How To Use GitHub Actions and APIs to Surface Important Data

In this article, we’ll demonstrate how to write a GitHub Action that queries a data-centric software system — in this example, Google Analytics — to generate an automated Slack notification and message. In the example below, we’ll generate a top ten list of the most frequently viewed pages on my site from the last 7 days, and post a nicely formatted message to a public Slack channel every Friday at 10 a.m.

Not only does this method surface data for folks who might need it, it also provides an easy way to copy and paste a data report into a slide for a weekly company/department meeting. Why is this needed? Well, Google Analytics as a software product is great, but typically not everyone in your organization is granted access.

Here’s what the posted report looks like in Slack, and below you’ll find a link to the GitHub Repository