Web content projects typically exist in multiple states: edited, committed, staged, and deployed. The developer needs to test the results of his local work in progress, before and after committing to his local repository. The merged work of an entire project needs to be staged and reviewed. Finally, the current deployed product needs to be viewed for comparison during development.
The reader may be thinking, “I never had to do all that with _(insert a CMS package name here)_.” If so, the reader is not a developer (yet). Even a static website requires multiple development steps as follows.
The extension .md identifies MarkDown documents. Make Kate the default editor for this document type.
Use the notations for MarkDown Syntax to markup text. Start each document of the project with a heading, and go on from there.
Open the Slekx Editor in a web browser tab, and paste text into the left pane. Interpreted HTML output will display on the right.
What should never have to be said, must be said.
Along with saving work, periodically commit changes into your local git repository using the commands described in this section.
Make git aware of current changes with the command:
git add .
The “dot” means track everything in a project directory. Specify file names if everything is not desired. Exclude categories of files from tracking with entries in .gitignore, as previously shown.
Always use git to move or rename a tracked file. The syntax is the same as the Linux mv command, but proceded with git:
git mv old_filename.md new_filename.md
As with moving a tracked file, use a git command when deleting:
git rm bad_filename.md
Periodically add and commit completed content to your local repository:
git add .
git status
git commit -m "type a brief message here describing your changes"
The changes in a local repository must be merged into the code in a central project repository. A programmer updates the central project with these steps.
Before starting a day’s work, synchronize your local repository copy to the central master repository:
git pull
When local content is synchronized with master changes, tested, and committed locally, then push the content commits to the central master:
git push
Note
If git requires a user password in the git push command, then an ssh key is missing at GitHub. Follow GitHub directions to add the missing key.
Firefox introduced tabs in the web browser, making life better for web developers. The following tabs are useful all the time:
Footnotes
| [1] | See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Git_(software) for information on git. A git online reference manual is at http://gitref.org/. |