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GitHub is a great tool for collaboration and no fuss version control. But sometimes you want to be able to work on a project from any computer connected to the Internet or you just don't want to set everything up on your own computer. Workspaces is a wonderful way to have a development server while you're a Treehouse student. Let's see how to use both of these powerful tools together.
If you want something more in depth about Git itself, check out our Git Basics course. It's a great guide to using Git for version control.
If you need more information about using GitHub, both solo and as part of a team, check out the excellent GitHub Basics course.
[MUSIC]
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Workspaces is one of my favorite
features here at Treehouse.
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It combines a terminal, a file browser and
a text editor all into one and
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even let's me run a server like when I'm
using Django and Rails and see the output.
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I've been lucky enough to use it
almost everything I've taught and
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I have no plans on stopping
that anytime soon.
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One of the questions I've
been asked several times,
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though is if you have to give up
workspaces to be able to use GitHub.
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This question has
a surprisingly tricky answer.
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If you're to the point where you want
to put your work up on GitHub, you're
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probably to the point where you should
be working locally most of the time.
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Development will probably be faster for
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you, you'll be able to use your favorite
tools and some workflows will work better
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on your computer than they will on the
Workspaces server, but you don't have to.
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If you love Workspaces or need to be able
to work on something from any computer
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that's connected to the internet,
you can stick with Workspaces and
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take full advantage of GitHub.
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Let's go to the source, Workspaces and
see how to use it with GitHub.
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Just like working with
GitHub on your own computer,
1:01
the first thing you probably
wanna do is create a repo.
1:04
Now, I can do this in Workspaces or
I can do it on GitHub itself.
1:07
I don't really have a preferred way, so
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I kinda just do whichever one seems
more expedient at the moment.
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So, I'm gonna start on GitHub.
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So here,
I am on github.com as you can already see.
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And up here on the top,
there is this plus button.
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And if you're on your profile page,
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there's also this newer
repository button down here.
1:29
So I'm gonna click the create new and I'm
gonna choose new repository and the button
1:32
might be in a different spot, just because
GitHub does change their UI around.
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I always end up having to look for it.
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If you can't find it,
there is a link down here to Help and
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they have really good help documentation.
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So, I need to name this repository.
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I think I'm going to make
a little reminder script.
1:54
Like something that I can use just to,
hey, remind me to take out the trash.
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Remind me to write that documentation.
2:01
Remind me to release a course.
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So I'm gonna name that rememberer,
cuz it does my remembering for me.
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If you don't have a name,
then GitHub actually gives you one,
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which is kinda cool.
2:15
So potential-octo-adventure,
that's actually a really great name.
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Anyway, so for the description,
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I'm gonna give it a quick
description of what it does.
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Lots of times people leave
projects without a description.
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That just really annoys me.
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I'm gonna say, remembers things for you so
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you don't have to and
I'm gonna make the repository Public.
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We have to pay for private repos.
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If you don't have them,
then you'll have to upgrade your account.
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I don't care if anybody sees those codes,
I'm gonna make it public.
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I'm gonna go ahead and
initialize it with a README,
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just so there's a file in there and
I'm going to, this is going to be python.
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So, I'm gonna add a python get ignore.
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And for licensing, I'm a big fan
of the BSD 3-clause, but the MIT.
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I mean, all the licenses are okay,
so pick whichever one you want.
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So I'm gonna do that, just because
I wanna get this stuff in there.
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So I'm gonna create that repository and
cool.
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So there's my repository and
up here for cloning,
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there's an address here and you can
choose to do it between HTTPS or SSH.
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The HTTPS one is a little bit easier,
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you don't have to deal with SSH key and
a passphrase.
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So, I'm just gonna go ahead and
copy that to my clipboard and
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then I'm gonna come over
here to Workspaces.
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And I've already clicked the new Workspace
button, so I'm gonna go ahead and
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make a new Workspace now and I'm gonna
say, it's the Rememberer Project and
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I'm building this in Python.
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So, I'm gonna put Python there.
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Now of course, whatever language
you want to use, go for it.
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You don't have to do this as Python.
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You can do this as anything you want and
then I'm gonna hit create Workspace.
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So, awesome.
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Now, we have a great Workspace.
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Let it spin up and then let's see.
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Down here in this bottom part,
this is my terminal.
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So down here's where I wanna clone,
I wanna check out my project.
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So I'm gonna say, git clone and
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then I'm gonna paste in the repository
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address that GitHub gave me, press Enter.
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Wait for a second and
then I'm gonna Refresh the sidebar and
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looks like I have a Rememberer Project.
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So, that's pretty cool.
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I have my License file.
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My God, shrink that down.
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I have my LICENSE file and
I have my README.md.
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So, great.
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There's everything that
I was looking form, but
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this README.md is really bare
because it just started.
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It doesn't really have
anything impressive in it.
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So, I'm gonna fill this
out a little bit more.
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Lots of times when I'm first
starting on a project,
5:00
I like to do what's called
read me driven development and
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the idea is that basically, you write
docs about how your project works and
5:05
then you write your code, so
that your docs are telling the truth.
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No one likes lying documentation.
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So let's say, Usage and we'll say,
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'remem take out the cat litter' and
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that will add a new item
to be remembered and
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'remem --list'- print out
the list of things to remember.
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'Remem --delet 2'- delete
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the item with index 2 and 'remem
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--next'- print out the next thing to do.
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That's a pretty good README.md.
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I obviously,
have quite a bit of work ahead of me.
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But I have made a change,
so I need to make a commit.
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So, I'm going to come back
down here to my terminal and
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let's do git status and fatal.
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Not a get repository, that's right,
because rememberer is the git repository.
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So, let's get into rememberer and
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now, we can do git init.
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That's not what I wanted to do,
I wanted to do git status.
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There we go.
6:30
So, I have this README.md
file that has been changed.
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So, I need to add that change in.
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So I'm gonna add the READMe.md file and
them I'm gonna do a commit and
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I'll say, "add example usage to README".
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And so now git doesn't know who I am,
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so you might have to add this yourself.
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And basically, you just want to copy and
do what git has here.
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So, I'm gonna do git config user.email
"kenneth@teamtreehouse.com" and
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you'll notice that git lets me do this
--global and I'm leaving off --global.
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The reason for that is the --global
goes to the system wide git so
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that it remembers who you are.
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The system wide git isn't going to be
the same from workspace to workspace.
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So I want this to remember me just for
the repo and
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user.name will be "Kenneth Love".
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So now, let's check out git status.
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So our thing was added, but
we haven't committed it yet.
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So let's rerun our commit, cool.
7:45
So, we added the example
usage to the README.md and
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now I'm gonna go ahead and
push these up to GitHub.
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So I will get push origin master,
which is the default and
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now I have to put in a username.
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GitHub is going to ask you for
your username and
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your password every single time and
that's because GitHub on
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Workspaces doesn't store your identity,
which is a good thing.
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It's fine, we don't want our
identity store on Workspaces.
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So while it's annoying to have to type
those in, it's great for privacy.
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So, it's okay.
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It makes pushing a little bit tedious,
what I normally do if I'm going to be
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working in Workspaces is make as many
commits as I can before I push and
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I just push like when I'm pretty
much done with something.
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You probably don't want
to do that with a team,
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because your team is probably
going to want updates more often.
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But if you're working on a feature branch
by yourself, it's not that big of a deal.
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So, let's check out GitHub and
see if my changes came through.
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So, we have two comments.
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And if I look at the README.md,
then yeah, I have my stuff.
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It's not formatted great, but it's there.
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So now,
it's time to actually go build this thing.
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I probably wanna go fix my README.md, so
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that it comes through in a better format,
but it all works.
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So I'm gonna go work on this,
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I don't wanna keep the rest of
you from the rest of your day.
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So, I'll do that on my own and
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you can go build whatever it
is that you need to build.
9:18
Like I said earlier,
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you probably want to work locally by the
time you want to put work up on GitHub.
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Go for it.
9:26
Installing Git on you computer
is pretty straightforward.
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But whether you use your machine or
Workspaces, the important part
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is building up projects on GitHub and
helping others with their projects.
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If you want to learn more about Git or
GitHub,
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check out our courses on each of those.
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A link to them both in the teachers notes.
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Good luck and
I can't wait to see what you built.
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