GitHub pages workflow is failing

[swashbuck]

Subject of the issue

We attempted to add GitHub Pages automated deployments in #3733. However, there was an issue with the token.

The token was fixed in #3736

Now, the v5 demo site is not loading properly and only displays a "loading..." message on the page.

[swashbuck]

Issue Resolution

UPDATE: This issue has been resolved as of the Dec 16 workflow run.

---

Root Cause:
The workflow originally used deploy_key: ${{ secrets.RELEASES_TOKEN }} but RELEASES_TOKEN contains a Personal Access Token (PAT), not an SSH private key. The peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v4 action expects an SSH private key when using deploy_key, causing the error:

Error loading key "/home/runner/.ssh/github": error in libcrypto
The process '/usr/bin/ssh-add' failed with exit code 1

Solution Implemented:
PR #3736 fixed this by changing the workflow parameter from deploy_key to personal_token:

- name: Deploy to GitHub Pages
  uses: peaceiris/actions-gh-pages@v4
  with:
    personal_token: ${{ secrets.RELEASES_TOKEN }}  # Fixed: was deploy_key
    external_repository: adaptlearning/adaptlearning.github.io
    publish_branch: master
    publish_dir: ./build
    destination_dir: v5demo

Status: ✅ Resolved - Latest workflow run (Dec 16) succeeded.

[swashbuck]

Additional Issue Discovered

While the deployment authentication is now fixed (✅ workflow runs successfully), the deployed site is not loading properly: https://adaptlearning.github.io/v5demo/

Root Cause

The Adapt Framework course is being deployed to a subdirectory (/v5demo/) but the framework doesn't natively support running from non-root paths. The build completes successfully and all files are deployed, but the JavaScript runtime is likely failing to load resources correctly.

Evidence

• Workflow builds and deploys successfully ✅
• All files are present in the repository ✅
• Page loads but shows minimal content (just "Adapt" text)
• Browser likely shows JavaScript errors related to resource loading

Potential Solutions

Option 1: Deploy to root of a dedicated subdomain

• Use adaptv5demo.github.io instead of adaptlearning.github.io/v5demo/
• Requires creating a new repository adaptv5demo under the adaptlearning org

Option 2: Add base path configuration to Adapt build

• Investigate if Adapt Framework supports a basePath or publicPath configuration
• This would need to be added to the build process in the workflow
• May require framework modifications

Option 3: Use a different hosting approach

• Deploy to Netlify/Vercel which handle subdirectory deployments better
• Add redirect rules or rewrite configuration

Recommended Next Step

Investigate if the Adapt Framework supports building for deployment to a subdirectory path. This likely requires configuration in config.json or grunt build options.

[swashbuck]

Root Cause Identified

After investigating the deployed site with Chrome DevTools, I found that the boxMenu plugin and other Adapt plugins are not being installed during the GitHub Actions workflow.

Evidence

1. The deployed site at https://adaptlearning.github.io/v5demo/ loads successfully
2. All JavaScript files load without errors (200 status)
3. Adapt initializes and loads course data correctly
4. However, the menu view never renders because the boxMenu plugin code is missing from the build

Why This Happens

The Adapt Framework stores plugin dependencies in adapt.json:

{
  "dependencies": {
    "adapt-contrib-boxMenu": "*",
    "adapt-contrib-vanilla": "*",
    // ... other plugins
  }
}

According to INSTALL.md, after running npm install, you must run adapt install to download all the plugins.

The current workflow only runs:

- name: Install dependencies
  run: npm ci

This installs npm dependencies but does NOT install the Adapt plugins, so src/components/, src/extensions/, src/menu/, and src/theme/ directories are empty when the build runs.

The Fix

Update the workflow to run adapt install after npm ci:

- name: Install dependencies
  run: |
    npm ci
    npx -y -p adapt-cli adapt install

This will:

1. Install npm dependencies
2. Use npx to automatically download and run adapt-cli
3. Download and install all plugins from adapt.json into the correct directories

Testing

After this fix, the build will include:

• ✅ boxMenu plugin code
• ✅ All component plugins
• ✅ All extension plugins
• ✅ Theme code

And the deployed course should render properly at https://adaptlearning.github.io/v5demo/