How to get inputs in github yml - github-actions

Question

I would like to setup a workflow in github yml such that I have some default values for variables and also would like to be able to manually provide the values to these variables when running the workflow manually.
I understood that we can use workflow_dispatch to set some input variables when running manually. However, when the workflow is executed as part of a code push, these variables (runTests and uploadArtifacts) are coming as null.
name: Example
on:
workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
runTests:
description: run tests
required: true
default: true
type: Boolean
uploadArtifacts:
description: upload artifacts
required: true
default: false
type: Boolean
push:
branches:
- master
- main
- release/*
jobs:
Build_Job:
runs-on: [self-hosted, raya]
steps:
- name: Publish drop artifact
if: ${{ inputs.uploadArtifacts }}
uses: actions/upload-artifact#v2
with:
name: Installer
path: "${{ runner.temp }}/AppxPackages/"

Answer 1

It's the expected behavior, as the inputs will be set only if the workflow_dispacth event is used to trigger the workflow.
If you want the workflow to perform a default operation when the code is pushed, you would need to implement the if condition differently.
Example:
on:
push:
workflow_dispatch:
inputs:
test1:
description: test1
required: false
default: false
type: boolean
test2:
description: test2
required: false
default: true
type: boolean
jobs:
job1: # will always run
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
steps:
- run: |
echo ${{ inputs.test1 }}
echo ${{ inputs.test2 }}
echo ${{ github.event_name }}
job2: # will only run on a workflow_dispatch event, if test1 input is true
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: ${{ inputs.test1 }}
steps:
- run: |
echo ${{ inputs.test1 }}
echo ${{ inputs.test2 }}
echo ${{ github.event_name }}
job3: # will only run on a workflow_dispatch event, if test2 input is true
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: ${{ inputs.test2 }}
steps:
- run: |
echo ${{ inputs.test1 }}
echo ${{ inputs.test2 }}
echo ${{ github.event_name }}
job4: # will only run on a push event
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' }}
steps:
- run: |
echo ${{ inputs.test1 }}
echo ${{ inputs.test2 }}
echo ${{ github.event_name }}
job5: # will only run on a push event OR if inputs.test2 is true on a workflow_dispatch event
runs-on: ubuntu-latest
if: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' || inputs.test2 }}
steps:
- run: |
echo ${{ inputs.test1 }}
echo ${{ inputs.test2 }}
echo ${{ github.event_name }}
I understand that what you want to achieve is something similar to the job5 example above (you could even add a github.ref context variable to the expression if you only want a job to be executed if the branch name is something specific).
I made some tests if you want to have a look:
workflow file
workflow run (push event)
workflow run (workflow_dispatch event with default value)