how_to_get_started.md

How to get started

1. Be excited!

This project can be a really awesome way to learn to work together with a bunch of great people on a really-real and useful project! 😄

Read this and write your own thoughts about it there!

2. Get the repo!

Create a dedicated folder for the project. Open your shell/terminal and clone the repo like that:

git clone https://github.com/udacityalumni/alumni-client

Why cloning instead of forking?

Forking is meant for situations where you want to develop your own version of a project, starting from an existing one.

In the WebApp we want to collaboratively build a project. For this it is best to clone the repo locally.

The project uses a centralized workflow, which means, in short:

• decide what you want to work on and communicate this to the group (slack, and assign yourself to an issue in github)

• then git pull the repo to your local folder (this updates it locally to the newest version and helps to avoid later conflicts)

• work away on what you want to do!

• git push your change (and hope there are no merge conflicts)

Read more on guidelines and good practices in the extensive wiki.

3. Install node!

Follow this guide here. If you run into issues (sadly that's not all that unlikely...), here's a dedicated page for resolving those.

4. Take a look at the project!

For this to work locally, you'll need to make the node install work. Move your current working directory in the shell to the cloned alumni-client folder. Then you can install the dependencies like so:

npm run setup and a bit of waiting...

then

npm run start another bit of waiting (but less)...

And open your browser at http://0.0.0.0:1337/

There it is! 😄

Beautiful!

(If it doesn't work locally, you can still look at it online)

5. Take a look at the github repo!

Now check out the Issues tab in the github repo and read through what's there. Is there something that you think you can do? Is there something that interests you where you want to learn more about?

Assign yourself to that issue and get in contact with others who are working on it.

Use the #alumni-web-app slack channel for chatty conversation, and post a response in the github Issues for important questions and announcements.

6. Try, Work, Fail, Try again. -> Learn a lot!

There are some great people working already on this project and hopefully a lot more (such as you!) will come and join! 😄

This can be a big playground for learning. Don't be afraid to ask questions to those that are already doing things here. They're all really nice folks, and thoroughly happy to help!

This web-app is meant to be a community-project done by and for all interested Udacity alumnis!

Try things, ask for help. Use it as a chance to learn a ton of things about real-life web-development!