Working with our webification repo

Back to the Webification hub

Now that you have the files locally, let's assume you want to create a new puzzle. The proper way to do this is to create a new branch in git to do all your work in.

1. Create a branch by clicking in VS Code on the current branch name ("main") and then typing in a branch name. The branch name should be of the form user/<your git account name>/your-puzzle-name, and add something descriptive at the end if it's an edit to an existing puzzle (e.g. user/tabascq/example-puzzle-beta-feedback.
   
   
2. If you're creating a new puzzle or solution, start by copying the example folder that you'll find in the puzzles or solutions directory, and renaming the folder to match your puzzle name.
3. Modify the files for your puzzle or solution. See the webification guide for full steps.
4. Using the Source Control tab in Visual Studio Code, make a commit by typing a description and pressing Commit. You can do your work in stages, making a commit at important checkpoints in your progress. If something goes wrong, you can revert back to a previous commit at any time in the future.
   
   
5. Push the changes to the server by clicking the big blue button that says either "Publish branch" if it's the first time, or "Sync changes" if it's not. This gets your changes in the cloud and also prepares you for a code review (pull request). You can also do this more than once if you like the security of a cloud backup of your work.
6. Once you're fully done, it's time to open a pull request so your changes can be merged into main. [Note that this doesn't mean you CAN'T make any more changes though; pushing changes to a branch that has an open pull request will automatically add those changes to the pull request.] Back on the repo website (e.g. pd2025-webification, Github will recognize that you've pushed changes to your branch and will offer a button to open a pull request:
   
   
   If for some reason Github doesn't respond to your change, you'll need to either switch to your branch from the dropdown:
   
   
   And then click the "Contribute" dropdown to surface the button to open a Pull Request:
   
   
   Or go to the list of all branches and click the ... menu for yours:
   
   
   
7. Once you've got an appropriate title and description, open your pull request and let the repo owner (e.g. Kenny/tabascq for PD2025) know you're ready for it to be reviewed. PLEASE DO NOT MERGE YOUR OWN PULL REQUESTS. The owner may want you to make changes first, and they will also be on the lookout for any merge conflicts, although those should be unlikely unless you're actively working on the same files as somebody else.

• At any point, you can push new changes into this branch, and the pull request will be updated automatically. If somebody requests changes, you can also resolve those too.

8. When you are ready to work on something else, switch back to the main branch by clicking on the branch name in the lower left of Visual Studio Code and choosing "main" from the dropdown at the top.
9. The main branch will not have your changes until Kenny approves your pull request; once this happens, you can update your main branch by clicking the "pull" icon at the top of the Source Control pane. It's good practice to do this somewhat regularly, as you might also pick up important updates to PuzzleJS etc.