Using the GitHub website

In this section, we will be using the GitHub.com website and demonstrate that you do not need to be a programmer to use version control and edit files on GitHub.

Don’t have a GitHub account?

If you have not already created a GitHub username, please do so now:

• GitHub: https://github.com
• Follow optional advice on choosing your username

Collaborator Workflow

Our asks

As a Team of two

• Help each other, everyone is bringing different skills! Talk it out!
• Listen to each other; avoid judgment and solutioneering.
• Have fun!

Prompt

We want to log the information about people’s favorite desserts using a repository.

Person 1 (owner):

• Create a repository using the following instructions steps 1-6

• Edit the README to:
  • Replace the title (first line starting with #) with something better! Maybe Favorite Desserts
  • Add your name and your favorite dessert below the title: e.g. - Julien: crepes

• Add Person 2 as a collaborator following these instructions

Person 2 (collaborator):

• Check your email to accept the invitation
• Go to the repository website (link is provided in the invitation)
• Start editing the README.md by clicking on the pen at the top of the README.md file to edit it

• Add your name and your favorite dessert below the title: e.g. - Sophia: chocolate
• Click Commit changes
• Add a descriptive commit message, “add my favorite dessert”

• Click Commit changes to confirm

Person 1: add a csv file

Download this csv file about the most iconic desserts in America (according to this website https://www.eatthis.com/iconic-desserts-united-states/) to your computer. Note: depending on your web browser settings you might have to right-click on the page and select Save As.

• Drag and drop it on the Github web page of your repository to upload it
• Add a short message about the file e.g. Add iconic_desserts.csv & hit Commit changes
• Your file has been uploaded 🪄. Click on the filename to see it!

You should have something similar to this repo: https://github.com/brunj7/favorite-desserts

Person 2: add an R script

This is the script we used to scrape the iconic desserts listing:

library(tidyverse)
library(rvest)  # use to scrape website content

# Check if that data folder exists and create it if not
dir.create("data", showWarnings = FALSE)

# Read the webpage code
webpage <- read_html("https://www.eatthis.com/iconic-desserts-united-states/")

# Extract the desserts listing
dessert_elements<- html_elements(webpage, "h2")
dessert_listing <- dessert_elements %>% 
  html_text2() %>%             # extracting the text associated with this type of element of the webpage
  as_tibble() %>%              # make it a data frame
  rename(dessert = value) %>%  # better name for the column
  head(.,-3) %>%               # 3 last ones were not desserts 
  rowid_to_column("rank") %>%  # adding a column using the row number as proxy for the rank
  write_csv("data/iconic_desserts.csv") # save it as csv

How would you add this code as an R Script to your repository?

• Copy-paste the above code to your favorite text editor
• Save the file as iconic_desserts.R
• Drag and drop it on the Github web page of your repository

Bonus

Person 2: Try to edit the csv file directly on GitHub to add your favorite dessert to the iconic list!

Person 1: Your turn!

No need to be a programmer to contribute to analytical workflows with GitHub!!

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Fork Workflow

If you want to contribute to a repository that you have not been added to as a collaborator, you need to first fork the repository. This creates a linked copy under your username that you can edit. Once you are done with your contribution, you can send a request to incorporate your changes to the original repository using what is called a Pull Request, in other words, you ask the repository owner to pull your changes into their repository.

Our ask

Prompt

With another collaborator keep logging information about people’s favorite desserts using the fork workflow.

Person 2: Create a Fork of the person 1 repository

• Get the link the repository from Person 1 via the Zoom chat
• Go to their repository webpage
• Create a Fork by clicking on the Fork button on the top right view of your repository homepage

• On your Fork, start editing the README.md
• Add the name of a friend and their favorite dessert below your previous entries: e.g. - Eliott: donut
• Add a descriptive commit message

• Commit your changes

• Create a Pull Request (PR) to merge those changes to the main repository using these instructions

Person 1:

• Go to your repository and merge the PR