**Course Title:** Mastering Laravel Framework: Building Scalable Modern Web Applications **Section Title:** Version Control, Deployment, and CI/CD **Topic:** Setting up CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions or GitLab CI **Introduction** In the previous topics, we covered the basics of Laravel and its ecosystem, as well as the importance of version control, deployment, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. In this topic, we will dive deeper into setting up CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions or GitLab CI. This will help you automate your testing, building, and deployment processes, ensuring that your Laravel application is always up-to-date and secure. **What is CI/CD?** CI/CD stands for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment. It's a software development practice that involves integrating code changes into a central repository frequently, and then deploying those changes to production quickly and reliably. This approach helps ensure that your application is always stable, secure, and up-to-date. **GitHub Actions vs. GitLab CI** Both GitHub Actions and GitLab CI are popular CI/CD tools that can be used to automate your testing, building, and deployment processes. While they share similar features, there are some key differences between the two: * GitHub Actions is a built-in CI/CD tool in GitHub, while GitLab CI is a separate tool that can be used with GitLab. * GitHub Actions is more flexible and customizable, with a wider range of actions available. * GitLab CI is more powerful and feature-rich, with advanced features like pipeline templates and variables. **Setting up GitHub Actions** To set up GitHub Actions, you'll need to create a new YAML file in your repository's `.github/workflows` directory. This file will define the pipeline that will be run automatically whenever code changes are pushed to your repository. Here's an example YAML file that demonstrates a simple pipeline: ```yaml name: Laravel CI/CD Pipeline on: push: branches: - main jobs: build: runs-on: ubuntu-latest steps: - name: Checkout code uses: actions/checkout@v2 - name: Install dependencies run: composer install - name: Run tests run: phpunit - name: Build and deploy run: php artisan build && php artisan deploy ``` This pipeline will run automatically whenever code changes are pushed to the `main` branch. It will install dependencies, run tests, and then build and deploy the application. **Setting up GitLab CI** To set up GitLab CI, you'll need to create a new file in your repository's `.gitlab-ci.yml` directory. This file will define the pipeline that will be run automatically whenever code changes are pushed to your repository. Here's an example `.gitlab-ci.yml` file that demonstrates a simple pipeline: ```yaml stages: - build - deploy build: stage: build script: - composer install - phpunit artifacts: paths: - public/ deploy: stage: deploy script: - php artisan build - php artisan deploy ``` This pipeline will run automatically whenever code changes are pushed to your repository. It will install dependencies, run tests, and then build and deploy the application. **Practical Takeaways** * Use GitHub Actions or GitLab CI to automate your testing, building, and deployment processes. * Define a pipeline in your repository's `.github/workflows` or `.gitlab-ci.yml` directory. * Use the `on` keyword to specify when the pipeline should run (e.g., whenever code changes are pushed to the `main` branch). * Use the `jobs` keyword to define the pipeline stages (e.g., build, deploy). * Use the `steps` keyword to define the individual tasks within each stage (e.g., install dependencies, run tests, build and deploy). **Conclusion** In this topic, we covered the basics of setting up CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions or GitLab CI. We discussed the importance of automating your testing, building, and deployment processes, and provided examples of how to set up pipelines using both tools. With this knowledge, you'll be able to streamline your development workflow and ensure that your Laravel application is always up-to-date and secure. **Leave a comment or ask for help if you have any questions or need further clarification on any of the topics covered in this topic!** --- Next topic: Scaling Laravel applications (load balancing, caching strategies). From: Final Project and Advanced Topics.