When producing the projects for the first certification, there is a link to use code pen and test it that way.
Two Q’s
If using code pen, how do you save it to go back to it later?
If I wanted to use Atom which I’ve been using on my own projects, how would I go about running the tests?
If using code pen, how do you save it to go back to it later?
You will need to sign up/log in to CodePen, fork the test suite pen to your account, and create your project there. There will be a Save button at the top right, which you can click to save your work.
If I wanted to use Atom which I’ve been using on my own projects, how would I go about running the tests?
The test suite is served over a CDN, so you could copy the script link from our test suite pen into your local HTML. (That’s what I did for my projects and it worked quite well).
to test the projects you need to open the live preview, and use the run tests button in the hamburger menu to see if you pass them all
to submit your projects you need to have a live version publicly accessible and also your code available to see - something like codepen or repl.it make it really easy, but anything else is fine, maybe just add also a link to the github repo or something like that in the footer of your project
There are two ways I recommend to upload, save, and share your code.
CodePen
Github Repository with Github Pages
CodePen
This one’s simple:
Make your CodePen account, particularly important, without account you cannot save projects.
Once made make sure you either create a CodePen or fork the one FCC provides, then when making changes to code click the “Save” button to save the code. If you don’t save the changes the CodePen will delete itself.
*Last thing, if you’re building the project in Atom a simple trick is to copy and paste the code, it will throw some errors, but this is to simply share the code, not host a website so many let it slide, eventually you can place that complete code into GitHub and have it work as intended.
GitHub+Pages
So, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, GitHub.
A quick explainer, GitHub is a place to make repositories and host your code, GitHub pages is a way to host that code on GitHub servers and share it with the world.
I wouldn’t suggest it for someone without experience, but I will recommend setting up and account and taking the free classes in the GitHub learning lab to help you learn GitHub. Atom is also made by GitHub, so the integration has been pre-installed, I recommend googling and researching how to upload projects from Atom, that way you can control the code right from the editor.
Quick tips before I go…
If you do make you GitHub account make sure you make the name and credentials as professional which means putting in a nickname, real name, or known alias as your username. It’s daunting but your GitHub profile is your bridge to collaboration with other coders and the key to being employed so make sure there’s no fooling around with your GitHub name. Once you create the account, unless you plan on making another one, there’s no going back.
Here’s the link to the GitHub Lab (Make sure you create an account and sign in to access)
Last things make sure you take things slow and focus on the most important thing, your code. It’s important to make sure there are no detours in your learning process and if that means using CodePen instead of GitHub so be it. Use the simplest things first and run with it, your code is the foundation not your hosting service.
Thanks for that - some great advice!
I’m on Githib but like you say to a newbie it is a little daunting so I will check out the suggestions you raised.
Thankyou