Collaborative Version Control - Centralized

Estimated time: 120 minutes

Overview

Questions

• How can I use version control to collaborate with internal collaborators?

Objectives

• Understand the basics of collaborative version control with git and Github
• Understand the centralized workflow

Instructor Note

Teaching is done as a pair of instructors. Instructor A acts as the owner of the repository, instructor B as a collaborator (internal or external).

First we show the centralized workflow all in the browser using Github:

• instructor A creates an issue (for example create ‘sum’ function)
• instructor B picks up the issue
  
• Instructor B creates a new branch (good to do this explicitly)
• Instructor B does some reviewable changes (a simple ‘sum’ function)
• Instructor B opens a new pull request.
• Instructor A reviews and approves the PR.
• Instructor B merges the pull request.
• Use Github repo’s insights -> network to visualize what just happened

Exercise: Working as a project collaborator (in pairs):

• PERSON A: Create an issue in the repository
• PERSON B: Clone this repository to your system
• PERSON B: Create a new branch
• PERSON B: Make the changes requested in the issue
• PERSON B: Push the changes to the remote repository on GitHub
• PERSON B: Submit a Pull Request, refer to the issue (e.g. “Closes #1”)
• PERSON A: Review the Pull Request
• PERSON B: Address the comments
• PERSON A: Approve the Pull Request
• PERSON B: Merge the Pull Request

Show me the solution

Key Points

• Git and Github are superpowerful, not just for version control, but as tools for collaborative development
• Do code reviews and be constructive in them!
• Use centralized flow for internal collaborations