DEV Community: Rukundo Kevin

Using Git aliases to improve your productivity.

Rukundo Kevin — Mon, 08 May 2023 11:00:49 +0000

Git is a powerful tool but can be challenging to learn and remember commands for frequent use.

This is where Git alias comes in handy, Git aliases are user-defined shorthand for a sequence of commands that can be easily executed by typing a short name, which gets translated into the full command.

They are of 2 types.

Git aliases and
Shell Aliases

Creating Git Aliases

open ~/.gitconfig in your favorite editor- for my case VSCode.

code ~/.gitconfig
Then add your alias.

Before creating your alias, it is important to ensure that it does not conflict with any existing git commands, as this can cause issues.

[alias]
    s = status -s

Now you can just type git s to view your git status.

My Aliases

Here are some of Aliases that use.

    s = status
    cnv = commit --no-verify
    cane = commit --amend --no-edit
    aa = add .
    p = push
    pf = push --force
    la = log --oneline --decorate --graph --all
    l = log --oneline --decorate --graph
    rl= ref log
    la = "!git config -l | grep alias | cut -c 7-"

But these are just a few which are useful for me, if you need to explore more Must Have Git Aliases

Shell Aliases

Unlike Git Aliases, Shell alias are stored in ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc

Creating Shell aliases.

open ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc in your editor.
Then add your alias in this format.

alias gs='git status -s'
So, when you are going to check, just write gs without the Git prefix.

One thing to take into account though before creating your alias is to make sure that your alias doesn't collide with the already existing git command which can mess
Hope Aliases makes your development more productive and faster.
If you find the content useful, you can follow me on Github or Twitter

References.
https://gist.github.com/mwhite/6887990
https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Basics-Git-Aliases

GitHub Action: With Coveralls

Rukundo Kevin — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 11:29:27 +0000

In the previous articles, we created a GitHub Action workflow for one or multiple NodeJS project.

Today, we are going to go through the steps required to generate code coverage badge using coveralls.

Step 1: Connect Coveralls with GitHub Go to Coveralls and Under "Add repo", add the repository you want to include.

Notice that with the free tier, the repository has to be public.

Step 2 : Add the test coverage script
If you use jest to run your tests, you can run jest --coverage to create a coverage report but if you are using another testing framework like Mocha, you can use nycthe Istanbul cli.

"scripts": {
    "test": "mocha --recursive --require @babel/register",
    "test-coverage": "nyc npm test && nyc report --reporter=text-lcov"}

--recursive option looks for tests in subdirectories recursively
--reporter=lcov means it will create a ./coverage/lcov.info to save the coverage results. We only need to the results on the CI pipeline, if you run this command locally, you can safely gitignore or delete the results again.

Step 3: Add test coverage to our CI workflow
So we will replace the npm run test in our previous workflow with npm run test-coverage and another step to the workflow

# Send coverage report to Coveralls
    - name: Coveralls
      uses: coverallsapp/github-action@master
      with:
        github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

Now the new workflow will look like this,

# This workflow will do a clean install of node dependencies, build the source code and run tests
# For more information see: https://help.github.com/actions/language-and-framework-guides/using-nodejs-with-github-actions

name: CI Pipeline

# trigger build when pushing, or when creating a pull request
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  build:

    # run build on latest ubuntu
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    # this will check out the current branch (https://github.com/actions/checkout#Push-a-commit-using-the-built-in-token)
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    # installing Node
    - name: Use Node.js 16.16.0
      uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        # this will use the latest Node 16 version
        node-version: 16.16.0
    # install dependencies using clean install to avoid package lock updates
    - run: npm ci
    # build the project if necessary
    - run: npm run build --if-present
    # finally run the tests
    - run: npm run coverage

    # Save coverage report in Coveralls
    - name: Coveralls
      uses: coverallsapp/github-action@master
      with:
        github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}

We used Coveralls' GitHub Action which can be found here.

Note that GITHUB_TOKEN is automatically passed and does not have to be configured by you in any way. Since our GitHub account is linked with Coveralls, there is also no additional setup necessary to authenticate your Coveralls account.

Now commit & push your changes and wait for the build to finish.

Step 4: Adding the badge

Copy the Markdown, go and paste it in your repo's README.

After all that you should be able to see your coverage badge like this one( Hope your coverage a higher than 70 )

That's all there is to it. Now all that's left is to set up the CD workflow.

Follow me on Github

GitHub Actions: Building and testing multiple NodeJS versions with one action

Rukundo Kevin — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 10:19:19 +0000

In the previous article we set a node project with GitHub Actions.

Now we are going to build and test for multiple NodeJS version in one action, because it sometimes important to build and test your software with multiple versions of NodeJS, e.g. to cover backward compatibility or to test against all available LTS releases.

Sounds fun --- let's get to it.

# This workflow will do a clean install of node dependencies, build the source code and run tests
# For more information see: https://help.github.com/actions/language-and-framework-guides/using-nodejs-with-github-actions

name: CI Pipeline

# trigger build when pushing, or when creating a pull request
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  build:

    # run build on latest ubuntu
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        node-version: [16.x, 18.x]
    steps:
    # this will check out the current branch (https://github.com/actions/checkout#Push-a-commit-using-the-built-in-token)
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    # installing Node
    - name: Use Node.js 16.16.0
      uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        node-version: ${{ matrix.node-version }}
    # install dependencies using clean install to avoid package lock updates
    - run: npm ci
    # build the project if necessary
    - run: npm run build --if-present
    # finally run the test
    - run: npm test

After that commit & push your work and head over to action section of your repo to view all executed workflows.

In the next article we will add coveralls to view code coverage badge.

GitHub Actions: Setting up CI for a Node project

Rukundo Kevin — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 10:00:35 +0000

CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery/Development) is now an essential part of all kind of software projects. Today I am going to work you through setting up CI/CD with GitHub Actions.

Setting up CI
To use a GitHub action for building your repository at each push (on all branches), all you have to do is to place a YAML file under .github/workflows and commit it with your repo.

mkdir .github
cd .github
mkdir workflows
cd workflows

Inside the created .yml file, Add the following.

# This workflow will do a clean install of node dependencies, build the source code and run tests
# For more information see: https://help.github.com/actions/language-and-framework-guides/using-nodejs-with-github-actions

name: CI Pipeline

# trigger build when pushing, or when creating a pull request
on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  build:

    # run build on latest ubuntu
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest

    steps:
    # this will check out the current branch (https://github.com/actions/checkout#Push-a-commit-using-the-built-in-token)
    - uses: actions/checkout@v3
    # installing Node
    - name: Use Node.js 16.16.0
      uses: actions/setup-node@v3
      with:
        # this will use the latest Node 16 version
        node-version: 16.16.0
    # install dependencies using clean install to avoid package lock updates
    - run: npm ci
    # build the project if necessary
    - run: npm run build --if-present
    # finally run the test
    - run: npm test

What this workflow basically does is,

checkout the branch
install node (on ubuntu)
install the dependencies of your project and build it if necessary
finally, run the tests

Comments are added on every line explaining the setup.

After! Commit & push your work and head over to the Actions section of your repo where you can see all executed workflows…

And Click on the workflow to view detailed results

And Voila, you have a working GitHub Action workflow now.

Making it through Andela Technical Leadership Program(ATLP).

Rukundo Kevin — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 16:38:10 +0000

The ATLP(Andela Technical Leadership Program) is a 9 month bootcamp for university graduates who want to get into coding in Rwanda. In this blog, I'll be sharing my experiences surrounding the program and some tips that will hopefully help you gain some insight into it.

Elibility

You have to be residing in Rwanda during the whole bootcamp.
Willing to commit 30 Hours per week (6 hours per day)
The Application process*
Applications to ATLP opens once a year - in October to November. You'll get 2 weeks to submit your application.

Step 1: Complete the application form
The first step is to complete the application form which is usually on GlassDoor, which I did in October, 2021.

Complete the technical assessment
After completing the application you're required to complete a technical assessment on HackerRank which test your problem solving capabilities with question in HTML, CSS, JS and logic. I completed the assessment and my codes passed all the tests.
I was given a simple project to complete before the interview.

The Technical Interview
If you pass the technical assessment you are invited to an interview. During my interview, I was asked about how I developed the project I was given and given a challenge which I also did.

After a week after completing the interview I received the acceptance email which was delightful.

My Experience ✨
After being accepted, we were onboarded and given the timeline of the program. The bootcamp was to be divided into 3 sections.

Core Concepts (2 month): Where trainees would learn basic web technologies, version control and best practices.
Team Projects (3 month ): Where trainees who were able to progress from the previous phase, would collaborate to develop a project using PERN(PostgreSQL, Express, React and NodeJS) stack.
Apprenticeship (3 Month ): Lastly, progressed trainees would be assigned to local and international companies for internship.

1. Core Concepts
We started core concepts where we learnt using Figma, Trello, Git and GitHub but I was lucky because I was already familiar with everything so it was easy for to progress to the next phase.
We were required to build a personal website using the skills we have acquired which can be found here.

2. Team Projects
In the second phase I collaborated with 4 other trainees to build accommodation booking website using PERN Stack.

During this phase I knew some of the things but It was my first time collaborating with a lot of people so it was challenging but luckily our Manager and Team Lead were helpful and helped us.

All 5 of us progressed to the next phase.

3. Apprenticeship
After team projects, I was placed on an internal project because I was student and couldn't be assigned to external company.

I was onboarded on the projects trainees from other cohorts were working on, a website for education institutions to record and track student or trainee performance called DevPulse(https://metron-devpulse.vercel.app ).

During this phase I when I met the real challenge as we were using GraphQl, TypeScript, Nexus most of which I was unfamiliar with. But with the help from fellow trainees and Manager I was able to familiarize myself with different tools and concepts and finished the last phase.

Thank you for reading! I hope this was worth your time and provided you with useful insights. Please feel free to reach to me if you have any queries (or if you'd simply like to connect!) via LinkedIn. I'll be happy to help! Good luck!

Open Source internships for students

Rukundo Kevin — Thu, 26 Jan 2023 05:48:20 +0000

We just went into the holiday and my friends were looking for internships which made me think that there might be a lot of people out there also looking for such good opportunities.

I want internship in the summer, it could be valuable usage of my time

I want to get into opensource but I am a beginner.

So, without further ado, Here is a list of some internship opportunities, that might be of interest to you.

Opportunities in Rwanda

Name	Duration	Stipend	Timeline
Andela Technical Leadership Program	9 Months	No- 25000 RWF for Internet	Application from Octo - Dec
Solvit Africa Bootcamp	3 Months	No- 60000 Rwf For Transport	Application in Jan, May and August.
Zatech Bootcamp	9-12 Months	Yes - 100 000RWF - 150 000RWF	February
Klab Tech Upskill	6 Months	No	N/A
The Gym Rwanda & Ojemba	6 Month	Yes - 120 000 Rwf - 150 000RWF	23rd of April 2023 -

International opportunities

Name	Duration	Stipend	Timeline
Google Summer of Code	10-22 Weeks (flexible)	Yes - Need based (15000$ - 3000$)	Timeline
MLH Fellowship	12 Weeks	Yes - 5000$	January 30th - September 8th (3 batches year round)
Outreachy	3 Months	Yes - 7000$	Timeline
LFN Mentorship Program	12 Weeks FT, 24 Weeks PT	Yes- Need based (3000$ - 6000$)	March 1st - May 31st , June 1st - August 31st , September 1st - November 30th
LFX Mentorship Program	12 Weeks	Yes- Need based (3000$ - 6600$)	Timeline
Season of Docs	6 Months	Yes	Timeline
The X.Org Endless Vacation of Code (EVoC)	3 - 4 Months	Yes	Timeline
FOSSASIA Internship Programme	2 - 6 Months	Yes	Timeline
Linux Kernel Mentorship Program	12 Weeks Full-time, 24 Weeks Part-time	Yes	March 1st - May 31st , June 1st - August 31st , September 1st - November 30th