caltechlibrary / iga

IGA is the InvenioRDM GitHub Archiver, a standalone program as well as a GitHub Action that lets you automatically archive GitHub software releases in an InvenioRDM repository.
https://caltechlibrary.github.io/iga/
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IGAIGA logo

IGA is the InvenioRDM GitHub Archiver, a standalone program as well as a GitHub Actions workflow that lets you automatically archive GitHub software releases in an InvenioRDM repository.

Latest release License Python PyPI DOI

Table of contents

Introduction

InvenioRDM is the basis for many institutional repositories such as CaltechDATA that enable users to preserve software and data sets in long-term archive. Though such repositories are critical resources, creating detailed records and uploading assets can be a tedious and error-prone process if done manually. This is where the InvenioRDM GitHub Archiver (IGA) comes in.

IGA creates metadata records and sends releases from GitHub to an InvenioRDM-based repository server. IGA can be invoked from the command line; it also can be set up as a GitHub Actions workflow to archive GitHub releases automatically for a repository each time they are made.

Screenshot of a software release in GitHub Screenshot of the corresponding entry in InvenioRDM

IGA offers many notable features:

The IGA GitHub action workflow automatically will add the archived DOI to a CodeMeta file and create/update a CFF file using the CodeMeta2CFF workflow.

Installation

IGA can be installed as either (or both) a command-line program on your computer or a GitHub Action in a GitHub repository.

IGA as a standalone program

Please choose an approach that suits your situation and preferences.

Alternative 1: using pipx

[Pipx](https://github.com/pypa/pipx) lets you install Python programs in a way that isolates Python dependencies from other Python programs on your system, and yet the resulting `iga` command can be run from any shell and directory – like any normal program on your computer. If you use `pipx` on your system, you can install IGA with the following command: ```sh pipx install iga ``` After installation, a program named `iga` should end up in a location where other command-line programs are installed on your computer. Test it by running the following command in a shell: ```shell iga --help ```

Alternative 2: using pip

IGA is available from the [Python package repository PyPI](https://pypi.org) and can be installed using [`pip`](https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/): ```sh python3 -m pip install iga ``` As an alternative to getting it from [PyPI](https://pypi.org), you can install `iga` directly from GitHub: ```sh python3 -m pip install git+https://github.com/caltechlibrary/iga.git ``` _If you already installed IGA once before_, and want to update to the latest version, add `--upgrade` to the end of either command line above. After installation, a program named `iga` should end up in a location where other command-line programs are installed on your computer. Test it by running the following command in a shell: ```shell iga --help ```

Alternative 3: from sources

If you prefer to install IGA directly from the source code, first obtain a copy by either downloading the source archive from the [IGA releases page on GitHub](https://github.com/caltechlibrary/iga/releases), or by using `git` to clone the repository to a location on your computer. For example, ```sh git clone https://github.com/caltechlibrary/iga ``` Next, after getting a copy of the files, run `setup.py` inside the code directory: ```sh cd iga python3 setup.py install ```

Once you have installed iga, the next steps are (1) get an InvenioRDM token and (2) configure iga for running locally.

IGA as a GitHub Actions workflow

A GitHub Actions workflow is an automated process that runs on GitHub's servers under control of a file in your repository. Follow these steps to create the IGA workflow file:

  1. In the main branch of your GitHub repository, create a .github/workflows directory

  2. In the .github/workflows directory, create a file named (e.g.) iga.yml and copy the following contents into it:

    # GitHub Actions workflow for InvenioRDM GitHub Archiver version 1.3.4
    # This is available as the file "sample-workflow.yml" from the open-
    # source repository for IGA at https://github.com/caltechlibrary/iga/.
    
    # ╭────────────────────────────────────────────╮
    # │ Configure this section                     │
    # ╰────────────────────────────────────────────╯
    
    env:
      # 👋🏻 Set the next variable to your InvenioRDM server address 👋🏻
      INVENIO_SERVER: https://your-invenio-server.org
    
      # Set to an InvenioRDM record ID to mark release as a new version.
      parent_record: none
    
      # The variables below are other IGA options. Please see the docs.
      community:     none
      draft:         false
      all_assets:    false
      all_metadata:  false
      debug:         false
    
      # This variable is a setting for post-archiving CodeMeta file updates.
      # If you don't have a CodeMeta file, you can remove the add_doi_codemeta
      # and Codemeta2CFF jobs at the bottom of this file.
      ref: main
    
    # ╭────────────────────────────────────────────╮
    # │ The rest of this file should be left as-is │
    # ╰────────────────────────────────────────────╯
    
    name: InvenioRDM GitHub Archiver
    on:
      release:
        types: [published]
      workflow_dispatch:
        inputs:
          release_tag:
            description: The release tag (empty = latest)
          parent_record:
            description: ID of parent record (for versioning)
          community:
            description: Name of InvenioRDM community (if any)
          draft:
            description: Mark the record as a draft
            type: boolean
          all_assets:
            description: Attach all GitHub assets
            type: boolean
          all_metadata:
            description: Include additional GitHub metadata
            type: boolean
          debug:
            description: Print debug info in the GitHub log
            type: boolean
    
    run-name: Archive ${{inputs.release_tag || 'latest release'}} in InvenioRDM
    jobs:
      run_iga:
        name: Send to ${{needs.get_repository.outputs.server}}
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        needs: get_repository
        outputs:
          record_doi: ${{steps.iga.outputs.record_doi}}
        steps:
          - uses: caltechlibrary/iga@v1
            id: iga
            with:
              INVENIO_SERVER: ${{env.INVENIO_SERVER}}
              INVENIO_TOKEN:  ${{secrets.INVENIO_TOKEN}}
              all_assets:     ${{github.event.inputs.all_assets || env.all_assets}}
              all_metadata:   ${{github.event.inputs.all_metadata || env.all_metadata}}
              debug:          ${{github.event.inputs.debug || env.debug}}
              draft:          ${{github.event.inputs.draft || env.draft}}
              community:      ${{github.event.inputs.community || env.community}}
              parent_record:  ${{github.event.inputs.parent_record || env.parent_record}}
              release_tag:    ${{github.event.inputs.release_tag || 'latest'}}
      get_repository:
        name: Get repository name
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        outputs:
          server: ${{steps.parse.outputs.host}}
        steps:
          - name: Extract name from INVENIO_SERVER
            id: parse
            run: echo "host=$(cut -d'/' -f3 <<< ${{env.INVENIO_SERVER}} | cut -d':' -f1)" >> $GITHUB_OUTPUT
      add_doi_codemeta:
        name: "Add ${{needs.run_iga.outputs.record_doi}} to codemeta.json"
        needs: run_iga
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        steps:
          - name: Checkout
            uses: actions/checkout@v4
            with:
              ref: ${{ env.ref }}
          - name: Install sde
            run: pip install sde
          - name: Add DOI to CodeMeta File
            run: sde identifier ${{needs.run_iga.outputs.record_doi}} codemeta.json
          - name: Commit CFF
            uses: EndBug/add-and-commit@v9
            with:
              message: 'Add DOI to codemeta.json file'
              add: 'codemeta.json'
      CodeMeta2CFF:
        runs-on: ubuntu-latest
        needs: add_doi_codemeta
        steps:
          - name: Checkout
            uses: actions/checkout@v4
            with:
              ref: ${{ env.ref }}
          - name: Convert CFF
            uses: caltechlibrary/codemeta2cff@main
          - name: Commit CFF
            uses: EndBug/add-and-commit@v9
            with:
              message: 'Add updated CITATION.cff from codemeta.json file'
              add: 'CITATION.cff'
  3. Edit the value of the INVENIO_SERVER variable (line 7 above)

  4. Optionally, change the values of other options (parent_record, community, etc.)

  5. If you have a CodeMeta file, the GitHub action workflow can automatically add the DOI after IGA has run. The "ref" value is the branch where the CodeMeta file will be updated. If you don't use a CodeMeta file, you can delete the add_doi_codemeta part of the workflow.

  6. Save the file, commit the changes to git, and push your changes to GitHub Once you have installed the GitHub Action workflow for IGA, the next steps are (1) get an InvenioRDM token and (2) configure the GitHub Action workflow.

Quick start

No matter whether IGA is run locally on your computer or as a GitHub Actions workflow, in both cases it must be provided with a personal access token (PAT) for your InvenioRDM server. Getting one is the first step.

Getting an InvenioRDM token

Screenshot of InvenioRDM PAT menu
  1. Log in to your InvenioRDM account
  2. Go to the Applications page in your account profile
  3. Click the New token button next to "Personal access tokens"
  4. On the page that is shown after you click that button, name your token (the name does not matter) and click the Create button
  5. After InvenioRDM creates and shows you the token, copy it to a safe location because InvenioRDM will not show it again

Configuring and running IGA locally

To send a GitHub release to your InvenioRDM server, IGA needs this information:

  1. (Required) The identity of the GitHub release to be archived
  2. (Required) The address of the destination InvenioRDM server
  3. (Required) A personal access token for InvenioRDM (from above)
  4. (Optional) A personal access token for GitHub

The identity of the GitHub release is always given as an argument to IGA on the command line; the remaining values can be provided either via command-line options or environment variables. One approach is to set environment variables in shell scripts or your interactive shell. Here is an example using Bash shell syntax, with fake token values:

export INVENIO_SERVER=https://data.caltech.edu
export INVENIO_TOKEN=qKLoOH0KYf4D98PGYQGnC09hiuqw3Y1SZllYnonRVzGJbWz2
export GITHUB_TOKEN=ghp_wQXp6sy3AsKyyEo4l9esHNxOdo6T34Zsthz

Once these are set, use of IGA can be as simple as providing a URL for a release in GitHub. For example, the following command creates a draft record (the -d option is short for --draft) for another project in GitHub and tells IGA to open (the -o option is short for --open) the newly-created InvenioRDM entry in a web browser:

iga -d -o https://github.com/mhucka/taupe/releases/tag/v1.2.0

More options are described in the section on detailed usage information below.

Configuring and running IGA as a GitHub Actions workflow

After doing the GitHub Actions installation steps and obtaining an InvenioRDM token, one more step is needed: the token must be stored as a "secret" in your GitHub repository.

  1. Go to the Settings page of your GitHub repository

    Screenshot of repository tabs in GitHub

  2. In the left-hand sidebar, find Secrets and variables in the Security section, click on it to reveal Actions underneath, then click on Actions

    Screenshot of GitHub secrets sidebar item

  3. In the next page, click the green New repository secret button

    Screenshot of GitHub secrets interface

  4. Name the variable INVENIO_TOKEN and paste in your InvenioRDM token
  5. Finish by clicking the green Add secret button

Testing the workflow

After setting up the workflow and storing the InvenioRDM token in your repository on GitHub, it's a good idea to run the workflow manually to test that it works as expected.

  1. Go to the Actions tab in your repository and click on the name of the workflow in the sidebar on the left

    Screenshot of GitHub actions workflow list

  2. Click the Run workflow button in the right-hand side of the blue strip
  3. In the pull-down, change the value of "Mark the record as a draft" to true

    Screenshot of GitHub Actions workflow menu

  4. Click the green Run workflow button near the bottom
  5. Refresh the web page and a new line will be shown named after your workflow file

    Screenshot of a running workflow in GitHub Actions

  6. Click the title of the workflow to see the IGA workflow progress and results

Running the workflow when releasing software

Once the personal access token from InvenioRDM is stored as a GitHub secret, the workflow should run automatically every time a new release is made on GitHub – no further action should be needed. You can check the results (and look for errors if something went wrong) by going to the Actions tab in your GitHub repository.

Usage

This section provides detailed information about IGA's operation and options to control it.

Identifying the InvenioRDM server

The server address must be provided either as the value of the option --invenio-server or in an environment variable named INVENIO_SERVER. If the server address does not begin with https://, IGA will prepend it automatically.

Providing an InvenioRDM access token

A personal access token (PAT) for making API calls to the InvenioRDM server must be also supplied when invoking IGA. The preferred method is to set the value of the environment variable INVENIO_TOKEN. Alternatively, you can use the option --invenio-token to pass the token on the command line, but you are strongly advised to avoid this practice because it is insecure.

To obtain a PAT from an InvenioRDM server, first log in to the server, then visit the page at /account/settings/applications and use the interface there to create a token. The token will be a long string of alphanumeric characters such as OH0KYf4PGYQGnCM4b53ejSGicOC4s4YnonRVzGJbWxY; set the value of the variable INVENIO_TOKEN to this string.

Providing a GitHub access token

It may be possible to run IGA without providing a GitHub access token. GitHub allows up to 60 API calls per minute when running without credentials, and though IGA makes several API calls to GitHub each time it runs, for some public repositories IGA will not hit the limit. However, if you are archiving a private repository, run IGA multiple times in a row, or the repository has many contributors, then you will need to supply a GitHub access token. The preferred way of doing that is to set the value of the environment variable GITHUB_TOKEN. Alternatively, you can use the option --github-token to pass the token on the command line, but you are strongly advised to avoid this practice because it is insecure. To obtain a PAT from GitHub, visit https://docs.github.com/en/authentication and follow the instructions for creating a "classic" personal access token.

Note that when you run IGA as a GitHub Actions workflow, you do not need to create or set a GitHub token because it is obtained automatically by the GitHub Actions workflow.

Specifying a GitHub release

A GitHub release can be specified to IGA in one of two mutually-exclusive ways:

  1. The full URL of the web page on GitHub of a tagged release. In this case, the URL must be the final argument on the command line invocation of IGA and the options --account and --repo must be omitted.
  2. A combination of account name, repository name, and tag. In this case, the final argument on the command line must be the tag, and in addition, values for the options --account and --repo must be provided.

Here's an example using approach #1 (assuming environment variables INVENIO_SERVER, INVENIO_TOKEN, and GITHUB_TOKEN have all been set):

iga https://github.com/mhucka/taupe/releases/tag/v1.2.0

and here's the equivalent using approach #2:

iga --github-account mhucka --github-repo taupe v1.2.0

Note that when using this form of the command, the release tag (v1.2.0 above) must be the last item given on the command line.

Gathering metadata for an InvenioRDM record

The record created in InvenioRDM is constructed using information obtained using GitHub's API as well as several other APIs as needed. The information includes the following:

IGA tries to use CodeMeta.json first and CITATION.cff second to fill out the fields of the InvenioRDM record. If neither of those files are present, IGA uses values from the GitHub repository instead. You can make it always use all sources of info with the option --all-metadata. Depending on how complete and up-to-date your CodeMeta.json and CITATION.cff are, this may or may not make the record more comprehensive and may or may not introduce redundancies or unwanted values.

To override the auto-created metadata, use the option --read-metadata followed by the path to a JSON file structured according to the InvenioRDM schema used by the destination server. When --read-metadata is provided, IGA does not extract the data above, but still obtains the file assets from GitHub.

Specifying GitHub file assets

By default, IGA attaches to the InvenioRDM record only the ZIP file asset created by GitHub for the release. To make IGA attach all assets associated with the GitHub release, use the option --all-assets.

To upload specific file assets and override the default selections made by IGA, you can use the option --file followed by a path to a file to be uploaded. You can repeat the option --file to upload multiple file assets. Note that if --file is provided, then IGA does not use any file assets from GitHub; it is the user's responsibility to supply all the files that should be uploaded.

If both --read-metadata and --file are used, then IGA does not actually contact GitHub for any information.

Handling communities

To submit your record to a community, use the --community option together with a community name. The option --list-communities can be used to get a list of communities supported by the InvenioRDM server. Note that submitting a record to a community means that the record will not be finalized and will not be publicly visible when IGA finishes; instead, the record URL that you receive will be for a draft version, pending review by the community moderators.

Indicating draft versus published records

If the --community option is not used, then by default, IGA will finalize and publish the record. To make it stop short and leave the record as a draft instead, use the option --draft. The draft option also takes precedence over the community option: if you use both --draft and --community, IGA will stop after creating the draft record and will not submit it to the community. (You can nevertheless submit the record to a community manually once the draft is created, by visiting the record's web page and using the InvenioRDM interface there.)

Versioning records

The option --parent-record can be used to indicate that the record being constructed is a new version of an existing record. This will make IGA use the InvenioRDM API for record versioning. The newly-created record will be linked to a parent record identified by the value passed to --parent-record. The value must be either an InvenioRDM record identifier (which is a sequence of alphanumeric characters of the form XXXXX-XXXXX, such as bknz4-bch35, generated by the InvenioRDM server), or a URL to the landing page of the record in the InvenioRDM server. (Note that such URLs end in the record identifier.) Here is an example of using this option:

iga --parent-record xbcd4-efgh5 https://github.com/mhucka/taupe/releases/tag/v1.2.0

Other options recognized by IGA

Running IGA with the option --save-metadata will make it create a metadata record, but instead of uploading the record (and any assets) to the InvenioRDM server, IGA will write the result to the given destination. This can be useful not only for debugging but also for creating a starting point for a custom metadata record: first run IGA with --save-metadata to save a record to a file, edit the result, then finally run IGA with the --read-metadata option to use the modified record to create a release in the InvenioRDM server.

The --mode option can be used to change the run mode. Four run modes are available: quiet, normal, verbose, and debug. The default mode is normal, in which IGA prints a few messages while it's working. The mode quiet will make it avoid printing anything unless an error occurs, the mode verbose will make it print a detailed trace of what it is doing, and the mode debug will make IGA even more verbose. In addition, in debug mode, IGA will drop into the pdb debugger if it encounters an exception during execution. On Linux and macOS, debug mode also installs a signal handler on signal USR1 that causes IGA to drop into the pdb debugger if the signal USR1 is received. (Use kill -USR1 NNN, where NNN is the IGA process id.)

By default, informational output is sent to the standard output (normally the terminal console). The option --log-dest can be used to send the output to the given destination instead. The value can be - (i.e., a dash) to indicate console output, or it can be a file path to send the output to the file. A special exception is that even if a log destination is given, IGA will still print the final record URL to stdout. This makes it possible to invoke IGA from scripts that capture the record URL while still saving diagnostic output in case debugging is needed.

By default, IGA prints only the record URL when done. The option --print-doi will make it also print the DOI of the record. (Note that this only works when publishing records; if options --draft or --community are used, then there will be no DOI. In those case, only the URL will be printed.)

Reading and writing large files may take a long time; on the other hand, IGA should not wait forever on network operations before reporting an error if a server or network becomes unresponsive. To balance these conflicting needs, IGA automatically scales its network timeout based on file sizes. To override its adaptive algorithm and set an explicit timeout value, use the option --timeout with a value in seconds.

If given the --version option, this program will print its version and other information, and exit without doing anything else.

Running IGA with the option --help will make it print help text and exit without doing anything else.

Summary of command-line options

As explain above, IGA takes one required argument on the command line: either (1) the full URL of a web page on GitHub of a tagged release, or (2) a release tag name which is to be used in combination with options --github-account and --github-repo. The following table summarizes all the command line options available.

Long form option           Short   Meaning Default
--all-assets -A Attach all GitHub assets Attach only the release source ZIP
--all-metadata -M Include additional metadata from GitHub Favor CodeMeta & CFF
--community C -c C Submit record to RDM community C Don't submit record to any community
--draft -d Mark the RDM record as a draft Publish record when done
--file F -f F Upload local file F instead of GitHub assets Upload only GitHub assets
--github-account A -a A Look in GitHub account A Get account name from release URL
--github-repo R -r R Look in GitHub repository R of account A Get repo name from release URL
--github-token T -t T Use GitHub access token T Use value in env. var. GITHUB_TOKEN
--help -h Print help info and exit
--invenio-server S -s S Send record to InvenioRDM server at address S Use value in env. var. INVENIO_SERVER
--invenio-token K -k K Use InvenioRDM access token K Use value in env. var. INVENIO_TOKEN
--list-communities -L List communities available for use with --community
--log-dest L -l L Write log output to destination L Write to terminal
--mode M -m M Run in mode quiet, normal, verbose, or debug normal
--open -o Open record's web page in a browser when done Do nothing when done
--parent-record N -p N Make this a new version of existing record N New record is unrelated to other records
--print-doi -i Print both the DOI & record URL when done Print only the record URL
--read-metadata R -R R Read metadata record from file R; don\'t build one Build metadata record
--save-metadata D -S D Save metadata record to file D; don\'t upload it Upload to InvenioRDM server
--timeout X -T X Wait on network operations a max of X seconds Auto-adjusted based on file size
--version -V Print program version info and exit

⚑   Can repeat the option to specify multiple files.
⚐   To write to the console, use the character - as the value of OUT; otherwise, OUT must be the name of a file where the output should be written.
✯   When using --github-account and --github-repo, the last argument on the command line must be a release tag name.
❖   The record identifier must be given either as a sequence of alphanumeric characters of the form XXXXX-XXXXX (e.g., bknz4-bch35), or as a URL to the landing page of an existing record in the InvenioRDM server.

Return values

This program exits with a return status code of 0 if no problem is encountered. Otherwise, it returns a nonzero status code. The following table lists the possible values:

Code Meaning
0 success – program completed normally
1 interrupted
2 encountered a bad or missing value for an option
3 encountered a problem with a file or directory
4 encountered a problem interacting with GitHub
5 encountered a problem interacting with InvenioRDM
6 the personal access token was rejected
7 an exception or fatal error occurred

Adding a DOI badge to your GitHub repository

Once you have set up the IGA workflow in your GitHub repository, you may wish to add a DOI badge to your repository's README file. It would be a chore to keep updating the DOI value in this badge every time a new release is made, and thankfully, it's not necessary: it's possible to make the badge get the current DOI value dynamically. Here is how:

  1. After you have at least one release archived in your InvenioRDM server, find out the DOI of that release in InvenioRDM, and extract the tail end of that DOI. The DOI assigned by InvenioRDM will be a string such as 10.22002/zsmem-2pg20; the tail end is the zsmem-2pg20 part. (Your DOI and tail portion will be different.)
  2. Let SERVERURL stand for the URL for your InvenioRDM server, and let IDENTIFIER stand for the identifier portion of the DOI. In your README.md file, write the DOI badge as follows (without line breaks):

    [![DOI](https://img.shields.io/badge/dynamic/json.svg?label=DOI&query=$.pids.doi.identifier&uri=SERVERURL/api/records/IDENTIFIER/versions/latest)](SERVERURL/records/IDENTIFIER/latest)

For example, for CaltechDATA and the archived IGA releases there,

which leads to the following badge string for IGA's README.md file:

[![DOI](https://img.shields.io/badge/dynamic/json.svg?label=DOI&query=$.pids.doi.identifier&uri=https://data.caltech.edu/api/records/zsmem-2pg20/versions/latest)](https://data.caltech.edu/records/zsmem-2pg20/latest)


The result looks like this:

DOI

You can change the look of the badge by using style parameters. Please refer to the Shields.io documentation for static badges.

Known issues and limitations

The following are known issues and limitations.

Getting help

If you find an issue, please submit it in the GitHub issue tracker for this repository.

Contributing

Your help and participation in enhancing IGA is welcome! Please visit the guidelines for contributing for some tips on getting started.

License

Software produced by the Caltech Library is Copyright © 2022–2024 California Institute of Technology. This software is freely distributed under a BSD-style license. Please see the LICENSE file for more information.

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the California Institute of Technology Library.

IGA uses multiple other open-source packages, without which it would have taken much longer to write the software. I want to acknowledge this debt. In alphabetical order, the packages are:


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