Online webform submission opens GitHub pull request
In order to streamline the nomination process for Digital Public Goods (DPGs), we want to have an online webform that prompts the user for a number of fields, and then packages those fields into a JSON-compliant file, and opens a Pull Request to the DPGAlliance/publicgoods-candidates repository for further review and merging.
Programmatically opening a pull request is a multi-step process that involves:
- Get a the latest reference to the master branch
- Create a new feature branch off that reference
- Format the form data into JSON, put into a file and commit the file in the feature branch
- Open the actual PR using the changes committed to that feature branch
Having analyzed some off-the-shelf alternatives, we concluded that none provided all the required functionality listed above, so we coded our own; which we document in this repo for future reference.
We are using Google Forms to build the webform, and storing all the responses in a related spreadsheet. We are then using the spreadsheet's Script Editor to use Google Apps Script to write custom code that implements the functionality outlined above and opens the desired pull request, that code is included here as code.gs.
We then define the trigger for this code:
Edit -> Current project's triggers -> + Add Trigger with the following values:
- Choose which function to run:
getHead - Which runs at deployment:
Head - Select event source:
From spreadsheet - Select event type:
On form submit
Given the relative "unfriendliness" of Google Apps Script, the code was initially developed using regular Node Javascript (included here as index.js) and later ported to Apps Script. The entrypoint function, as called on the last line is getHead(), which calls a cascade of callback that implement each of the steps in a different function.
If you want to try this code out:
- Install the project dependencies:
npm install- Run the actual code:
node index.jsThe following alternatives were evaluated, but discarded:
- Zapier integration between Google Forms and GitHub. Even when they offer a Zap to open a pull request, this only covers the very last step of the ones outlined above, creating a pull request from a pre-existing feature branch. However, there is no support for committing files, which renders their offerings as fairly useless for our needs.
- Automate.io is similar to Zapier, but their GitHub integrations are even more limited: they allow to create issues, but not to create pull requests 🤷♂️
- Survey Monkey as an alternative to Google Forms. Unfortunately they don't seem to offer any possibility to run custom code, or to trigger any automated action upon the submission of a new entry.
This repo is released under The Unlicense:
A license with no conditions whatsoever which dedicates works to the public domain.
Unlicensed works, modifications, and larger works may be distributed under different
terms and without source code.