How do apps work?

[lwasser]

Hi friends. I'm wondering if someone here -- maybe @JoshuaKGoldberg or @JimMadge knows anything about GitHub apps.

i'm working through the instructions and updating in this pr. BUT, I don't know if I should be getting proper responses - I'm getting a 405 error, and in the docs it shows a green webhook received.

What i see in my app:

what Jake has in the docs

When I Google the webhook part of the app, it says that you need a website that can receive the webhook requests. In the docs it says that any url is fine for the webhook. I'd appreciate any guidance!!

[JimMadge]

Nope, never done this before 😆. Would be happy to learn this together though.

[lwasser]

Let's do it Jim!! I think I had a moment of imposter syndrome meets fatigue last night. i'm going to continue to follow the instructions to see if it's ok that it "failed" without a proper URL. I'd be curious if you encounter the same thing following the directions. I know with API "handshakes" you can setup a local host to retrieve a response from a server. I just don't fully understand how this works yet with github.

here is where I was testing the bot. lwasser/test-bot#2

I suppose on some level it worked in that it did "hear" the call to the app. but the call didn't process.

[JoshuaKGoldberg]

I'm cursorily familiar with GitHub Apps and can help advise here. I haven't built one myself but have contributed to them and generally understand what's on https://docs.github.com/en/apps/creating-github-apps/about-creating-github-apps/about-creating-github-apps & co.

IME the biggest pain point is debugging, because they have to run on an available hosting provider. And then, yes, permissions become a pain.

Happy to walk >=1 person / groups through it all. I can send a calendar link privately, if that helps?

[lwasser]

@JoshuaKGoldberg my current question is actually quite specific! I'm updating the local deployment/development docs as I work through the setup. I created an app, and a test repository, and in the documentation, it shows that when I call the bot, I should have a "green" response - ie, that it works. But it's red - it doesn't work. So I'm wondering if it won't work until I set something else up to deploy it (ie, are the current docs wrong?). Should I expect a red / failed response, but the app "hears" my call?

https://deploy-preview-966--all-contributors.netlify.app/development/local-deploy/#4-setup-a-test-github-repositorywith-issues-pr

my goal is to be able to merge your pr that updates the app with the cli update! But I want to test it first. (and as we figure out how to test it I want to document that too)

[lwasser]

And thank you!!

[JimMadge]

Finding some time to "onboard" us so we can manage/contribute to the app is a brilliant idea.

[JoshuaKGoldberg]

I probably won't have time to deep dive into the red this week 😅 but if we set up time for next week or later I can take a look by then

[JimMadge]

No pressure, I think let us know what works for you.