Coldbox, Github, and eGit

Communities ColdBox HMVC
1

So, I had the chance to install the eGit plugin into my CF Builder install last night. I have two goals:

  1. Be able to easily update the latest nightly down to my local copy and point my app at it for testing

  2. Do a pull request for local modifications I’ve made.
    A pre-cursory look at Google hasn’t turned up any decent tutorials on how to checkout a repo hosted on hithub and my initial attempt figure things out on my own have been fairly dismal and resulted in several error messages such as “java.lang.String cannot be cast to org.eclipse.jgit.lib.Repository” that Google has never heard of. (serious?) I have read through some of the eGit tutorials on the Eclipse site and still have some questions.

  • Should I be checking out the main coldbox repo (git://github.com/ColdBox/coldbox-platform.git) ); or my forked version, or both? (I created a hithub account and forked the coldbox project)

  • In eGit, Do I want to “add an existing repository”, “Close a Git repository”, or “Create a new Git repository”?

  • I’m a little used to Subversion, but stuff that doesn’t make since in eGit right now are “references”, “remotes”, and “heads” (I’m only used to one HEAD).

  • And has anyone else gotten this error when they expand “references”? “File is too large: C:\websites\coldbox-platform.git\FETCH_HEAD” Google couldn’t help me there either. :frowning:

So, can someone point me in the right direction please? My hands are pretty full learning Subversion right now, so I don’t really have time for a war-and-peace novel on the minutia of Git right now, but a good overview tutorial someone can point me to on checking out hithub repos would probably help a lot.

Thanks!

~Brad

2

Brad here are some pointers:

Here is a crash course for SVN users (like myself) to learn how to use git:
http://git.or.cz/course/svn.html

You should have two copies: 1) coldbox main repo 2) your forked version

To start with a repo you must clone it, you will clone the repository into your machine. Then you can follow the crash course to interact with the remote repo and the local repo.

In windows I am an avid user of SmartGit, really fantastic tool, I have not used egit that much, so cannot help you there. SmartGit was super easy to install and configure. It even ties to github automatically for you.

3

I checked out the crash course last night and it was pretty helpful in
explaining some of the major differences between Git and Subversion.
For the record, the link you sent is not maintained any longer, and
this is the current page:
https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/GitSvnCrashCourse

I got a laugh out of this quote:

"SVN is based on an older version control system called CVS, and its
designers followed a simple rule: when in doubt, do like CVS. Git also
takes a form of inspiration from CVS, and its designer also followed a
simple rule: when in doubt, do exactly the opposite of CVS."

Thanks!

~Brad

4

LOL, that’s funny!!

Thanks for the update!!

Luis F. Majano
President
Ortus Solutions, Corp

ColdBox Platform: http://www.coldbox.org
Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/3/731/483
Blog: http://www.luismajano.com
IECFUG Manager: http://www.iecfug.com

5

Just for the record, SmartGit runs on Linux and MacOS too.

Dave

6

For the record, and to follow up on this thread about a Git client to
use for GitHub.... I had bad experiences trying to install SmartGit
originally and after fighting with eGit for while (and hating it) I
tried a newer version of SmartGit and it has been much, much better.
(It runs for starters :slight_smile:

Thanks!

~Brad

7

LOL, good news!!

I am loving smart git!!