Using the BigWigs Packager with GitHub Actions

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If you maintain multiple addons on CurseForge, WowInterface and Wago while also embedding any libraries it can be bothersome just to update them.

BigWigs packager

The BigWigs packager has a couple of advantages over the CurseForge packager and supports:

Uploading to CurseForge, WowInterface, Wago, and GitHub (as a release).
Packaging for multiple game versions.
Using GitHub Actions to automate your workflow.

The documentation is available on the project page:

Getting started

For this tutorial you will need:

To be familiar with Git, guides like try.github.io and git - the simple guide will help you on your way.
To install the Git client or one of the available GUI clients. VS Code has integrated Git support.
A GitHub repository.

The basic idea is: create a local Git repository -> make some changes -> stage your changes -> commit them locally -> push the commits to a remote repository.

PackageMeta file

The PackageMeta file configures the packager. It's mostly used for embedding any external libraries, for example the Ace3 framework:

.pkgmeta

package-as: MyAddOn

externals:
  Libs/LibStub: https://repos.wowace.com/wow/libstub/trunk
  Libs/CallbackHandler-1.0: https://repos.wowace.com/wow/callbackhandler/trunk/CallbackHandler-1.0
  Libs/AceAddon-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceAddon-3.0
  Libs/AceComm-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceComm-3.0
  Libs/AceConfig-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceConfig-3.0
  Libs/AceConsole-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceConsole-3.0
  Libs/AceDB-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceDB-3.0
  Libs/AceDBOptions-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceDBOptions-3.0
  Libs/AceEvent-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceEvent-3.0
  Libs/AceGUI-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceGUI-3.0
  Libs/AceHook-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceHook-3.0
  Libs/AceLocale-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceLocale-3.0
  Libs/AceSerializer-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceSerializer-3.0
  Libs/AceTimer-3.0: https://repos.curseforge.com/wow/ace3/trunk/AceTimer-3.0

Local and external embeds

Listing external embeds is convenient for packaging the latest version of a library instead of hardcoding it.

To still have your own local Ace3 libs without checking them out to the repository:

Use e.g. Ace3 standalone by dropping the Ace3 in the AddOns folder and specifying ## OptionalDeps: Ace3 in the TOC. A library can be used standalone if it has a TOC file.
Or put the Ace3 libs in the Libs folder and exclude it from the repository with .gitignore

TOC file

The project IDs should be listed in the TOC file (or alternatively as -p curse-id, -w wowi-id, and -a wago-id arguments in the workflow).

The Curse ID is listed on the project page, e.g. 399282 on https://www.curseforge.com/wow/addons/hidetutorial
The WoWInterface ID is in the URL, e.g. 25635 in https://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/info25635-HideTutorial.html
The Wago project ID is listed on the developer dashboard.

The @project-version@ substitution keyword is the tag name if on a tag, otherwise the short revision.

MyAddOn.toc

## Interface: 90205
## Version: @project-version@
## Title: MyAddOn
## Notes: Does something neat
## Author: Your Name
## X-Curse-Project-ID: 123456
## X-WoWI-ID: 12345
## X-Wago-ID: abcdef12

MyAddOn.lua

GitHub workflow

A workflow is a configurable automated process made up of one or more jobs. You can reference the detailed GitHub Actions workflow example on the BigWigs wiki or use the below one.

.github/workflows/release.yml

name: Release AddOn # description of this workflow, can be anything you want

# triggers when pushing a tag
on:
  push:
    tags:
      - '**'

env:
  CF_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.CF_API_KEY }}
  WOWI_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.WOWI_API_TOKEN }}
  WAGO_API_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.WAGO_API_TOKEN }}
  # for github releases, this secret is automatically provided to the workflow
  GITHUB_OAUTH: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

jobs:
  release: # "release" is a job, you can name it anything you want
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0 # reads history for commit changelog

      - uses: BigWigsMods/packager@v2

Environment variables

The workflow accesses encrypted environment variables a.k.a. secrets, they can be created via Settings -> Secrets -> New repository secret

Generate the API tokens and assign them to your secrets:

CF_API_KEY https://wow.curseforge.com/account/api-tokens
WOWI_API_TOKEN https://www.wowinterface.com/downloads/filecpl.php?action=apitokens
WAGO_API_TOKEN https://addons.wago.io/account/apikeys

Tutorial BigWigs 1.png

Creating a release

Make sure your workflow and TOC file with project IDs are committed and pushed. (Note that if you push an initial workflow at the same time with a tag, then the workflow will not trigger yet. Try pushing another tag.)

Now when pushing a new tag GitHub should automatically package a .zip file and upload to CurseForge, WoWInterface and GitHub releases!

Tutorial BigWigs 2.png

Multiple client flavors

Reference: Building for multiple game versions, GitHub Actions workflow

Addons can check the current game flavor with the WOW_PROJECT_ID constant.
The packager can automatically generate multiple TOC files, for example this will create one zip file with three different TOCs: AddonName.toc, AddonName_TBC.toc, AddonName_Vanilla.toc

AddonName.toc

## Interface: 90205
## Interface-Classic: 11403
## Interface-BCC: 20504

jobs:
  release:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
        with:
          fetch-depth: 0

      - uses: BigWigsMods/packager@v2
        # automatically generates game type specific TOC files
        with:
          args: -S