You should now have Completed the following things:
- Setup your Azure DevOps Organization/ Project
Next you will you will create your Git repository within Azure DevOps. Git is a version control system that developers use all over the world. It helps you track different versions of your code and collaborate with other developers. But Git is not just for code, it can be used for any kind of text document.
Using the built-in repositories of Azure DevOps has the following benefits:
- You don't need an additional environment to host your code such as GitHub enterprise
- They are well integrated with other features like pipelines
We created a repository in GitHub that is intended as starting point. Partially code changes are required from your side for setting up the infrastructure. Two steps are required:
- Creating the repository in Azure DevOps
- Adjusting the code
For the second step various options exist:
-
Using in-place editing with the browser within Azure DevOps after import
Only small code changes are required from your side. This is the recommended method if you are not familiar with local code adjustment via Visual Studio Code or comparable tooling.
-
Using local tools to adjust the code
Initially Azure DevOps creates a default repository that has the same name as the project. Our starter project can be directly imported into Azure DevOps. The screenshot below shows how an existing GitHub repository can be imported:
You will be then prompted for the GitHub repository. The link is as follows: https://github.com/DevOps-Gilde/S1_Code_AzureDevOps. You can use the default name.
After successful import you have now an additional entry when you browse your repositories.
After the import the branch "Solution" is selected as default. Make sure you switch to the "main" branch. Otherwise you are missing the objective since you see the alraedy fully implemented solution.
To adjust existing files select the file you want to edit. The screen below shows the resulting situation:
Use the "Edit" button at the right-hand side to switch into edit mode. After the first change an additional "Commit" button will appear. Use this button to trigger the commit. Just go with the defaults after being prompted and click "Commit" to confirm.
Follow the installation wizards and use always defaults if being prompted. Visual Studio Code requires the additional installation of the Git extension.
When opening a new Window of Visual Studio Code you will see the Getting Started page which offers you the option to Clone Git Repository...
To clone the Git repo from Azure DevOps you first need the url. The screenshot below shows the starting point to obtain this url from the Azure DevOps UI:
When you click on this option a new window will open on the top where you can enter your project url from Azure DevOps
After pressing Enter, you will be asked where to store the project on your computer.
After selecting a location, your Project will be copied to your computer and VS Code will offer you in the bottom right to open the cloned project.
You can either open the project in the current window or open it in a new window of VS Code.
In the new window you will now see all files of the projects.
When you start working in the project, you will notice that the colour of the filenames will change to:
- Green U = New File
- Yellow M= Changed File
- Red D= Removed File
The Change of colour shows you that Git has noticed that you changed a file in the project
When you now click again on the Git symbol on the left, you can see a list of all changed files.
When you select one of the files, Git will show you the difference between the last version of the file and the current file.
To finally save the changes and add a new version to git you need to make a commit which contains all changed files you want to bundle together. Therefore you need to select the changes you want to add by presseing the plus next to the filename. All added files are then displayed in the "Stage" area.
To create a commit which contains all staged files, you need to add a Commit Message and press Enter
The Commit saves now all the changes made in the files and can be used to revert changes if needed.
To save the changes in the cloud we need to push our commits to Github. Therefor you need to click on the three dots ... in the top right of the git window.
In this Popup you can click in Push to upload your changes.
- Commit => Creates a bundle of all changes with a comment of what has been changed. It can be seen of a Snapshot of the project and its always possible to revert changes by jumping back to a older commit
- Clone => Creates a copy of a remote project repository on your local machine.
- Fork => Creates a copy of a git project. The copied version can be used to create customizations on a project. Hence the copy is still connected to the original project it is always possible to apply changes and updates into your customized version of the project. In contrast to clone the idea is to start a new separate journey.
- Push => Uploads all changes that have been made on the local project to a remote location (i.e. Github)
- Pull => Downloads all changes that have been made on the remote project since the last pull. This is needed when working with multiple people on one project so you always have the newest version on your local machine.