Setup CI to avoid committing locally built files

[qchenevier]

That s a good idea @qchenevier ! We do have a travis.yml, is it just a matter of adding the npm run build command here? I m curious to know whether it will also create a commit for the file(s) built. Coz we need the transpiled file(s) committed [for npm publish as well as CDNjs autoupdate which kicks in for npm publish]

Originally posted by @walmik in #111 (comment)

[qchenevier]

It seems less obvious to do than I thought. Here are some interesting content:

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42253765/getting-travisci-to-commit-and-push-a-modified-file-with-tags-releases
• https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/deployment/releases/

I'm investigating how to do that, but since I'm a beginner with travis CI, any help is welcomed.

[qchenevier]

There is also a workflow using GitHub Actions: https://docs.github.com/en/actions/language-and-framework-guides/using-nodejs-with-github-actions

[qchenevier]

OK, to answer you question, @walmik, after a few research, I couldn't find any documentation showing a CI tool commiting back to the repo. It makes sense from a security standpoint: having an external worker able to write to the codebase, using a token, seems a bit extreme.

It seems that there is a widely shared philosophy of "the codebase is for humans only". The machines need to use other services, with read-only rights on the codebase.

IMHO the easiest workflow is:

• humans commit code (and not the built bundle) to the codebase
• CI tools (e.g: travis CI, Github Actions) build & release the bundle, using the "Github Releases" service. The bundle becomes available at the url https://github.com/scribbletune/scribbletune/releases/latest/download/scribbletune.js
• cdnjs watches this url for updates and get the latest bundle version when it is available.

If we chose to do this, I guess we have to:

• remove the bundle in the dist folder from the codebase (= git rm then adding it to the .gitignore)
• add a build task in .travis.yml (like described here), which would upload the bundle as a release (using a token having write permissions only on the releases).
• update the cdnjs scribbletune.json file so that it taps into the releases url here and maybe here. I'm not sure how to do this, though.