fof/extension-releases

Automated extension release updates

2.x-dev 2026-02-15 18:40 UTC

Requires

• flarum/core: ^2.0

Requires (Dev)

• flarum/approval: *
• flarum/mentions: *
• flarum/tags: *
• flarum/testing: ^2.0
• mockery/mockery: ^1.6

MIT

• IanM
• Davide Iadeluca

• flarum

README

A Flarum 2.0 extension that automatically posts release notifications to discussions when you publish a new GitHub or GitLab release.

Features

• 🚀 Automatic release notifications posted to Flarum discussions
• 🔐 Secure webhook endpoint with Flarum API token authentication (Authorization header)
• ✅ Full test coverage (unit and integration tests)
• 🔧 Support for both GitHub Actions and GitLab CI/CD
• ✅ Auto-approves posts when flarum/approval is enabled

Installation

Install with composer:

composer require fof/extension-releases

Then enable the extension in your Flarum admin panel.

Configuration

Step 1: Generate a Flarum API Token

You need an API token for the user who will post the release notifications:

Prerequisites:

• The user must have the "Create access token" permission (found in Permissions → Moderate section)
• The user must have the "Publish release updates via webhook" permission (found in Permissions → Start Discussions section)

Generate Token:

1. Log in to Flarum as the user who should post releases (e.g., a bot account)
2. Go to Settings → API Tokens (or use a REST client)
3. Generate a new API token
4. Copy the token - you'll need it for the webhook configuration

Alternatively, you can generate a token programmatically:

# Using the Flarum API
curl -X POST https://your-flarum-site.com/api/token \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "identification": "your-username",
    "password": "your-password",
    "lifetime": 31536000
  }'

Note: Make sure to grant both required permissions to the user in the admin panel before attempting to use the webhook.

Step 2: Setup GitHub Webhook

Option A: Using GitHub Actions (Recommended)

The workflow automatically reads the discussion ID and Flarum URL from your composer.json file's support.forum field!

Setup:

1. Ensure your composer.json has the support.forum field:

   {
     "support": {
       "forum": "https://discuss.flarum.org/d/12345-your-extension-discussion"
     }
   }

2. Add the workflow to your repo: copy .github/workflows/flarum-release-notification.yml from this extension, or create it with the same content

3. Add your API token secret:

   • Go to your GitHub repository → Settings → Secrets and variables → Actions
   • Add secret: FLARUM_EXTENSION_UPDATES_API_TOKEN with your Flarum API token from Step 2

That's it! The workflow will automatically:

• Extract the discussion ID from support.forum in composer.json
• Extract the Flarum site URL
• Use the GitHub release body as the changelog
• Post to your discussion whenever you publish a release

Option B: Using GitHub Webhooks (Manual)

1. Go to your GitHub repository → Settings → Webhooks → Add webhook
2. Configure:
   • Payload URL: https://your-flarum-site.com/api/fof/releases/webhook
   • Content type: application/json
   • Events: Select "Releases" only
   • Active: ✓ Checked

Note: Standard GitHub webhooks don't include the API token or discussion ID. You'll need a middleware service or use GitHub Actions instead.

Step 3: Setup GitLab Webhook

Option A: Using GitLab CI/CD (Recommended)

The pipeline automatically reads the discussion ID and Flarum URL from your composer.json file's support.forum field!

Setup:

1. Ensure your composer.json has the support.forum field:

   {
     "support": {
       "forum": "https://discuss.flarum.org/d/12345-your-extension-discussion"
     }
   }

2. Copy .gitlab-ci.example.yml to .gitlab-ci.yml in your repository

3. Add your API token variable:

   • Go to your GitLab repository → Settings → CI/CD → Variables
   • Add variable: FLARUM_EXTENSION_UPDATES_API_TOKEN with your Flarum API token (mark as protected and masked)

That's it! The pipeline will automatically:

• Extract the discussion ID from support.forum in composer.json
• Extract the Flarum site URL
• Use the Git tag message as the changelog
• Post to your discussion whenever you create a new tag

Option B: Using GitLab Webhooks

1. Go to your GitLab repository → Settings → Webhooks
2. Add webhook:
   • URL: https://your-flarum-site.com/api/fof/releases/webhook
   • Trigger: Check "Releases events"
   • Enable SSL verification: ✓ Checked

Note: Like GitHub, standard GitLab webhooks require middleware. Use GitLab CI/CD for direct integration.

API Reference

Webhook Endpoint

POST /api/fof/releases/webhook

Authentication: Use Flarum's standard API authentication via the Authorization header:

Authorization: Token YOUR_FLARUM_EXTENSION_UPDATES_API_TOKEN

Request Body:

{
  "discussion_id": 123,
  "changelog": "## What's Changed\n\n- Fixed bug #42\n- Added new feature",
  "tag_name": "v1.0.0",
  "release_url": "https://github.com/owner/repo/releases/tag/v1.0.0",
  "author": "octocat"
}

Field	Required	Description
discussion_id	Yes	Discussion ID to post to
changelog	Yes	Release notes/changelog (Markdown supported)
tag_name	Yes	Version tag (e.g., v1.0.0)
release_url	No	URL to the release page
author	No	GitHub/GitLab username of release author

Responses:

• 201 Created - Post created successfully

  {
    "success": true,
    "post_id": 123,
    "post_number": 5
  }

• 403 Forbidden - Not authenticated or lacks permission

• 404 Not Found - Discussion not found

• 422 Unprocessable Entity - Missing required fields (discussion_id, changelog, or tag_name)

Post Format

Release posts use this structure:

## 🚀 New Release: {tag_name}

**Author:** {author}
**Release URL:** {release_url}

### Changelog

{changelog}

Optional fields (author, release_url) are omitted when not provided.

Testing

Run the test suite:

# Run all tests
composer test

# Run unit tests only
composer test:unit

# Run integration tests only
composer test:integration

# Setup integration test database (run once)
composer test:setup

Troubleshooting

Webhook returns 401 Unauthorized

• Verify your API token is valid and hasn't expired
• Ensure the user associated with the token still has an active account

Webhook returns 403 Forbidden

• Check that the user has permission to reply to the discussion
• Verify the discussion isn't locked

Posts still require approval (flarum/approval)

This extension creates posts directly (bypassing the API) and sets is_approved = true, so webhook posts should not require approval. If they still do, ensure flarum/approval is enabled and the extension is up to date.

Webhook returns 404 Not Found

• Double-check the discussion ID exists
• Ensure the discussion hasn't been deleted

Development

This extension is built for Flarum 2.0 and follows modern Flarum development practices.

File Structure:

src/
├── Api/
│   └── Controller/
│       └── ReceiveWebhookController.php
└── Repository/
    └── ReleaseRepository.php
tests/
├── unit/
│   └── Repository/
│       └── ReleaseRepositoryTest.php
└── integration/
    └── Api/
        └── ReceiveWebhookTest.php

Links

• Packagist
• GitHub
• Discuss
• Flarum 2.0 Documentation

License

MIT License. See LICENSE.md for details.