Git Started With Github in Mist

Source control is a tremendously important thing in software development. It provides backups and versioning of your code. It allows you to collaborate with other developers on your team. It lets you store things related to the project. It can be tied in to your build and deploy process, and much more. It generally makes development life easier by facilitating many of the activities that are critical to coding, building and deploying software.

It should be no surprise, then, that the recent wave of online IDEs would provide source control integration. And Icenium Mist is no exception to this. The Mist IDE has some great integration setup with git, allowing you to connect to any git repository that is accessible via the internet, including GitHub integration.

The Version Control Menu

After you create a new project or open an existing one in the Mist IDE, you'll see a "Version Control" menu with a few options.

From this menu, you will be able to work with your git repository, doing commits, reverting them, managing conflicts when you pull in new commits, etc. But before you can do any of that, you need to connect your project to your git project.

Connecting To GitHub

If you're using GitHub, connecting your project to your repository is process by which you log in to your GitHub account and create or select a repository.

If you don't have a GitHub account yet, you can sign up for one at GitHub.com - accounts are free for open source projects and are cheap for private projects. Once you have an account on GitHub, you can connect your Mist project to your account and repository.

Connect To Github

Start by clicking the "Configure Remote Repository" menu item in the Version Control menu.

From here, click the big "Connect to GitHub" button, then click the "Next" button (which shows up in place of the "Done" button)

Type your GitHub username and password in to appropriate boxes, and check (or leave unchecked - your choice) the "Rembember" box.

Before you do anything else, be sure to click the "Sign In" button.

The next screen presents a lot of options: picking an "context" (account / org) in which to create or locate a repository, allowing you to create a new repository, and selecting a respository after you've created one (or selecting an existing one).

Account Context

If you're a brand new Github user, you will probably see only your username in the Account Context drop list. I've been around Github for a while, and have a number of organizations that I'm a part of, though. So I get to see a list of all the orgs in which I could create a new repository (including some Telerik organizations):

Selecting an Account Context will adjust the repositories that you see in the list on the right, as well. Keep in mind that the Context you select will determine where a new repository is created, as well. If you want your project to live in a specific GitHub Organization, you need to set the correct Account Context before selecting or creating the repository.

Create And/Or Select A Repository

With the Account Context set, you can create a repository to use, or select an existing one. I'm going to create a new repository and mark it as private - because YES! Mist supports private repositories!

After I've entered the project name and description, and checked the "private" box, clicking Create will add the new repository to my account.

And ... OOPS. I'm over my quota of private repositories with GitHub! Fortunately, Mist tells me this in a friendly messages.

Just click the "Retry" button and you can change the info for the repo.

Connect And Manage Collaborators

After creating a repository, or finding an existing one that you want to use, click it in the list on the right and click the "Connect" button.

The next screen you'll see allows you to manage collaborators for the project. This is entirely optional. You can add other Github users from here, or you can skip this and do it later. If your Org or account has collaborators already, you won't need to do anything here.

Click "Done" and... YOU'RE DONE!

Version Control Options In The Project

Now that you have your project connected to a Git repository, you can push and pull, commit and manage your code through the Version Control menu.

Of course there is a lot more to working with Git than just connecting your Mist project to a Git repository. But that's another story for another time. Be sure to check out the Version Control documentation for Icenium, and watch this blog for additional posts on how to work with Git in your Mist and other Icenium projects!

About the Author
Derick Bailey is a Developer Advocate for Kendo UI, a developer, speaker, trainer, screen-caster and much more. He's been slinging code since the late 80’s and doing it professionally since the mid 90's. These days, Derick spends his time primarily writing javascript with back-end languages of all types, including Ruby, NodeJS, .NET and more. Derick blogs at DerickBailey.LosTechies.com, produces screencasts at WatchMeCode.net, tweets as @derickbailey and provides support and assistance for JavaScript, BackboneJS, MarionetteJS and much more around the web.