Eclipse & Gitlab Tutorial

This tutorial shows how to use source control software (GIT) from within Eclipse. There are several hosts that can provide GIT services, and Gitlab appears to be a great one! In this tutorial, I will show you how to CLONE my LPC project for the SJ-One board, and you can use the knowledge to work on your own GIT projects.

Setup Gitlab Profile

• Create yourself a Gitlab profile.

  Verify it by clicking on the URL sent by Gitlab.

• I have setup my GIT project with the following HTTP address:

  https://gitlab.com/preet/lpc1758_freertos.git

  Copy the URL above to your clipboard (highlight and Ctrl+C)

• At the Gitlab homepage, click on "New Project"
• Choose a good project name, such as "lpc1758_teamX_sensor_board"
• Click on Import existing repository

  Paste the URL you copied

  This will create a project and copy my project's source code for you.

• Use Private for the visibility level so only your team can access the code

  You will need to add other Gitlab users later (figure it out yourself!)

• Click on Create Project

Clone GIT Repository

In this section, we will bring-in the Gitlab project in your computer through Eclipse. Eclipse uses TEAM as a Git client.

• Copy your Git Project HTTPS URL

  This is not my project's URL, but YOUR project's URL

• In Eclipse, make sure that you have the "Git Repositories" view available

  Go to Window --> Show View --> Other

  Click on Git --> Git Repositories

• Now in the Git window, click on Clone a Git repository

  Your copied Git repository will auto-fill

• Type your username and password

  Choose "Store in Secure Store"

  Click Next, and then Next again

• At this window, you will see Finish, but before you click, use correct destination directory

  Choose your "workspace" directory, such as SJSU_Dev/projects

• Click Finish, and wait a few minutes for Eclipse to bring-in the Gitlab project

  Your project will show under "Git Repositories" section.

Import Gitlab project to Eclipse

The final step is to IMPORT the project in Eclipse. As of now (June 2014), Eclipse has a bug where you cannot use "Import Project" while adding the Git project in the previous section, so we will do this manually.

• In the Project Explorer section, right click and choose "Import Project"
• Under General, pick Existing Projects into Workspace
• Click Next and browse the root directory of your project and click Finish

Check-in code to Gitlab

After you have a project in Eclipse that is connected to Gitlab, you can now perform changes, and check-in the source code. Making changes is as easy as editing a file. Eclipse will inform you which files have changed by using icons next to the files or folders.

• Make any changes
• Right click on your project and click on Team --> Commit

  First line should be the heading or title of your commit, ie: "Fix bugxyz"

  Next lines can contain details of your changes

• Right click on your project, and click on Team --> Push to upstream
• Go to Gitlab and your project will show the pushed changes

Other helpful hints:

• If others' have checked-in source code, you can go to Team and Pull to pull-in their changes

  Do this often to continuously integrate other people's code in yours.

• By browsing to Team --> Synchronize Workspace, you can see your changes.