[Feature] implement an outputs for matrix compatible jobs

[onedr0p]

Is this feature missing in the latest version?

• I'm using the latest release

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Hi 👋🏼

It would be need if you had an outputs that can work with a matrix, this does not work

Check out this workflow: https://github.com/onedr0p/containers/blob/c15d8b71b288f812edb971a4c3966e62592bba1c/.github/workflows/release.yaml

And the run: https://github.com/onedr0p/containers/runs/6996087930?check_suite_focus=true

And the error: https://github.com/onedr0p/containers/actions/runs/2539358559

Describe the solution you'd like?

Implement a outputs.all_changed_files_json or similar that can be used with toJSON and fromJSON to pass the outputs on to a matrix.

Thanks!

Describe alternatives you've considered?

No response

Anything else?

No response

Code of Conduct

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

[github-actions]

Thanks for reporting this issue, don't forget to star this project to help us reach a wider audience.

[jackton1]

Hi @onedr0p, based on the error

Error when evaluating 'strategy' for job 'release'. .github/workflows/release.yaml (Line: 44, Col: 15): Unexpected type of value 'images/lidarr/nightly/metadata.json', expected type: Sequence.

You seem to be passing a space-delimited string to the toJSON function without quotes.

Possible Solution

outputs:
      matrix: "{\"container\": \"${{ steps.changed-files.outputs.all_changed_files }}\" }"

Note: You might also need to use the separator input to return a comma-separated string and wrap them in an array.

See: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/expressions#example-returning-a-json-object

[jackton1]

@onedr0p Edited ⬆️

[SiddhantSadangi]

@jackton1
I think the separator parameter is stripping out escaped double quotes:

Step:

    - name: Get changed notebooks
      id: changed-notebooks
      uses: tj-actions/changed-files@v23.1
      with:
        separator: "\", \""
        files: |
          **/*.ipynb

Code:

echo -e "Separator: \", \""
echo -e "Output: ${{ steps.changed-notebooks.outputs.all_changed_files }}"
echo -e "JSON format: {\"path\":[\"${{ steps.changed-notebooks.outputs.all_changed_files }}\""]}"
echo -e "::set-output name=changed_notebooks::{\"path\":[\"${{ steps.changed-notebooks.outputs.all_changed_files }}\""]}"
echo -e "JSON: ${{toJSON(needs.get-notebooks.outputs.changed_notebooks)}}"

Result:

Separator: ", "
Output: fail.ipynb, pass.ipynb
JSON format: {"path":["fail.ipynb, pass.ipynb"]}
echo -e ::set-output name=changed_notebooks::{"path":["fail.ipynb, pass.ipynb"]}
JSON: null

Expected result:

Separator: ", "
Output: fail.ipynb", "pass.ipynb
JSON format: {"path":["fail.ipynb", "pass.ipynb"]}
echo -e ::set-output name=changed_notebooks::{"path":["fail.ipynb", "pass.ipynb"]}

[sebestenyb]

Hi, I still have the error with the latest version:

Error when evaluating 'strategy' for job 'matrix-job'. .github/workflows/default.yml (Line: 30, Col: 15): Unexpected type of value '[\".github/workflows/default.yml\",\"demo.json\"]', expected type: Sequence.

I'm using the workflow file from the repository: https://github.com/tj-actions/changed-files/blob/dd1d85da10027d585a8e394aeee7524eb2f17bcf/.github/workflows/manual-matrix-test.yml

Even if I change the matrix definition in the workflow file to the one from above ( matrix: "{\"container\": \"${{ steps.changed-files.outputs.all_changed_files }}\" }"), the same error happens, slightly different output:

Error when evaluating 'strategy' for job 'matrix-job'. .github/workflows/default.yml (Line: 30, Col: 15): Unexpected type of value '[".github/workflows/default.yml","demo.json"]', expected type: Sequence.

[jackton1]

@sebestenyb @guitmz Note the lack of space between the key and value a full example of this can be seen here: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/learn-github-actions/expressions#example-returning-a-json-object

CHANGE

matrix: "{\"container\": \"${{ steps.changed-files.outputs.all_changed_files }}\" }"

TO

matrix:"{\"container\":${{ steps.changed-files.outputs.all_changed_files }}}"

See: https://github.com/tj-actions/changed-files/blob/main/.github/workflows/manual-matrix-test.yml#L27

[guitmz]

Actually what fixed for me was to specify 24.1 in my GitHub actions instead of only 24 for the version.
The syntax I grabbed from the repo test actions and it works fine!

[jackton1]

Cool.

[sebestenyb]

The latest test action in the repo is slightly different than the one in the PR merge commit above, it uses a separate step to set the matrix, like

- id: set-matrix
  run: echo "::set-output name=matrix::{\"container\":${{ steps.changed-files.outputs.all_changed_files }}}"

Not sure this fixed, or the lack of spaces, but it works now, thanks for you help folks!

[prein]

Would any of you mind posting full working example with passing the json to matrix strategy in another job?

[jackton1]

@prein Here’s an example: https://github.com/tj-actions/changed-files/blob/main/.github/workflows/manual-matrix-test.yml