies (Python, R)
   • Caches the environment for faster subsequent runs
   • Customizable via setup-env-ci.sh
2. Rendering and Deployment (publish-render.yml)
   • Renders Quarto documents to HTML
   • Publish the output to GitHub Pages
   • Customizable via setup-render-ci.sh

Authors only need to reference the main workflow file (build.yml) in their repository, which orchestrates these processes.

Workflow Visualization

Key Benefits

• Simplified Process: Authors need minimal GitHub Actions knowledge
• Optimized Performance: Environment caching for faster builds
• Customization Points: Two script entry points for custom configurations
• Automated Deployment: Direct publishing to GitHub Pages

Authors simply use the build.yml workflow in their repository to trigger the complete process from environment setup to final publication.