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General Discussion

Posted by Andrew Olson
Andrew Olson
4,028 Points

Workspace Snapshots

Today we are introducing a new feature for Workspaces called Snapshots. Snapshots allow you to share your workspaces with others. When a snapshot is created, a unique link is generated that anyone can use to view your code.

A snapshot is a read-only version of your workspace at a particular point in time. You can create up to 5 snapshots per workspace. You can't edit a snapshot, but you can delete snapshots that are no longer used.

Snapshots are great for sharing a project that you've been working on or sharing a unique solution to a problem.

We also hope that snapshots will make it easier to ask questions about code on the forum. If you're having trouble with a piece of code, simply create a forum post about the problem you're having with a link to a snapshot.

To get started, create your first snapshot today!

  1. Launch any of your workspaces.
  2. Select the snapshot menu in the upper right corner.
  3. Click "Take Snapshot"
  4. Visit the link and share it with someone.

Take a look at a snapshot that I recently created: https://w.trhou.se/111xofa85d

<3

Andi Wilkinson
Andi Wilkinson
26,822 Points
Andi Wilkinson
Andi Wilkinson
26,822 Points

Cool idea! Can imagine that helping loads especially when I get stuck writing code

Carlton Whittaker
Carlton Whittaker
1,995 Points

https://w.trhou.se/3ipcka9827

Carlton Whittaker
Carlton Whittaker
1,995 Points

Hope it helps you.

DeAndre Filer
DeAndre Filer
1,967 Points

https://w.trhou.se/e9gq1o3iew

32 Answers

John Steer-Fowler
PLUS
John Steer-Fowler
Courses Plus Student 11,734 Points
John Steer-Fowler
John Steer-Fowler
Courses Plus Student 11,734 Points

This is welcomed with open arms by me :P I remember requesting something very similar to this about 6 months ago and staff said that they were working on it. Really glad it's finally here!

Feature Request: Treehouse Showcase

Thanks Treehouse <3

Tim Holley
Tim Holley
8,464 Points
Tim Holley
Tim Holley
8,464 Points

Very Cool.

I see you say it's read only, but wondering if there is a way to view the workspace functioning. This would make it easier to understand when someone says a specific item doesn't look right, but all we can see is their code, not what they are visually seeing in the browser.

Paul Stettnisch
Paul Stettnisch
10,712 Points
Paul Stettnisch
Paul Stettnisch
10,712 Points

Yes, just use the fork workspace button in the top right to open it in a new workspace. From there you can preview it!

Andrew Olson
Andrew Olson
4,028 Points

Hi Tim!

We eventually want to add a "preview" to Snapshots (just like the Workspaces preview). Initially this would only work for Frontend snapshots, since providing a preview for Rails, etc takes a bit more infrastructure.

Edit: But like Paul Stettnisch mentioned, you can "Fork" the snapshot and preview that way.

Tim Holley
Tim Holley
8,464 Points
Tim Holley
Tim Holley
8,464 Points

Right on,

I wasn't even thinking that deep as far as rails and what not, totally understand that point of view though. Forking and previewing is a great option until that comes out. Thanks for the info.

Justin Henderson
Justin Henderson
13,739 Points
Justin Henderson
Justin Henderson
13,739 Points

Gracias!! This will definitely ease some pain points. Thanks again!

Kyle Meyer
Kyle Meyer
5,459 Points
Kyle Meyer
Kyle Meyer
5,459 Points

Holy moly!

:zap:

Alexander Davison
Alexander Davison
65,469 Points

LOLOLLOLOLOL

Paul Neumyer
Paul Neumyer
15,301 Points
Paul Neumyer
Paul Neumyer
15,301 Points

THIS IS AWESOME!!!! Thank you Treehouse.

Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points
Kevin Korte
Kevin Korte
28,149 Points

This is a nice improvement. Thank you!

Kelvin Atawura
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Kelvin Atawura
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 19,022 Points
Kelvin Atawura
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree
Kelvin Atawura
Front End Web Development Techdegree Student 19,022 Points

amazing feature. wondered if you can actually share your preview with others aswell. Wanted to put a few stuff that l have done on my CV and link to it.

Matt Varner
Matt Varner
5,373 Points
Matt Varner
Matt Varner
5,373 Points

""

Just in time, too. I was beginning to worry about permanently screwing up and not being able to roll back, now that I'm getting into more complex course material.

Alexander Davison
Alexander Davison
65,469 Points

lol nice animation :laughing:

Iain Simmons
MOD
Iain Simmons
Treehouse Moderator 32,305 Points
Iain Simmons
Iain Simmons
Treehouse Moderator 32,305 Points

Awesome! Looking forward to the preview feature of Snapshots also.

Keep up the fantastic work everyone!

Josh Pollock
Josh Pollock
8,757 Points
Josh Pollock
Josh Pollock
8,757 Points

Really stoked to see this, it's a great feature add. Thanks Treehouse!

Louis Delgado
Louis Delgado
10,182 Points
Louis Delgado
Louis Delgado
10,182 Points

so awesome! Thanks!

Igor Demchenko
Igor Demchenko
1,433 Points
Igor Demchenko
Igor Demchenko
1,433 Points

Grrrreat!

I used to take screenshots of tutorial vids and Workspace with my phone. Handy to review and re-think onTheGo, during the day.

Dustin Knudsen
Dustin Knudsen
1,616 Points
Dustin Knudsen
Dustin Knudsen
1,616 Points

Very cool. Would bet I'll use this at some point in the future. Thanks!

Aleksandr Vinogradov
Aleksandr Vinogradov
12,113 Points
Aleksandr Vinogradov
Aleksandr Vinogradov
12,113 Points

Hey, its cool ! The only question i have is whether its possible to preview the snapshot code. Seems like right now its give you just code without preview option.

Andrew Olson
Andrew Olson
4,028 Points

Hi Aleksandr,

The best to "preview" right now is to Fork the snapshot and open the workspace. Then you have your own copy of it and can preview, change the code, etc.

We would like to add previews (without having to Fork) eventually.

huckleberry
huckleberry
14,636 Points
huckleberry
huckleberry
14,636 Points

Fantastic update! I love that this site is in an almost constant state up UX upgrading. This particularly will be very helpful.

Hopefully it's not something that will be overlooked by a lot of folks.

Cheers,

Huck - :thumbsup:

Shivang Chaturvedi
Shivang Chaturvedi
2,600 Points
Shivang Chaturvedi
Shivang Chaturvedi
2,600 Points

That's innovation!! Thanks a ton.

ISAIAH S
ISAIAH S
1,409 Points
ISAIAH S
ISAIAH S
1,409 Points

Andrew Olson,

Thanks! This update is very useful. :satisfied:

One question: Is it possible to do this in Code Challenges? :+1:

Felipe Alarcon
Felipe Alarcon
2,930 Points
Felipe Alarcon
Felipe Alarcon
2,930 Points

pretty cool but a nice feature for the future would be to run the snapshot directly without having to fork it, keep it up guys.

dirkstokkel
dirkstokkel
6,042 Points
dirkstokkel
dirkstokkel
6,042 Points

Great feature!!!

Ryan Sherry
Ryan Sherry
12,449 Points
Ryan Sherry
Ryan Sherry
12,449 Points

This will be very helpful with showing my projects to my colleagues and friends who code. Thanks Treehouse! Keep being awesome!

Gloria Dwomoh
Gloria Dwomoh
13,116 Points
Gloria Dwomoh
Gloria Dwomoh
13,116 Points

Great update. It will help a lot; also in the forums when someone asks a question related to workspaces.

jessicakincaid
jessicakincaid
21,834 Points
jessicakincaid
jessicakincaid
21,834 Points

It's great to see what everyone is working on! I'm looking forward to learning Javascript. I'll be brave and share the first gallery site I coded: https://w.trhou.se/6cd7tbklp7

Where can we find everyone's workplace snapshots?

Andrew Olson
Andrew Olson
4,028 Points

Thanks for sharing!

We don't currently have a way to discover other snapshots. Right now someone has to share one with you via the Forum, Twitter, etc. Having a curated collection of snapshots sounds like a neat idea, though. I'll add it to the roadmap. Thanks!

jessicakincaid
jessicakincaid
21,834 Points
jessicakincaid
jessicakincaid
21,834 Points

Samuel, Maybe there is a time limit --I can't fork your JQuery Basics link. Wish I could see your work. Thanks for sharing the link!

Randy Preising
Randy Preising
3,254 Points
Randy Preising
Randy Preising
3,254 Points

Ok. I've taken my snapshot, but don't see where to "share" it. How do I do that?

jessicakincaid
jessicakincaid
21,834 Points
jessicakincaid
jessicakincaid
21,834 Points

I'm not sure what's happening. I think you might have shared it correctly, but the fork is not showing your files or content. When I fork it (which I was able to do this time), then click the preview link, it displays a page in the browser that says "Index of /" at the top, but there isn't anything else.

When I shared my link about a month ago, I copied and pasted the url from the window where I previewed my page. That may not be displaying correctly, either. I'm going to test what I think is the way they've designed the sharing feature--

There is a button in the workspaces view in the top right near the "preview" icon that looks like an eye. There are three of them in a row left to right: a suitcase looking one, one that looks like a branch, and then the eye. If you click on the suitcase a little drop down menu appears that says "Take Snapshot". You can take up to 5 snapshots. I'm going to test it by sharing a very rough sketch of a simple website. I just clicked on one of the links in the drop down menu under take snapshot. Here is the url https://w.trhou.se/ml5vwcnvsa Maybe this will work. It should have 2 folders and 5 html files. Thanks for following up.

Randy Preising
Randy Preising
3,254 Points
Randy Preising
Randy Preising
3,254 Points

Weird. I went in again a few hours later and the workspace window that opened looked different. The original workspace didn't have a URL "window" on top. It was more like a modal pop-up. This time a "regular" window opened, and I was able to copy the URL.

I able to view the workspace you shared btw.

Sam Donald
Sam Donald
36,305 Points
Sam Donald
Sam Donald
36,305 Points

Every time I follow a link to a Snapshot I get "Bummer...The Workspace Snapshot you are looking for doesn't exist."

Also when I try to share a Snapshot, I go to access it from the shared link and I get the same error. Even though I know it exists, because it's mine.

What gives????

Does Snapshot not work anymore???

Andrew Olson
Andrew Olson
4,028 Points

Hey Sam,

Can you reply with a snapshot that isn't working.

It looks like that sometimes when you paste a link to a snapshot here, it's adding the newline character to the URL. I edited my original post and https://w.trhou.se/111xofa85d should be working now.

Sam Donald
Sam Donald
36,305 Points
Sam Donald
Sam Donald
36,305 Points

Hi Andrew, now that you pointed it out I see the issue.

Broken link: https://w.trhou.se/6p7pqmdthl&#13

Working Link: https://w.trhou.se/6p7pqmdthl

Sam Donald
Sam Donald
36,305 Points
Sam Donald
Sam Donald
36,305 Points

Just seen another issue.

The second ;&amp#13; doesn't exist in the write-up I added to the post above but has been appended to the end of the link.

Strange.

Also in order to print out an ampersand you have to type &amp

Andrew Olson
Andrew Olson
4,028 Points
Andrew Olson
Andrew Olson
4,028 Points

Hey Sam,

We just shipped a fix and and pasting links should work now.

https://w.trhou.se/111xofa85d

:heart: