Boolean inputs act differently in workflow_dispatch and workflow_call

[AvivPeledTalon]

Hello,

It seems like boolean inputs act as strings when used in a workflow_dispatch event, and as actual boolean variables when used in a reusable workflow (workflow_call).

For example, in one of my workflows, which acts on a workflow_dispatch event I use a boolean input "should_run_tests", which controls the tests step using an if condition on the step.
In order for it to behave as intended, I have to use the following condition
if: ${{ github.event.inputs.should_run_tests == "true" }}

And not as you would expect from a boolean:
if: ${{ github.event.inputs.should_run_tests }}

It seems like the boolean type affects only the input form because I can see a checkbox when trying to run the workflow, but the value passed to the workflow is the string representation "true" or "false".

Doing the same thing in a workflow_call event, the boolean values that are being passed from one workflow to the other really seem to be booleans, and can be tested as such without string comparison, which I think is the right way to handle these and that should be the same in workflow_dispatch events

[ethomson]

Thanks @AvivPeledTalon - I agree that this difference is a bit confusing. The reason is because when workflow_dispatch was conceived it was all strings, and it learned about boolean types after-the-fact. To allow people to declare existing "boolean" inputs as actual boolean inputs, they remained strings.

The team is taking a look at some ways that we can improve this without breaking workflows that rely on it. Hopefully we'll have more soon!

[fodbub-dukfU9-gimgug]

https://info.privacy.schibsted.com/se/login-se/

[ajaykn]

@AvivPeledTalon We have rolled out improvements and here is the blog post
https://github.blog/changelog/2022-06-10-github-actions-inputs-unified-across-manual-and-reusable-workflows/

Now we should be able to see dispatch inputs are available in both github.event.inputs and inputs context.
Where as now inputs context is recommended to use, because we respect boolean types.
cc @chrispat @avocaddo

[AvivPeledTalon]

That's even better! Thanks!

[victor-chan-groundswell]

hi @ajaykn ,

I'm actually trying to debug something similar where this is not working quite right.

I have a workflow that is callable from either workflow_call or workflow_dispatch. As mentioned I have a lot of fields where I do ${{ github.event.inputs.environment || inputs.environment }} to make sure that the inputs work from either the manual call or call from another workflow.

However, one step in my action, where it's I have this condition
${{ github.event.inputs.environment || inputs.environment }} != 'dev' does not work when it's being called from a workflow_call, but it works when it's getting directly being called using workflow_dispatch.

[tomsit-ionos]

see also actions/runner#3571