SQAaaS GitHub Actions

The current release includes two GitHub actions (sqaaas-assessment-action and sqaaas-step-action) that enable the automated assessment of source code, including workflow and model code, by triggering the SQAaaS platform. More precisely, the main action (sqaaas-assessment-action) is in charge of interacting with the SQAaaS API, running the appropriate HTTP requests to conduct the source code assessment. As an output of this action, a summary containing the quality criteria being analysed is provided, and, in the event that a certain level of these criteria has been fulfilled, the corresponding digital badge that recognizes those achievements.

The current version (2.4.1) was released in March 2024. This action triggers the quality assessment of a source code repository. Improvements include the inclusion of quality badges and compliance with REUSE. Copyright and licensing is difficult, especially when reusing software from different projects that are released under various different licenses. REUSE provides a set of recommendations to make licensing easier. They also make it easier for a computer to understand how your project is licensed.

As a complement, the step action (sqaaas-step-action) adds the capability to define customised steps as part of the evaluation of a quality criterion within the SQAaaS source code assessment. This is required, for instance, for the testing criteria, where diverse testing frameworks might be used (e.g. Python’s pytest). Additionally, this action serves the purpose of covering pre/post requirements that might be needed as part of the quality criteria validation. An example could be setting up the environment as a ‘pre’ condition before proceeding with the actual testing process (e.g. following the Python example: conda, virtualenv, etc.). The current release is 1.3.2 (March 2024) and includes fixes on containers gathering features.

Extend the main GitHub action (sqaaas-assessment-action) to cope with other types of quality assessments currently provided by the SQAaaS platform, in particular the validation of FAIR principles for data.