Git

My New GitHub Account: AutomationPanda

I’m changing my GitHub account from AndyLPK247 to AutomationPanda!

My original GitHub username is “AndyLPK247“. I created it long before I became the “Automation Panda.” However, I’d like my GitHub account to match the name of my blog (AutomationPanda.com) and my Twitter handle (@AutomationPanda). Using the same name across platforms makes it easier for folks to recognize my work. Plus, I’m writing a book, and I want the links printed in the book to reference Automation Panda.

Therefore, I created a new GitHub account named “AutomationPanda“. (Actually, I created it a while ago to reserve it, just in case I ever wanted to make a change.) I decided to create an entirely new account instead of simply changing my existing account’s username because I’ve created many materials – articles, videos, and courses – that link to my “AndyLPK247” account. If I were to change that username, then many of those links would break. (GitHub’s docs state that repository links would redirect to the new username, but links to gists and to the old name itself would break.)

From this moment forward, I will use “AutomationPanda” as my primary GitHub account. I intend to create all my new repositories under “AutomationPanda” while preserving existing repositories under “AndyLPK247”. Maintaining two GitHub accounts will be a bit of a hassle, but I think it is the best strategy for my situation. Over time, the new account will supersede the old.

If you’d like to watch me gain my green tiles back, be sure to follow me at https://github.com/AutomationPanda!

Testing GitHub Pages without Local Jekyll Setup

TL;DR: If you want to test your full GitHub Pages site before publishing but don’t want to set up Ruby and Jekyll on your local machine, then:

Commit your doc changes to a new branch.
Push the new branch to GitHub.
Temporarily change the repository’s GitHub Pages publishing source to the new branch.
Reload the GitHub Pages site, and review the changes.

If you have a GitHub repository, did you know that you can create your own documentation site for it within GitHub? Using GitHub Pages, you can write your docs as a set of Markdown pages and then configure your repository to generate and publish a static web site for those pages. All you need to do is configure a publishing source for your repository. Your doc site will go live at:

https://<user>.github.io/<repository>

If this is new to you, then you can learn all about this cool feature from the GitHub docs here: Working with GitHub Pages. I just found out about this cool feature myself!

GitHub Pages are great because they make it easy to develop docs and code together as part of the same workflow without needing extra tools. Docs can be written as Markdown files, Liquid templates, or raw assets like HTML and CSS. The docs will be version-controlled for safety and shared from a single source of truth. GitHub Pages also provides free hosting with a decent domain name for the doc site. Clearly, the theme is simplicity.

Unfortunately, I hit one challenge while trying GitHub Pages for the first time: How could I test the doc site before publishing it? A repository using GitHub Pages must be configured with a specific branch and folder (/ (root) or /docs) as the publishing source. As soon as changes are committed to that source, the updated pages go live. However, I want a way to view the doc site in its fullness before committing any changes so I don’t accidentally publish any mistakes.

One way to test pages is to use a Markdown editor. Many IDEs have Markdown editors with preview panes. Even GitHub’s web editor lets you preview Markdown before committing it. Unfortunately, while editor previews may help catch a few typos, they won’t test the full end result of static site generation and deployment. They may also have trouble with links or templates.

GitHub’s docs recommend testing your site locally using Jekyll. Jekyll is a static site generator written in Ruby. GitHub Pages uses Jekyll behind the scenes to turn doc pages into full doc sites. If you want to keep your doc development simple, you can just edit Markdown files and let GitHub do the dirty work. However, if you want to do more hands-on things with your docs like testing site generation, then you need to set up Ruby and Jekyll on your local machine. Thankfully, you don’t need to know any Ruby programming to use Jekyll.

I followed GitHub’s instructions for setting up a GitHub Pages site with Jekyll. I installed Ruby and Jekyll and then created a Jekyll site in the /docs folder of my repository. I verified that I could edit and run my site locally in a branch. However, the setup process felt rather hefty. I’m not a Ruby programmer, so setting up a Ruby environment with a few gems felt like a lot of extra work just to verify that my doc pages looked okay. Plus, I could foresee some developers getting stuck while trying to set up these doc tools, especially if the repository’s main code isn’t a Ruby project. Even if setting up Jekyll locally would be the “right” way to develop and test docs, I still wanted a lighter, faster alternative.

Thankfully, I found a workaround that didn’t require any tools outside of GitHub: Commit doc changes to a branch, push the branch to GitHub, and then temporarily change the repository’s GitHub Pages source to the branch! I originally configured my repository to publish docs from the /docs folder in the main branch. When I changed the publishing source to another branch, it regenerated and refreshed the GitHub Pages site. When I changed it back to main, the site reverted without any issues. Eureka! This is a quick, easy hack for testing changes to docs before merging them. You get to try the full site in the main environment without needing any additional tools or setup.

Above is a screenshot of the GitHub Pages settings for one of my repositories. You can find these settings under *Settings* -> *Options* for any repository, as long as you have the administrative rights. In this screenshot, you can see how I changed the publishing source’s branch from `main` to `docs/test`. As soon as I selected this change, GitHub Pages republished the repository’s doc site.

Now, I recognize that this solution is truly a hack. Changing the publishing source affects the “live”, “production” version of the site. It effectively does publish the changes, albeit temporarily. If some random reader happens to visit the site during this type of testing, they may see incorrect or even broken pages. I’d recommend changing the publishing source’s branch only for small projects and for short periods of time. Don’t forget to revert the branch once testing is complete, too. If you are working on a larger, more serious project, then I’d recommend doing full setup for local doc development. Local setup would be safer and would probably make it easier to try more advanced tricks, like templates and themes.

Ignoring Files with Git

Git is one of the most popular version control systems (VCS) available, especially thanks to hosting vendors like GitHub. It keeps code safe and shareable. Sometimes, however, certain files should not be shared, like local settings or temporary configs. Git provides a few ways to make sure those files are ignored.

.gitignore

The easiest and most common way to ignore files is to use a gitignore file. Simply create a file named .gitignore in the repository’s root directory. Then, add names and patterns for any files and directories that should not be added to the repository. Use the asterisk (“*”) as a wildcard. For example, “*.class” will ignore all files that have the “.class” extension. Remember to add the .gitignore file to the repository so that it can be shared. As a bonus, Git hosting vendors like GitHub usually provide standard .gitignore templates for popular languages.

Any files covered by the .gitignore file will not be added to the repository. This approach is ideal for local IDE settings like .idea or .vscode, compiler output files like *.class or *.pyc, and test reports. For example, here’s GitHub’s .gitignore template for Java:

	# Compiled class file
	*.class

	# Log file
	*.log

	# BlueJ files
	*.ctxt

	# Mobile Tools for Java (J2ME)
	.mtj.tmp/

	# Package Files #
	*.jar
	*.war
	*.nar
	*.ear
	*.zip
	*.tar.gz
	*.rar

	# virtual machine crash logs, see http://www.java.com/en/download/help/error_hotspot.xml
	hs_err_pid*

view raw

GitHub_Java.gitignore

hosted with ❤ by GitHub

.git/info/exclude

As a best practice, .gitignore should be committed to the repository, which means all team members will share the same set of ignored files. However, some files should be ignored locally and not globally. Those files could be added to .gitignore, but large .gitignore files become cryptic and more likely to break other people’s setup. Thankfully, git provides a local-only solution: the .git/info/exclude file (under the repository’s hidden .git directory). Simply open it with a text editor and add new entries using the same file pattern format as .gitignore.

# Append a new file to ignore locally
echo "my_private_file" >> .git/info/exclude

skip-worktree

A .gitignore file prevents a file from being added to a repository, but what about preventing changes from being committed to an existing file? For example, developers may want to safely override settings in a shared config file for local testing. That’s where skip-worktree comes in: it allows a developer to “skip” any local changes made to a given file. Changes will not appear under “git status” and thus will not be committed.

Use the following commands:

# Ignore local changes to an existing file
git update-index --skip-worktree path/to/file

# Stop ignoring local changes
git update-index --no-skip-worktree path/to/file

Warning: The skip-worktree setting applies only to the local repository. It is not applied globally! Each developer will need to run the skip-worktree command in their local repository.

assume-unchanged

Another option for ignoring files is assume-unchanged. Like skip-worktree, it makes Git ignore changes to files. However, whereas skip-worktree assumes that the user intends to change the file, assume-unchanged assumes that the user will not change the file. The intention is different. Large projects using slow file systems may gain significant performance optimizations by marking unused directories as assume-unchanged. This option also works with other update-index options like really-refresh.

Use the following commands:

# Assume a file will be unchanged
git update-index --assume-unchanged path/to/file

# Undo that assumption
git update-index --no-assume-unchanged path/to/file

Again, this setting applies only to the local repository – it is not applied globally.

Comparison Table

Which is the best way to ignore files?

Method	Description	Best Use Cases	Scope
.gitignore file	Prevents files from being added to the repository.	Local settings, compiler output, test results, etc.	Global
.git/info/exclude file	Prevents local files from being added to the repository.	Local settings, compiler output, test results, etc.	Local
skip-worktree setting	Prevents local changes from being committed to an existing file.	Shared files that will have local overwrites, like config files.	Local
assume-unchanged setting	Allows Git to skip files that won’t be changed for performance optimization.	Files and folders that a developer won’t touch.	Local

Resources

Git project page
Git Wikipedia article
gitignore doc
gitignore templates from GitHub for popular languages
git update-index doc
Git skip-worktree and how I used to hate config files
Ignore specific files only on current machine in Git
Exclude files from git without committing changes to .gitignore
StackOverflow:

Starting a Django Project in an Existing Directory

Django is a wonderful Python web framework, and its command line utility is indispensable when developing Django sites. However, the command to start new projects is a bit tricky. The official tutorial shows the basic case – how to start a new project from scratch using the command:

$ django-admin startproject [projectname]

This command will create a new directory using the given project name and generate the basic Django files within it. However, project names have strict rules: they may contain only letters, numbers, and underscores. So, the following project name would fail:

$ django-admin startproject my-new-django-project
CommandError: 'my-new-django-project' is not a valid project name.
Please make sure the name is a valid identifier.

Another problem is initializing a new Django project inside an existing directory:

$ mkdir myproject
$ django-admin startproject myproject
CommandError: '/path/to/myproject' already exists

These two problems commonly happen when using Git (or other source control systems). The repository may already exist, and its name may have illegal project name characters. The project could be created as a sub-directory within the repository root, but this is not ideal.

Thankfully, there’s a simple solution. The “django-admin startproject” command takes an optional argument after the project name for the project path. This argument sidesteps both problems. The project root directory and the Django project file directory can have different names. The example below shows how to change into the desired root directory and start the project from within it using “.”:

$ cd my-django-git
$ django-admin startproject myproject .
$ ls
manage.py myproject

This can be a stumbling block because it is not documented in Django’s official tutorial. The “django-admin help startproject” command does document the optional directory argument but does not explain when this option is useful. Hopefully, this article makes its use case more intuitive!

The Airing of Grievances: Version Control

Let the Airing of Grievances series continue: I got a lot of problems with version control misuse, and now you’re gonna hear about it!

Not Using Version Control

You’ve got to be some special kind of stupid to not use a version control system. Software is just too dang fragile to go without protection.

Using Outdated Version Control Systems

Still using CVS like it’s 1999? How about Rational ClearCase? If so, it’s time to upgrade. Git seems to be the go-to standard these days, though Subversion still has a place for projects where centralized control is better than distributed control. My opinion? Just use Git.

Gigantic Commits

Code changes ought to be incremental and small, and they ought to be committed in frequent intervals. However, some people like to make one giant, killer commit at a time with bajillions of lines of changes. Nobody wants to review those pull requests. Break things up into smaller pieces!

No Comments with Commits

Look back in your version control history to see how many messages look like this:

.
updated
fixed
done

Really? How is this helpful? Please give a meaningful message. It doesn’t need to be long – a one-liner is fine. But describe what makes the commit significant. Otherwise, tracing through history is dang near impossible!

Never Committing Changes

For whatever reason, some people will check out code, make changes, run locally, and NEVER commit the changes back to the repository. This happened frequently at a previous job with offshore test automation contractors. They would add new tests and fix bugs but never share them back with the team. They’d even email code back and forth, rather than commit! I just can’t even.

Committing Code that Doesn’t Even Compile

Never Pushing Changes

In Git, there is a difference between “commit” (which commits the change locally) and “push” (which pushes all local commits to the remote repository). Some people never push. Then, they wonder why they can’t open pull requests. Or, they lose their code after a Blue Screen wipes out their machine. Make it a habit to push at the end of the workday, whether it’s needed or not.

No Branching

Branches are like swim lanes: every contributor (or group) can develop code without interfering with others. They also make concurrent release work possible. Using only one branch doesn’t “simplify” development – it just causes an integration mess. For example, I once worked in an organization where the QA architect insisted that test automation should not use multiple branches and, instead, have if/else conditions for differences between release branches. (I fought tooth-and-nail against it and lost.) Code duplication became rampant. Always adopt a good branching strategy, even for test automation. Gitflow is a good example workflow.

Stale Branches

Stale branches mean old code and merge conflicts. Nobody wants those. Keep your local branches up-to-date.

Not Deleting Feature Branches

In Git, feature branches are meant to have a short lifespan: you create one to develop a new feature or fix a bug or whatever, and then you delete it after the pull request is completed. However, some people don’t delete those old branches. Over time on a team, those old branches really add up and pollute the repository. Delete them as a common courtesy.

Botched Merge Conflict Resolution

Merge conflicts themselves are not the grievance. Nobody likes them, but they are inevitable on any team. However, botched merge conflict resolution is a HUGE grievance. Would you be mad if you spent a lot of time fixing a problem, only to have some other schmuck accidentally undo your code change with an overwrite? Please be careful when merging. If you aren’t sure that your merge will be good, there’s no shame in asking for help.

Not Re-compiling and Re-testing after Merging

What’s worse than messing up a merge? Committing the changes without testing them first! Merges are risky, and mistakes happen – but that’s why it is imperative to make sure everything is still good after a merge. I’ve seen people blindly post pull request updates after resolving merge conflicts, only to have the build fail with compiler warnings. Don’t do that.

Granting Everyone Full Repository Permissions

While everyone on the team should contribute, not everyone should contribute in the same ways. If there are no security policies set up, then users will do dangerous things, whether accidentally or deliberately. They could circumvent the review process. They could rename things unexpectedly. One time, I saw a guy delete the remote master branch! (Thank goodness we recovered it quickly.) Put permissions into place before bad things happen.

Django Projects in PyCharm Community Edition

JetBrains PyCharm is one of the best Python IDEs around. It’s smooth and intuitive – a big step up from Atom or Notepad++ for big projects. PyCharm is available as a standalone IDE or as a plugin for its big sister, IntelliJ IDEA. The free Community Edition provides basic features akin to IntelliJ, while the licensed Professional Edition provides advanced features such as web development and database tools. The Professional Edition isn’t cheap, though: a license for one user may cost up to $199 annually (though discounts and free licenses may be available).

This guide shows how to develop Django web projects using PyCharm Community Edition. Even though Django-specific features are available only in PyCharm Professional Edition, it is still possible to develop Django projects using the free version with help from the command line. Personally, I’ve been using the free version of PyCharm to develop a small web site for a side business of mine. This guide covers setup steps, basic actions, and feature limitations based on my own experiences. Due to the limitations in the free version, I recommend it only for small Django projects or for hobbyists who want to play around. I also recommend considering Visual Studio Code as an alternative, as shown in my article Django Projects in Visual Studio Code.

Prerequisites

This guide focuses specifically on configuring PyCharm Community Edition for Django development. As such, readers should be familiar with Python and the Django web framework. Readers should also be comfortable with the command line for a few actions, specifically for Django admin commands. Experience with JetBrains software like PyCharm and IntelliJ IDEA is helpful but not required.

Python and PyCharm Community Edition must be installed on the development machine. If you are not sure which version of Python to use, I strongly recommend Python 3. Any required Python packages (namely Django) should be installed via pip.

Creating Django Projects and Apps

Django projects and apps require a specific directory layout with some required settings. It is possible to create this content manually through PyCharm, but it is recommended to use the standard Django commands instead, as shown in Part 1 of the official Django tutorial.

> django-admin startproject newproject
> cd newproject
> django-admin startapp newapp

Then, open the new project in PyCharm. The files and directories will be visible in the Project Explorer view.

The project root directory should be at the top of Project Explorer. The .idea folder contains IDE-specific config files that are not relevant for Django.

Creating New Files and Directories

Creating new files and directories is easy. Simply right-click the parent directory in Project Explorer and select the appropriate file type under New. Files may be deleted using right-click options as well or by highlighting the file and typing the Delete or Backspace key.

Files and folders are easy to visually create, copy, move, rename, and delete.

Django projects require a specific directory structure. Make sure to put files in the right places with the correct names. PyCharm Community Edition won’t check for you.

Writing New Code

Double-click any file in Project Explorer to open it in an editor. The Python editor offers all standard IDE features like source highlighting, real-time error checking, code completion, and code navigation. This is the main reason why I use PyCharm over a simpler editor for Python development. PyCharm also has many keyboard shortcuts to make actions easier.

Nice.

Editors for other file types, such as HTML, CSS, or JavaScript, may require additional plugins not included with PyCharm Community Edition. For example, Django templates must be edited in the regular HTML editor because the special editor is available only in the Professional Edition.

Workable, but not as nice.

Running Commands from the Command Line

Django admin commands can be run from the command line. PyCharm automatically refreshes any file changes almost immediately. Typically, I switch to the command line to add new apps, make migrations, and update translations. I also created a few aliases for easier file searching.

> python manage.py makemigrations
> python manage.py migrate
> python manage.py makemessages -l zh
> python manage.py compilemessages
> python manage.py test
> python manage.py collectstatic
> python manage.py runserver

Creating Run Configurations

PyCharm Community Edition does not include the Django manage.py utility feature. Nevertheless, it is possible to create Run Configurations for any Django admin command so that they can be run in the IDE instead of at the command line.

First, make sure that a Project SDK is set. From the File menu, select Project Structure…. Verify that a Project SDK is assigned on the Project tab. If not, then you may need to create a new one – the SDK should be the Python installation directory or a virtual environment. Make sure to save the new Project SDK setting by clicking the OK button.

Don’t leave that Project SDK blank!

Then from the Run menu, select Edit Configurations…. Click the plus button in the upper-left corner to add a Python configuration. Give the config a good name (like “Django: <command>”). Then, set Script to “manage.py” and Script parameters to the name and options for the desired Django admin command (like “runserver”). Set Working directory to the absolute path of the project root directory. Make sure the appropriate Python SDK is selected and the PYTHONPATH settings are checked. Click the OK button to save the config. The command can then be run from Run menu options or from the run buttons in the upper-right corner of the IDE window.

Run configurations should look like this. Anything done at the command line can also be done here.

When commands are run, the Run view appears at the bottom of the IDE window to show console output.

Special run configurations are particularly useful for the “test” and “runserver” commands because they enable rudimentary debugging. You can set breakpoints, run the command with debugging, and step through the Python code. If you need to interact with a web page to exercise the code, PyCharm will take screen focus once a breakpoint is hit. Even though debugging Django templates is not possible in the free version, debugging the Python code can help identify most problems. Be warned that debugging is typically a bit slower than normal execution.

Debugging makes Django development so much easier.

I typically use the command line instead of run configurations for other Django commands just for simplicity.

Version Control Systems

PyCharm has out-of-the-box support for version control systems like Git and Subversion. VCS actions are available under the VCS menu or when right-clicking a file in Project Explorer. PyCharm can directly check out projects from a repository, add new projects to a repository, or automatically identify the version control system being used when opening a project. Any VCS commands entered at the command line will be automatically reflected in PyCharm.

PyCharm’s VCS menu is initially generic. Once you select a VCS for your project, the options will be changed to reflect the chosen VCS. For example, Git will have options for “Fetch”, “Pull”, and “Push”.

Personally, I use Git with either GitHub or Atlassian Bitbucket. I prefer to do most Git actions like graphically through PyCharm, but occasionally I drop to the command line when I need to do more advanced operations (like checking commit IDs or forcing hard resets). PyCharm also has support for .gitignore files.

Python Virtual Environments

Creating virtual environments is a great way to manage Python project dependencies. Virtual environments are especially useful when deploying Django web apps. I strongly recommend setting up a virtual environment for every Python project you develop.

PyCharm can use virtual environments to run the project. If a virtual environment already exists, then it can be set as the Project SDK under Project Structure as described above. Select New… > Python SDK > Add Local, and set the path. Otherwise, new virtual environments can be created directly through PyCharm. Follow the same process to add a virtual environment, but under Python SDK, select Create VirtualEnv instead of Add Local. Give the new virtual environment an appropriate name and path. Typically, I put my virtual environments either all in one common place or one level up from my project root directory.

Creating a new virtual environment is pretty painless.

Databases

Out of the box, PyCharm Community Edition won’t give you database tools. You’re stuck with third-party plugins, the command line, or external database tools. This isn’t terrible, though. Since Django abstracts data into the Model layer, most developers rarely need to directly interact with the underlying database. Nevertheless, the open-source Database Navigator plugin provides support in PyCharm for the major databases (Oracle, MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL).

Limitations

The sections above show that PyCharm Community Edition can handle Django projects just like any other Python projects. This is a blessing and a curse, because advanced features are available only in the Professional Edition:

Django template support
Inter-project navigation (view to template)
Better code completion
Identifier resolution (especially class-to-instance fields)
Model dependency graphs
manage.py utility console
Database tools

The two features that matter most to me are the template support and the better code completion. With templates, I sometimes make typos or forget closing tags. With code completion, not all options are available because Django does some interesting things with model fields and dynamically-added attributes. However, all these missing features are “nice-to-have” but not “need-to-have” for me.

Conclusion

I hope you found this guide useful! Feel free to enter suggestions for better usage in the comments section below. You may also want to look at alternatives, such as Visual Studio Code or PyDev.