affian / 387com

Smartphone App Development

.

. #387COM

Welcome to the first worksheet covering iPhone Application Development. You are probably viewing this via GitHub so one of the first tasks we will be carrying out is showing you how to fork your own copy of the code and maintain it on your own Git repository.

Before we get started it is worth reiterating that the module covers some advanced programming concepts which you will be required to demonstrate in your assignment which is entirely assessed through a practical coursework assignment. The module comprises eleven topics, each containing three worksheets. You will spend all semester writing complex iPhone applications.

You will be shown how to use an IDE called XCode to write iPhone apps using the Swift programming language. You must use this when writing your assignment.

1 Getting Started

1.1 Cloning the GitHub Repository

Start by opening the Terminal application on your Mac and navigating to your network drive. This can be found in the /Volumes directory and its name will match your username

cd /Volumes/
ls
Macintosh HD	username
cd username
ls

Next you need to clone the repository on GitHub, this contains the worksheets and code you will need to complete the module.

git clone https://github.com/covcom/387COM.git

By default your network drive won't appear in finder. We need to add this manually. Open Finder then, from the Go menu choose Go to folder. You need to access the /Volumes folder so enter the following and press enter.

/Volumes/

Finally, drag your network drive into the sidebar as shown.

You will now be able navigate to the 387COM directory and locate the projects you will be working on in the module.

1.2 Creating a New Repository

Now create an account and log into BitBucket (https://bitbucket.com). Create yourself a new empty repository by clicking on the Create button at the top of the page then choose **Create repository. In the name field you should enter 387COM and in the Description field enter iPhone App Development. Check the access level to specify a private repository and click on *Create Project. You will be taken to the project home screen.

On the home screen click on the I'm starting from scratch link. You should see a link similar to the one below. Copy this to your clipboard. Make sure you choose HTTP and not GIT from the dropdown menu.

https://[email protected]/marktyers/387com.git

Now return to the Terminal app on your Mac, make sure you are in the root 387COM directory and check the current remote settings.

git remote -v
origin  https://github.com/covcom/387COM.git (fetch)
origin  https://github.com/covcom/387COM.git (push)

As you can see your workspace points to the readonly version on GitHub. Lets change this to point to our read-write repository on GitLab. Make sure you substitute your own URL.

git remote set-url origin https://[email protected]/marktyers/387com.git
git remote -v
origin  https://[email protected]/marktyers/387com.git (fetch)
origin  https://[email protected]/marktyers/387com.git (push)

You will notice that your remote called origin now points to your new BitBucket repository.

Finally we need to configure Git on your local machine with our name and email address. Make sure this matches the name and email you used when setting up your GitLab account.

git config --global user.name 'Your Name'
git config --global user.email '[email protected]'

1.3 Pushing to the New Remote

The final step is to push the local copy of your repository to the new origin remote. This will upload all the files and change history to your own remote on GitLab. You will be prompted for your BitBucket password.

git push origin master

If you now open the BitBucket repository you will see a files link down the left-hand side of the screen. If you click on this you will see all the project files on your BitBucket repository.

1.4 Pulling Changes

Over the course of the module there will be changes made to the original read-only repository on GitHub. To allow access to these changes you will need to add a second remote to your local Cloud 9 repository (we will label this as the upstream repository).

git remote -v
git remote add upstream https://github.com/covcom/387COM.git
git remote -v

Before you start each worksheet take a few moments to sync your fork which will keep it up to date with the original.

git pull upstream master

This will pull down any new files or changes from the GitHub repository and merge them into your local copy. In this way you will always have the latest versions of the teaching materials.

1.5 Commiting Working Code

At the end of each exercise you should get into the habit of commiting your working code.

git status
git add .
git commit -m 'finished exercise xxxx'

1.6 Pushing to Your Remote

At the end of your programming session you should push all these new commits back to your GitLab repository.

git log origin/master..HEAD
git push origin --all
git log origin/master..HEAD

Homework

Git is an important tool for any programmer and it is at the heart of what we do in this module. It is important that you become familiar with it by understanding how it works and practicing the core git commands.

Your homework is to read about the core Git concepts ready to answer questions in your second lab. You should read and understand the first two chapters from this free online book.

https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2

You can either read it online or download an ebook to install on your ebook reader, phone or tablet.