title: Travis-CI
---
summary: Automated deployments via Travis-CI.
---
body:

For certain websites it can be interesting to use
[Travis-CI](https://travis-ci.org/) to automatically deploy the latest version
of a website from a github repository.  This is particularly useful when
coupled with the [GitHub Pages :ref](../ghpages/) deployment method which is
what we're going to cover in this guide.  But you can easily adjust it to
any other method.

This assumes you already signed up for Travis-CI.  If you have not, just
head to [travis-ci.org :ext](https://travis-ci.org/) and sign up with your
GitHub account.

This guide is also available as a 7 minute screencast:

<iframe width="100%" height=410 frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"
  src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3pj_EyZIL5A?autoplay=0&fs=1">
</iframe>

## Travis Config

Once you have signed up for Travis-CI you need to add a `.travis.yml` config
file into your repository.  You can copy paste this over:

```yaml
language: python
python: 2.7
install: "pip install Lektor"
script: "lektor build"
deploy:
  provider: script
  script: "lektor deploy ghpages"
```

Because Travis already comes with all dependencies we need other than
Lektor itself we just need to pip install Lektor and we're ready to go.  For
the build step we invoke `lektor build`, and for the deploy step we invoke
`lektor deploy ghpages` to ship it to the ghpages server.  We still need
to configure that.

## Project Server Config

For the above example the best way to configure the server for the deployment
in the project file would be to use `ghpages+https` like this:

```ini
[servers.ghpages]
target = ghpages+https://username/repository
```

You need to add this to your `.lektorproject` file.

Whenever Travis builds it will automatically throw the end result into the
`gh-pages` branch and the website updates.  We do however still need to
configure the access credentials.  We will get to that.

## Enabling Travis

So now that we have all that configured we need to tell travis to build the
repository.  For that just head to your [Travis-CI Profile
:ext](https://travis-ci.org/profile) and enable the repository.  If it does not
show up yet, you can force a sync with the click of a button.

## Access Credentials

So how do you safely provide your credentials?  Lektor accepts username and
password for the `ghpages+https` transport via the `LEKTOR_DEPLOY_USERNAME`
and `LEKTOR_DEPLOY_PASSWORD` environment variables.  These can be set in the
Travis-CI settings of your repository on travis-ci.org in secret so they are
not stored anywhere else and will not show up in the build output.  However one
thing you need to be careful with is that they still give access to your entire
account!

To solve this problem we recommend two things:

1. [Create a personal access token :ext](https://github.com/settings/tokens)
   and use that instead.  Just provide the token instead of your password on
   sign-in.  This makes it easily possible to just revoke that token if
   something goes wrong.  Note that you only need the `repo` scope for this
   to work.  This also works if you have 2FA activated on an account.
2. [Create a deployment (machine) user
   :ext](https://developer.github.com/guides/managing-deploy-keys/#machine-users).
   This allows you to use a user that is exclusively used for just the
   purpose of updating the website.

Once you have done that travis will start deploying the website on every
commit.

!!!! When copy/pasting username and password into travis please ensure that
you do not copy any leading or trailing whitespace with it.  This will not
just break the build but also reveal the password in the process.  For
more information see [travis-ci#4139
:ext](https://github.com/travis-ci/travis-ci/issues/4139).

## Committer Information

By default the commits to the `gh-pages` branch will be authored by a user
named “Lektor Bot”.  If you want to override this you can export the
`GIT_COMMITTER_NAME` and `GIT_COMMITTER_EMAIL` environment variables and
set them to something else.  This is best done in the travis settings.

## Private Repositories

If you are using private repositories you will need the commercial version of
travis.  It has the advantage that you can also set up SSH keys on there which
means that authentication becomes easier.  For more information see [Private
Dependencies :ext](https://docs.travis-ci.com/user/private-dependencies/) in
the Travis CI documentation.

## Speeding up Builds with Caching

In the default setting Travis will have to rebuild everything because between
builds it does not cache the build results.  You can change this by enabling
caching.  Adjust your `.travis.yml` file to look like this:

```yaml
language: python
python: 2.7
cache:
  directories:
    - $HOME/.cache/pip
    - $HOME/.cache/lektor/builds
install: "pip install Lektor"
script: "lektor build"
deploy:
  provider: script
  script: "lektor deploy ghpages"
```

## Restricting Branches

If you plan on having different branches and contributors you should disable
the deployment to the master branch only.  You can do this with the following
config:

```yaml
language: python
python: 2.7
cache:
  directories:
    - $HOME/.cache/pip
    - $HOME/.cache/lektor/builds
install: "pip install Lektor"
script: "lektor build"
deploy:
  provider: script
  script: "lektor deploy ghpages"
  on:
    branch: master
```