Indirect Templates - Best Practice - Replace Step in Workflow

[AlexanderRichter]

Short Version

We want to replace a Step in an existing AL-Go Workflow but we are not quite sure how to do it to not mess around with future AL-Go Updates

Example

We dont want to use the Release Notes prepared by AL-Go for our Releases. Instead we want to use the latest existing draft Body from the Releases.

The Default Worfklow for Releases has a step to create Release Notes:

      - name: Prepare release notes
        id: createreleasenotes
        uses: microsoft/AL-Go-Actions/CreateReleaseNotes@v7.2
        with:
          shell: powershell
          buildVersion: ${{ github.event.inputs.buildVersion }}
          tag_name: ${{ github.event.inputs.tag }}
          target_commitish: ${{ steps.determineArtifactsForRelease.outputs.commitish }}

We want to Replace this Step by a Custom one to either use the current draft or generate Release notes by a thirs Party app such as Release Drafter

     - name: Prepare release notes (use latest draft body)
        id: createreleasenotes
        uses: actions/github-script@v7
        with:
          github-token: ${{ steps.ReadSecrets.outputs.TokenForPush }}
          script: |
            const { data: releases } = await github.rest.repos.listReleases({
              owner: context.repo.owner,
              repo: context.repo.repo,
              per_page: 100
            });
            const drafts = releases.filter(r => r.draft);
            if (!drafts.length) {
              core.warning('Kein Draft-Release gefunden – gebe leeren Body zurück.');
              core.setOutput('releaseNotes', '');
              return;
            }
            drafts.sort((a,b) => new Date(b.updated_at) - new Date(a.updated_at));
            const latest = drafts[0];      
            const body = latest.body || '';      
            core.setOutput('releaseNotes', body);

Question

Replacing the Step Prepare release notes in the Indirect Template Workflow would work but i am not so sure if this is what the concept of Indirect Templates and Customizations of Al-Go intends us to do.

Could you please give us some guidance on how to do that?

[aholstrup1]

Editing the "Microsoft owned" jobs in the workflows is not something we support. You can add your own custom jobs and custom workflows but we do not support adding custom steps/removing steps from existing jobs.

In this case you could either:

1. Add a custom job that runs after the CreateRelease job and edits the release notes to your desired format
2. Add your own custom workflow that you use instead ot the Create Release workflow that AL-Go ships with.

[AlexanderRichter]

Hey Alex,
thank you for the quick response.
Overwriting tan existing step didnt felt right at the first place.
Adding a custom job was pretty easy and works like intended.

Alex