Git (Get) it done right! Intro to practical applied Version Control for Drupal site builders

Stay on top of you code! Even if all you do to your code base is install and update modules and themes, using version control is the best way to manage changes so you can walk back from a crash or break in your Drupal system. At it's best, version control is a developer's best friend and makes social/shared coding a snap. Widely available tools also make it easy to compare changes across your filesystem.

Did you know that you can use Git on your afs based Drupal instances? Learn the basics of revision control using Git, some practical tips for doing it with Drupal in any size system, and how you can use version control for any code base that you work with.

General topics covered:

1. What is version control and why should I care?
2. basics: ssh keys setup
3. Working locally and an introduction to git commands
4. Working with a repo, cloning, building, sharing ('cause it's social!)
5. More advanced topics - branching, merging, checking out, tagging, .gitignore
6. Making it work with Drupal: some general approaches and recommendations.
7. Other ways that Git can work for you... fun tools, etc. etc.

So perhaps you've heard about version control from your full time software development buddies? Or someone mentioned to you about sharing their code/module that they were developing and asked for your github account username or your ssh public key? Wondered what it's all about or what value it is for you even as a non-everyday coder?

In this session, we'll introduce you to the basics of using version control - specifically Git - to manage changes in your software codebase (because Drupal, after all is a software application) as you continue to build out your Drupal site with new modules, themes, and customize things in the codebase. We'll show you practices that help you manage changes in your application codebase so you can easily test and deploy with confidence and then revert at a whim when needed. And then we'll go into more advanced topics about how you can use git to share work on a codebase with others and apply it to other non-drupal specific projects.

Prerequisites:
1. Some experience at the command line
2. A favorite command line text editor like vi/vim, pico, emacs, nano

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5/5/12 -- Added a couple of slides to the end to cover Stanford (sites.stanford.edu) managed site specific issues.

Slides (upload): 

Gititdoneright.ppt