Getting the mod version from the gradle.properties file

[mineTomek]

Hi! Is there a way to replace all the version number instances with the version specified in the gradle.properties file? (VERSION in this step in my workflow):

- uses: Kir-Antipov/[email protected]
  with:
    modrinth-id: P9DbqD2L
    modrinth-token: ${{ secrets.MODRINTH_TOKEN }}
  
    github-tag: mc1.20.2-VERSION
    github-prerelease: true
    github-token: ${{ secrets._GITHUB_TOKEN }}
  
    name: Redstonery Mod VERSION for Minecraft 1.20.2
    version: mc1.20.2-VERSION
    version-type: alpha
    changelog-file: CHANGELOG.md
  
    loaders: |
      fabric
    game-versions: |
      1.20.2

This would be probably an extra step before this one that reads the version and puts it in a variable?

[Kir-Antipov]

I apologize for the delayed response. I've been busy working on lots of projects, including this one.

First of all, I recommend checking out default values for different inputs, as there's a lot of unnecessary duplication in your config:

1. You do not need to specify the loaders input. Its value is already inferred by mc-publish since you are publishing a Fabric mod.
2. You do not need to specify game-versions. They are inferred from fabric.mod.json.
3. You do not need to specify github-tag as long as its value is exactly the same as the version's.
4. You do not need to specify github-prerelease as long as its value correlates with the version-type's (as it is in your case).

Also, I do not recommend using a custom GitHub token for that. Just use the regular ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}. GitHub generates a new token for each run and then immediately expires it. This is much more secure than generating your own GitHub tokens and managing their lifetime manually.

After these changes, your configuration should look something like this:

- uses: Kir-Antipov/[email protected]
  with:
    name: Redstonery Mod VERSION for Minecraft MC_VERSION
    version: mcMC_VERSION-VERSION
    version-type: alpha
    changelog-file: CHANGELOG.md

    modrinth-id: P9DbqD2L # Can be moved to fabric.mod.json too
    modrinth-token: ${{ secrets.MODRINTH_TOKEN }}
  
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Since you create releases via manual workflow dispatches and/or pushes to the main branch, there's no opportunity for mc-publish to automatically infer name and version values from. That's why I personally like triggering a release cycle by actually creating a release, where I can specify its name, version (i.e., tag), and changelog (i.e., release body), so these values can be propagated to Modrinth and CurseForge.

However, you are correct that you can use gradle.properties to provide those values to mc-publish manually. Via a quick duckduckgoing, I found this action - christian-draeger/read-properties. Personally, I have never used it, so everything I mention below needs to be tested, but following the documentation of the said action, we can compose a configuration like so:

- name: Read properties from gradle.properties
  id: read_properties
  uses: christian-draeger/[email protected]
  with:
    path: gradle.properties
    properties: minecraft_version mod_version

- name: Upload assets to GitHub and Modrinth
  uses: Kir-Antipov/[email protected]
  with:
    name: Redstonery Mod ${{ steps.read_properties.outputs.mod_version }} for Minecraft ${{ steps.read_properties.outputs.minecraft_version }}
    version: mc${{ steps.read_properties.outputs.minecraft_version }}-${{ steps.read_properties.outputs.mod_version }}
    version-type: alpha
    changelog-file: CHANGELOG.md

    modrinth-id: P9DbqD2L
    modrinth-token: ${{ secrets.MODRINTH_TOKEN }}
  
    github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

This way, read-properties reads Minecraft and mod versions from your gradle.properties, and then you can pass those values to mc-publish.

Hope this helps!

[mineTomek]

Thank you very much