General

Getting Started with Git

Published Oct 9, 2020

Updated Feb 14, 2023

9 min read

This article was written over 18 months ago and may contain information that is out of date. Some content may be relevant but please refer to the relevant official documentation or available resources for the latest information.

Getting Started with Git Today’s article will cover some of the basics of Git. This article is under the assumption that you have already made a GitHub repository or have access to one and basic understanding of the command line. If you haven’t, I recommend going to https://github.com/, creating an account and setting up a repository.

The Rundown of Common Git Commands

git clone This command is used on an existing repository and creates a copy of the target repository
git status This command is used to show the state of your working directory and staging area
git checkout *The command is used to switch between different branches or versions in a repository *
git add This command is used to add changes to the staging area of your current directory
git commit This command is used to save your changes to your local repository
git push This command is used to upload your local repository to a remote repository
git pull This command is used to download the newest updates from the remote repository

Cloning a Repo Now that we’ve covered some of the basic Git commands, we’ll go through a few examples of how they get used. We’ll start with cloning or copying a remote repository for our local use. To start, you’ll navigate to your repository and find the clone button (now called Code). For this article, we’ll be using HTTPS as our cloning option.

Now that you’ve copied that to your clipboard, we’ll be opening up the terminal and navigating to a folder that you want to clone your repository in. We’ll be using git clone so in this case, it will be git clone https://github.com/WillHutt/blog.git.

Git Status Now, let's navigate to your new folder (it’s the name of the repo you cloned) and run a git status to see what’s going on.

Git Checkout Looks like everything went okay. I’m now sitting in the master branch of my cloned repository. From here, we will leave the master branch and move to a new branch. The general rule of thumb is to always work in a separate branch; that way, if anything goes wrong, you’re not causing errors to the master branch. We’re now going to run git checkout -b .

Huzzah! We are now on a new branch.

Git Add Now, let's make some changes in your new branch. I’m going to edit my README file. I’ll be using nano README.md to edit my README file.

Making some changes git-basics-6

Now that we’ve saved those changes, let's run a git status and see what has been changed.

Sweet! It shows that we’ve made some changes. Let's add those changes to our branch. We’ll be using git add to add those to the staging area. With git add, we can either use git add . to add all of my changes or we can be more specific with git add .

After that git add, I ran a git status and you can see that the text is now green indicating it has been added.

Git Commit Now we want to commit the newest changes to your branch. We’ll start by using git commit, which brings up our handy commit message prompt.

Here we will give a short description of what changed. We won’t go into detail about commit message standards in this article. We’ll keep it super simple and mention that we are updating our README documentation.

Awesome! Everything went as planned and we’ve now committed our changes. git-basics-11

Git Push Finally, with all of that done, we can move on to pushing the local changes to your remote repository. We’ll do this with git push origin and in this case, it will be git push origin new-branch-yay. Here, it will ask for your username and password for GitHub, so go ahead and enter those.

Tada! We have pushed to your repository branch git-basics-13

Merging We now need to make a pull request to get that change into the master branch. To do that, go back over to GitHub and head to your repository. Once there, we will select Pull requests and click on the New pull request button.

Sweet! Now that we’ve done that, make sure the branch you want to merge is selected. That branch will be your compare while the place you want to merge into will be the base.

Woot! Now that everything is selected properly, go ahd and click the Create pull request button. This will take us to your last step on creating a pull request.

As you can see in the image above, you have a variety of options. We’re just going to focus on hitting the Create pull request button.

Success! We have merged your pull request and updated master with your latest changes. Now we have one last thing left before we’re done with your now merged pull request. We need to click the Delete branch button to help keep your repository branches nice and clean.

Navigate back to the homepage of the remote repository on GitHub and we can see that the master branch has been updated.

Git Pull Now, we'll do a git pull to get the latest updates from our remote repository. To do that, we’ll change branches in our terminal. In my case, I’ll be moving from my new-branch-yay back to my master branch. In order to do so, we’ll use git checkout master. Once on master, we’ll use a git pull to get the latest update to master.

Conclusion We made it to the end! I hope this article was helpful and you were able to learn and be more comfortable with Git and GitHub. This article covered some of the basics of Git to try and help people starting out or might need a refresher.

This Dot is a consultancy dedicated to guiding companies through their modernization and digital transformation journeys. Specializing in replatforming, modernizing, and launching new initiatives, we stand out by taking true ownership of your engineering projects.

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About the author(s)

William Hutt
I'm a software engineer with an interest in web development.
@willHutt

7 Tips to be a Successful Developer in a Remote Company

When the pandemic hit in March of 2020, most companies were forced to go remote and millions of workers had to learn how to work from home. Two years later, a lot people now prefer the work from home option, and many job seekers are looking for remote-only companies to work for. For software developers, there are many advantages to working from home and still effectively working as a team to produce high quality results. But how can you be successful in a remote company? In this article, I will provide 7 tips on what it takes to be a successful developer in a remote company. Communication is key It is now more important than ever to communicate effectively with your team. Now that everyone is working from home instead of being in one physical office, you have to be very conscious to reach out to teammates and share your progress on a project. In a physical office, you are surrounded by other co-workers all day, which makes it easier to walk over to someone's office and share what you have been working on. It also makes it easier to have impromptu meetings with other team members throughout the day. But in a remote setting, it is very easy to become isolated and get carried away with work without reaching out to anyone all day. This becomes an issue for your team, because now they are no longer keeping up to date on the latest changes you have been contributing to the project. My tip would be to post periodic updates throughout the day of what you have been working on. If your company is using something like Slack or another chat server, make sure to post a detailed update on what you have been up to the past few hours. Here is an example of one of the status updates I would post to my team. Status update: - finished making changes to xyz case study and put it up for review - reviewed a couple of PRs - ran accessibility audits for the homepage and working on increasing the performance score I would usually post this in the middle of the day to update the team on what I have been working on. I also try to ask questions throughout the day to ensure that I don't get blocked on a particular issue for to long. This method of communication helps me stay connected with the team and helps my manager know where I am at in the project. Find a separate space in your home just for work When you are working in an office, there is a clear separation between work and home. This makes it easier to end your day and leave your work at the office. But with remote work, sometimes these lines between work and home become a little bit blurry. This is why it is important to designate a separate work space in your home. In my situation, I have a small desk in another room where I do all of my work. That space is only used Monday through Friday for work purposes. I have found that by creating a work space, it allows me to be in the moment and fully concentrate on my duties. Then at the end of the day, I logout out of everything and leave the work space just like I would leave a physical business. That has given me freedom to relax in my home when I am not working and fully recharge for the next day. I understand that everyone's living situation is different, and you might not have room for a designated work area. In those cases, do the best you can to carve out some space in your living situation just for work. The more you can do to separate home and business, the more productive you will be at work. Set consistent work hours When you are working in an office, you have set hours for when you are going to be there. It might be 9-5 or 8-3 with breaks throughout the day. But when you are working from home, it is very easy to work without a set schedule and put in more time outside of the standard work hours. This can quickly lead to burnout which is a huge issue within the developer community. It is really important to set a consistent work schedule so your team knows when you are available, and when you are off work. This also forces you to work within a time frame which will lead to better focus, time management and productivity. I have personally found that setting that time frame from 8-5 with breaks helps me structure my day better and get more done than if I had an open schedule. Take breaks throughout the day Developer health is another huge issue within the community. Many developers, including myself have gone for hours hunched over their computers trying to get something to work. In these situations, it is very easy to lose track of time and develop back, neck, shoulder, and eye problems. One of the key advantages of working from home is being able to take breaks and leave your work space. Take ten minute breaks throughout the day and make sure to walk around, stretch, go outside, and drink water. Taking breaks from the computer will give your body and brain a chance to rest and recharge. When I first started working remotely, I would be glued to the computer for hours at a time. But I quickly felt the negative health effects and started becoming more intentional about taking breaks. Now, I have developed a healthier work situation and can see the difference in the quality of work I am producing. Dress appropriately for important meetings We all enjoy the relaxed dress code that often accompanies working from home. In an office, you will typically be in a more work appropriate attire especially when it comes to meetings with clients. But when you are at home, it is very easy to work in some sweatpants and a t shirt. If you don't have any meetings that day, then coding in your casual attire is fine. But if you are meeting with clients or interviewing remotely, it is important to dress appropriately. Remember that it is still a business and you want to be as professional as possible, even in a remote setting. Avoid mixing personal tasks and work tasks When you are in an office, you don't worry about personal chores like doing laundry or taking the trash out. But when you are working from home, it is very easy to get distracted and mix personal tasks with work tasks. It is very important that while you are working, you are focused on work. Then during breaks, you can take care of personal items. In my situation, I make sure to finish up the task I was working on and then take a break to put a load of laundry on or take care of another personal chore. There are definitely times where something has come up and I will make sure to communicate that with the team so they know I will be unavailable for a certain amount of time. But just try to do the best that you can separating personal tasks and issues from your work tasks. Time management and structuring your day In order to work productively, it is important to plan out your day as best you can and structure your time accordingly. For example, as I am writing this blog today, I made sure to set aside time for writing the first draft, revising it and submitting it for review. During that time block, I am not focused on other PR's or other work responsibilities. That ensures I am focused 100% on writing a high quality article. Once I complete a large task, then I make sure to take a break, hydrate, walk around and eat something. That allows me to energize and gear up for the next task in my day. I found that breaking up my day into manageable tasks has provided me the opportunity to focus and produce good work. Conclusion Those are my 7 tips on what it takes to be a successful developer in a remote company. I encourage you to give each of those tips a try and see how it affects your work productivity....

May 16, 2022

7 mins

General

Common Interview Questions & What They Mean

Introduction Who hasn't been asked some weird and interesting questions in previous interviews? Interviewers are known for asking a variety of weird, interesting, and confusing questions to possible employees for a variety of reasons. And this makes sense because they want to know as much as possible about you in the limited interview duration. Here are some interview questions you might be asked and what the interviewer is trying to find out about you from your answers: Introduce yourself Here, the interviewer is not really interested in your answer. What they are looking at your confidence and your passion, so this is the best time to show them your communication skills! So, you should tell them about your education, where you grew up, your past work experience, your hobbies, and your personal interests! Be calm, relaxed, and confident! What are your strengths? Here, the interviewers want to know how positivly you think about yourself! It’s a quite general question, so there is no right or wrong answer for it! So it’s a good opportunity for you to share what makes you so unique, and what are you good at! But you should tie your strengths to what they’re looking for! That’s why you should read the job description very carefully, and get a good understanding of what they are looking for, and then try to fit yourself in there! What are your weaknesses? In this question, the interviewers are looking at is whether you can identify your weaknesses, and how you can cover them up! You need not be really negative about yourself! For example, don't say “I am a very impatient person”, or “I am getting angry easily”. The best way to answer this question is to talk about a weakness that you had that isn’t related to the job, and what you did to overcome it. That way, they can see a progression, and that is what they really want to hear in the answer! What is your expected salary? Here, the interviewers, of course, have knowledge about the typical salaries offered by the company. By asking this question, they're often trying to see whether the applicant did research about the company. So learn about the company before the interview! You can use websites like Payscale or Glassdoor and read the reviews from other people who worked at this company! Can you work under pressure? This is a behavioral question, and the reason behind this question is the interviewers want to know if you get really stressed out. So the best way to answer this question is by talking about a situation where you experienced pressure, and the action that you took to diffuse that pressure. Then, talk about the result and what happened. How do you make your decisions? You might be asked this question if you are applying for management or lead position. They're interested in knowing your process when making decisions, because it's very likely that at some point, you will have to make a critical decision in the workplace. So, the best way to answer is to be confident and walk them through some of your management exercises, or some of your work situations that you handled successfully. What attracted you to this job? Here, the interviewers are typically trying to know if you understand the position you’re applying for, and that your goals and experience align with the role. Always remember that employers value candidates who aim to meaningfully contribute to company goals while also advancing their own careers. Where do you see yourself in five years? This is a growth-oriented question. So, if you just simply say: “I see myself sitting around here for the next five years until I figure out what I want to do”, that’s not what they want to hear. You should align this question to where the company is going and then you talk about how you see yourself fitting in their future. Why are you applying for this job? Here the interviewers want to know if you know their core values. A lot of people make mistakes answering this question and say that they are applying for the job because of the compensation package. Of course, salarie and benefits are an important thing, but you should have a long-term goal you want to achieve from the job! So it’s better to make sure this goal alligns with the company’s goals. That is what they want to hear from you. Why do you want to work here? The key to answering this question is to align yourself with where this company is going, so that’s why you must do some research on the company, like what are their values? What is their mission? Where are they going? What do they want to do? And by doing that, that will make you appear to be someone who can contribute to their overall mission, their projects, or whatever it is they’re trying to do. What makes you a good fit for this job? Here, they want you to talk about your past experiences, your past education, the kinds of things that you have done that are related to the kinds of things that they're looking for. So, you have to get a lot of information about the position, the job description, what they're looking for, and what the goals are for this position. Why should we hire you? I guarantee you are probably going to get asked this question, but it will most likely come near the end of the interview, after they’ve had a chance to build up some rapport and they’re actually thinking that you might be a good fit. Now, this is the chance to sell yourself, but you have to understand what they are looking for and the pains and problems that they have. Do you have any questions? This is usually the last question, and I made it the last one for a reason because this is most likely the last question they're going to ask you. Now that's your opportunity to find out more about what the next steps are, where they're going, or whatever is important for you. Don't just ask them questions to ask questions. Ask them questions that will help you determine whether this is a place that you want to be. Don't just ask questions about their organization chart or their finances or things that just don't really pertain to you. Ask them questions that are going to help you make a decision about whether you want to work there....

Nov 11, 2021

5 mins

General

Setting Up a Shopify App and Getting Order Data

Today, we are going on an adventure! We’re starting a three-part guide on creating a Shopify app and updating a customer's order with tracking information. For this article, it's assumed that you already have a Shopify store. If you want to skip ahead and look at the code, it can be found here. To start us off, we’ll use the Shopify Create app and then follow it up with retrieving customer orders. Shopify Create app Getting started with the Shopify Create app will be a quick and easy process. We’ll start by navigating to a directory where we want to create our app and run the following ` We’ll be greeted by a few different prompts asking for the project name, and building your app selection. Success! Now let's navigate into our new directory and do a yarn dev, and we’ll get a few options. We’ll choose to create it as a new app, add an app name, config name, and select the store we want to use. With that out of the way, we’ll open the preview by pressing the p button. It should automatically open it up in a window and show us an app install screen where we will click the Install app button. This should redirect us to our Remix app template screen Install Template Perfect! We now have a basic Shopify Create app up and running. Next, we will move on to adding in the ability to retrieve our customer orders. Orders query Alright, it’s customer order time! We’re going to be leaving the template mostly as is. We are going to focus on adding the call and verifying the data comes back. We’ll navigate over to our app/routes/app._index.jsx file and start changing the loader function. Start by removing: ` And replacing it with: ` Next, swap Wrap change { shop } in: ` With ` Follow that up with changing ` To ` Then, we’ll remove the View product button that has the old shop variable in it. When you go back and look at your application, you should see the Error: Access denied for fulfillmentOrders field. This is due to scopes that we haven’t updated. To fix this, we’ll head over to our shopify.app.toml file and replace ` with ` Here is what you should now have: ` We’ll now do another yarn dev which will tell us that our scopes inside the TOML don’t match the scopes in our Partner Dashboard. To fix this, we simply need to run: ` And then we’ll be prompted to confirm our changes with the difference shown. It will give us a success response, and now we can do another yarn dev to look at our application. Doing so brings us back to our old friend the app install page. Only this time it’s telling us to update the app and redirecting us back to the application page. Huh, seems like we’re getting a new error this time. For some reason, the app is not approved to access the FulfillmentOrder object. No worries, follow the link in that message. It should be https://partners.shopify.com/[partnerId]/apps/[appId]/customer_data Here, we select the Protected customer data and just toggle Store management and save. After this, go down to the Protected customer fields (optional) and do the same thing for Name, Email, Phone, and Address. With that all said and done, we’ll exit the page. After that, go back to our application, and refresh it. Tada! It works! We will see a toast notification at the bottom of the screen that says Orders received and in our terminal console, we will see our orders returning. Conclusion That was an exciting start to our three-part adventure. We covered a lot, from setting up a Shopify app to getting our orders back and everything up and running! Next time, we’ll be digging into how to get our fulfillment ids, which will be needed to update a customer's order with tracking information....

Aug 23, 2023

5 mins

Shopify

How Nuxt Studio is Redefining Developer & User Experience with Baptiste Leproux & Ferdinand Coumau

In this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Danny Thompson sits down with Ferdinand Como and Baptiste Leproux from Nuxt Labs to uncover the story behind Nuxt Studio, a tool that's transforming how developers and non-technical users interact with Nuxt applications. Ferdinand and Baptiste share how Nuxt Studio bridges the gap between developer customization and user-friendly content management. Built to empower agencies, freelancers, and their clients, Nuxt Studio combines powerful features like live previews, Vue component integration, and schema-driven forms to make managing content seamless. The conversation also explores the broader mission of Nuxt Labs—building sustainable open-source tools that enhance developer experience and meet real-world needs. With insights into the future of Nuxt Studio and its potential to scale for larger organizations, this episode is a must-listen for anyone passionate about innovation in web development. Chapters 1. Introduction and Setting the Stage (00:00:00) 2. The Vision Behind Nuxt Studio (00:03:10) 3. Nuxt Studio’s Core Features (00:08:45) 4. Challenges in Building Nuxt Studio (00:16:20) 5. Target Audience and Use Cases (00:22:35) 6. Sustainability in Open Source (00:29:00) 7. The Future of Nuxt Studio (00:35:10) 8. Nuxt Studio’s Role in the Nuxt Ecosystem (00:42:30) 9. Closing Thoughts and What’s Next (00:48:00) 10. Sponsor Shoutout and Wrap-Up (00:53:20) Follow Baptiste Leproux and Ferdinand Coumau Baptiste Twitter: https://x.com/_larbish Ferdinand Twitter: https://x.com/CoumauFerdinand Baptiste Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/baptiste-leproux-618842b0/ Ferdinand Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ferdinand-coumau-nuxt/ Sponsored by This Dot: thisdot.co...

Nov 20, 2024

2 mins

VueNuxtJS

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Whether it's modernization or custom software solutions, our team of experts can guide you through best practices and how to build scalable, performant software that lasts.

Getting Started with Git

William Hutt

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