A Step-by-Step Guide on How to Get Code from GitLab

GitLab is a powerful tool for code management and collaboration. In this step-by-step guide, we will explore the various features and functionalities of GitLab, from setting up an account to working with repositories, collaborating with others, using CI/CD, managing issues and project boards, securing your code, and monitoring and analyzing your code. By the end of this guide, you will have a solid understanding of how to effectively use GitLab for your code management needs.

Key Takeaways

• GitLab is a comprehensive code management platform with a wide range of features.
• Setting up a GitLab account and configuring it for your project is easy and straightforward.
• Working with GitLab repositories involves creating, cloning, pushing, and pulling code.
• Collaborating on GitLab includes adding collaborators, managing merge requests, and resolving conflicts.
• GitLab CI/CD allows for automated testing and deployment of code.

Why Use GitLab for Code Management

Benefits of Using GitLab

GitLab is a powerful platform for code management that offers a wide range of benefits for developers and teams. With GitLab, you can easily collaborate on projects, track changes, and streamline your development workflow. Some of the key benefits of using GitLab include:

Key Features of GitLab

GitLab offers a wide range of powerful features that make it a comprehensive platform for code management. Here are some of the key features:

• Built-in version control: GitLab provides a robust version control system that allows you to easily track changes and collaborate with others.
• Issue tracking: With GitLab’s integrated issue tracking, you can efficiently manage and prioritize tasks, ensuring nothing falls through the cracks.
• Code review: GitLab’s code review functionality enables seamless collaboration and ensures code quality through peer reviews.
• CI/CD: GitLab’s built-in CI/CD pipelines automate the process of building, testing, and deploying your code, saving you time and effort.
• Self-hosting options: Whether you prefer to host GitLab on your own servers, in a container, or on a cloud provider, GitLab gives you the flexibility to choose the deployment option that suits your needs.

These features, combined with GitLab’s user-friendly interface and extensive documentation, make it a top choice for code management.

Setting Up GitLab

Creating a GitLab Account

To get started with GitLab, the first step is to create a GitLab account. This account will serve as your gateway to all the features and functionalities that GitLab has to offer. To create an account, simply visit the GitLab website and click on the ‘Sign up’ button. Fill in the required information, including your email address and a secure password. Once you’ve completed the sign-up process, you’ll have access to your own personal GitLab account.

Installing GitLab on Your Local Machine

To install GitLab on your local machine, follow these steps:

1. Download the GitLab installation package from the official website.
2. Run the installation package and follow the on-screen instructions.
3. Once the installation is complete, open your web browser and navigate to ‘localhost’ to access the GitLab interface.
4. Create a new account or log in with your existing GitLab account.
5. After logging in, you can start creating repositories and managing your code.

Configuring GitLab for Your Project

Once you have created a GitLab account and installed GitLab on your local machine, it’s time to configure GitLab for your project. Here are the steps to follow:

1. Create a repository in your GitLab account. You can create a repository by creating a project or forking an existing project.
2. Install Git for a Windows client on the machine you’ll be version-controlling a database.
3. Link a SQL Server database to source control.
4. After linking a database to the GitLab repository, you can start using GitLab to manage your project’s code.

Remember to regularly commit and push your code to the repository to keep it up to date.

Working with GitLab Repositories

Creating a New Repository

To create a new repository in GitLab, you have a couple of options. You can create a project from scratch or fork an existing project. Once you have a GitLab account, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your GitLab account.
2. Click on the ‘+’ button in the top navigation bar and select ‘New project’.
3. Choose a name for your repository and optionally provide a description.
4. Select the visibility level for your repository (public, internal, or private).
5. Click on the ‘Create project’ button to create your new repository.

If you prefer to fork an existing project, navigate to the project you want to fork and click on the ‘Fork’ button. This will create a copy of the project under your account.

Once you have created a repository, you can start adding files, making changes, and collaborating with others. Happy coding!

Cloning a Repository

To clone a repository from GitLab, follow these steps:

1. Create an empty folder on your local machine to store the local copy of the repository.
2. Log in to your GitLab account and navigate to the repository you want to clone.
3. In the upper-right corner of the repository page, click on the ‘Clone’ button.
4. Select the connection protocol (HTTPS or SSH) that you prefer.
5. Copy the repository URL.
6. Open your command line interface and navigate to the folder you created in step 1.
7. Use the ‘git clone’ command followed by the repository URL to clone the repository.

Once the cloning process is complete, you will have a local copy of the repository on your machine.

Pushing Code to a Repository

When working with GitLab, pushing code to a repository is a common task that you will perform frequently. It allows you to update the codebase and make your changes available to others. Here are the steps to push code to a repository:

1. Make sure you have the latest changes by pulling the code from the repository.
2. Make your desired changes to the code files.
3. Stage the changes using the git add command.
4. Commit the changes using the git commit command.
5. Finally, push the changes to the repository using the git push command.

By following these steps, you can easily push your code changes to the GitLab repository and collaborate effectively with your team.

Pulling Code from a Repository

To download code from a GitLab repository, follow these steps:

1. Visit the repository page. If it’s a public repository, you can visit the page without logging in. If it’s a private repository, you’ll need to log in and have the proper permissions to access it.
2. On the main repository page, click the green Code button.
3. In the menu that appears, click Download ZIP. The entire repository will be downloaded to your device as a zipped file.

Once you have downloaded the repository, you can extract the files and access the code locally. This allows you to work on the code, make changes, and contribute to the project.

Note: If the repository has releases, you can also download a specific release by navigating to the repository page and selecting the release you want to download.

Downloading code from a GitLab repository is a straightforward process that enables you to collaborate with others and contribute to open-source projects.

Collaborating on GitLab

Adding Collaborators to a Repository

To collaborate with others on a GitLab repository, you can easily add collaborators to your project. Here’s how:

1. Navigate to the repository in GitLab.
2. Click on the ‘Settings’ tab.
3. In the left sidebar, click on ‘Members’.
4. On the ‘Members’ page, you can search for users to add as collaborators by their username or email address.
5. Once you find the user you want to add, click on the ‘Add to project’ button next to their name.
6. Choose the appropriate access level for the collaborator, such as ‘Developer’ or ‘Maintainer’.

By adding collaborators to your repository, you can work together on code, track changes, and manage the project more efficiently.

Tip: It’s important to choose access levels carefully to ensure the right level of permissions for each collaborator.

Managing Merge Requests

Once you have created a merge request, you can easily view its details by selecting the ‘Mark as draft’ option in the upper-right corner of the merge request. This allows you to keep track of the progress and make any necessary changes before finalizing the merge. Additionally, you can comment on existing merge requests to provide feedback or ask questions. Managing merge requests efficiently is crucial for smooth collaboration and code integration.

Resolving Conflicts in Merge Requests

When working on a collaborative project in GitLab, it’s common to encounter merge conflicts when multiple contributors make changes to the same file. Resolving these conflicts is an important step to ensure the integrity of the codebase. There are several ways to resolve merge conflicts in GitLab:

1. Git Command Line: You can use Git commands like git merge or git rebase to resolve conflicts directly in the command line.
2. Visual Merge Tools: GitLab also supports visual merge tools like Visual Studio Code, which provide a graphical interface to resolve conflicts.
3. GitLab Web Interface: The GitLab web interface provides a built-in conflict resolution tool that allows you to compare and merge conflicting changes.

It’s important to carefully review and understand the conflicting changes before resolving them. Communicate with other contributors if needed and ensure that the final merged code is correct and functional.

Using GitLab CI/CD

Setting Up Continuous Integration

Continuous Integration (CI) is a software development practice where automated tests and build are run. Developers push code changes every day, multiple times a day. For every push to the repository, you can create a set of scripts to build and test your application automatically. These scripts help decrease the chances that you introduce errors in your application.

Today I will write a straight-forward tutorial on how to write a GitLab CI for a front-end application that has 3 basic steps:

1. Install dependencies
2. Build packages
3. Run unit tests

First, let’s create a .gitlab-ci.yml file and enter an image for the CI and the workflow. The image keyword is the name of the Docker image the Docker executor uses to run CI/CD jobs. In the tutorial, I set image to node:16 meaning the project will be run on node version.

Configuring Pipelines

After setting up GitLab for your project, the next step is to configure pipelines. Pipelines in GitLab are a powerful tool for automating the build, test, and deployment processes of your code. By defining a series of stages and scripts in a .gitlab-ci.yml file, you can create a pipeline that runs whenever changes are pushed to your repository.

To configure pipelines, follow these steps:

1. Create a .gitlab-ci.yml file in the root directory of your project.
2. Define the stages and scripts for each stage in the file.
3. Commit and push the .gitlab-ci.yml file to your repository.

Once the pipeline is configured, GitLab will automatically trigger the pipeline whenever changes are pushed to the repository. You can monitor the progress of the pipeline and view the results in the GitLab UI.

Remember to regularly review and update your pipeline configuration as your project evolves and new requirements arise.

Running Tests with GitLab CI/CD

Running tests is a critical step in the CI/CD process, ensuring that your code is robust and reliable before deployment. With GitLab CI/CD, you can automate this process by defining test jobs in your .gitlab-ci.yml file. Here’s a simple guide to get you started:

First, specify the Docker image that will be used to run your tests. For example, using node:16 ensures that your project runs on Node.js version 16. Then, outline the workflow rules to control when pipelines are triggered, such as on commits or merge requests, but excluding the main branch.

• Install dependencies: Set up your job to install any necessary dependencies before running tests.
• Build packages: Configure the job to build your application’s packages.
• Run unit tests: Finally, define the test scripts to execute your unit tests.

Remember, the ‘Test Stage’ in GitLab CI/CD is not limited to unit tests. It can include a variety of testing tools to assess different aspects of your codebase, such as performance, accessibility, and code quality.

Tip: Use the cache keyword to speed up your pipeline by caching dependencies between jobs. This can significantly reduce build times and resource usage.

Feel free to experiment with more rules or different images to find the best setup for your CI pipeline. And don’t forget, you can always refer to the GitLab documentation for more detailed guidance.

Deploying Code with GitLab CI/CD

Once you have set up your CI/CD pipeline in GitLab, you can easily deploy your code to your desired environment. GitLab CI/CD provides built-in pipeline templates that automatically scan your code and create and run pipelines for building, testing, packaging, and deploying your application[^ad45]. To deploy your code with GitLab CI/CD, follow these steps:

1. Make sure that the SSH key used by your CI/CD Runner matches the public key configured on the target server. You can edit the ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the target server to add the public key of the CI/CD Runner.
2. Use the appropriate deployment script for your desired environment. For example, if you are deploying to AWS, you can use the following script:

EC2):
deploy_to_aws:
  stage: deploy
  script:
    - aws s3 cp your_artifact.zip s3://your-s3-bucket/path/on/s3/
  only:
    - master

3. Ensure security considerations during configuration to avoid exposing private keys or other sensitive information. GitLab provides a CI/CD feature called ‘Secret Variables’ that allows you to securely store and use sensitive information in your CI/CD pipeline.

Managing Issues and Project Boards

Creating and Assigning Issues

When working on a project in GitLab, it’s important to create and assign issues to keep track of tasks and responsibilities. Issues serve as a way to organize and prioritize work, ensuring that everyone on the team is aware of what needs to be done. To create an issue, simply navigate to the project’s repository and click on the ‘Issues’ tab. From there, click on the ‘New issue’ button and fill in the necessary details such as the issue title, description, and labels. Once the issue is created, it can be assigned to a specific team member by selecting their name from the assignee dropdown menu.

Tracking Progress with Project Boards

Project boards in GitLab provide a powerful tool for tracking the progress of your projects. With project boards, you can visualize and organize your tasks, issues, and epics in a Kanban-style board. This allows you to easily see the status of each task and identify potential bottlenecks. You can also track the interdependencies between different tasks and epics, giving you a bi-directional view of your project’s progress. By using project boards, you can ensure that your team stays on track and delivers high-quality software on time.

Using Labels and Milestones

When working with GitLab, you can enhance your project management by using labels and milestones. Labels allow you to categorize and organize your issues, making it easier to track and prioritize tasks. You can create custom labels that align with your project’s specific needs, such as ‘bug’, ‘feature’, or ‘documentation’. Additionally, you can assign labels to merge requests, making it clear which changes are associated with each issue.

Milestones, on the other hand, provide a way to group related issues and track progress towards specific goals or deadlines. By setting milestones for your project, you can easily visualize the overall progress and identify any bottlenecks or areas that require attention. Milestones can be used to plan sprints, releases, or any other significant milestones in your development process.

To make the most of labels and milestones in GitLab, consider the following tips:

• Use descriptive labels that provide meaningful context and help you quickly identify the nature of an issue.
• Regularly review and update labels to ensure they remain relevant and aligned with your project’s evolving needs.
• Leverage milestones to plan and track the progress of larger features or project milestones.
• Use milestones as a communication tool to align stakeholders and keep everyone informed about the project’s progress.

By effectively utilizing labels and milestones in GitLab, you can streamline your project management process and ensure that tasks are organized, prioritized, and completed in a timely manner.

Securing Your Code on GitLab

Enabling Two-Factor Authentication

Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to your GitLab account by requiring a second form of verification in addition to your password. This helps protect your account from unauthorized access and ensures that only you can log in.

To enable two-factor authentication on GitLab, follow these steps:

1. Go to your GitLab account settings.
2. Select ‘Manage two-factor authentication’.
3. Under ‘Register Two-Factor Authenticator’, enter your current password and select ‘Enable two-factor authentication’.

Once enabled, you will need to use a second factor, such as a mobile app or a physical security key, in addition to your password when logging in to GitLab.

Note: If you want to disable two-factor authentication, you can do so by following the same steps and selecting ‘Disable two-factor authentication’.

Setting Up Access Controls

Setting up access controls in GitLab is an essential step to ensure the security and integrity of your code. Access controls allow you to define who can access your repositories and what actions they can perform. Here are some key points to consider when setting up access controls:

• Use the Visibility settings to control the visibility of your project. You can choose between public, internal, or private.
• Protect your branches by setting up branch protection rules. This ensures that only authorized users can push changes to protected branches.
• Manage access permissions by assigning roles to users or groups. Roles can be customized to grant specific permissions.
• Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for an extra layer of security. 2FA requires users to provide a second form of authentication, such as a code from a mobile app, in addition to their password.

By carefully configuring access controls, you can ensure that only authorized individuals have access to your code and that changes are made by trusted contributors.

Implementing Security Scans

Implementing security scans is an essential step in ensuring the safety and integrity of your code on GitLab. By enforcing scheduled security scanning jobs using a scan execution policy, you can regularly scan your code for vulnerabilities and identify potential security risks. These scheduled jobs run independently from any other security scans you may have, providing an additional layer of protection. It is recommended to review the scan results and take appropriate actions to address any identified vulnerabilities. Additionally, GitLab provides a security dashboard that allows you to monitor the overall security status of your projects and track any security issues that need attention.

Monitoring and Analytics in GitLab

Monitoring Performance with Metrics

GitLab Metrics provides users with the ability to collect and analyze application and infrastructure metrics, giving valuable insights into performance and system health. With Metrics, you can easily track key performance indicators and identify areas for improvement. Whether you’re monitoring response times, resource utilization, or error rates, Metrics helps you make data-driven decisions to optimize your applications.

In addition to collecting metrics, GitLab also offers a range of features for analyzing and visualizing the data. You can create custom dashboards to display the metrics that are most important to you, and use GitLab’s built-in analytics tools to gain deeper insights into your application’s performance.

To get started with Metrics, simply enable the feature in your GitLab project settings and start collecting data. With the power of Metrics, you can take your performance monitoring to the next level and ensure that your applications are running at their best.

Analyzing Code Quality

Analyzing code quality is an essential step in ensuring the reliability and maintainability of your software projects. It involves evaluating the structure, readability, and performance of your code to identify potential issues and improve overall code quality. There are several tools and techniques available to help you analyze code quality, including static code analysis, code review processes, and automated testing. By regularly analyzing code quality, you can catch bugs and vulnerabilities early, optimize performance, and ensure that your code meets industry standards and best practices.

Tracking User Activity

Tracking user activity is an essential aspect of managing your projects on GitLab. By monitoring user activity, you can gain valuable insights into how your code is being used and identify areas for improvement. Here are some key methods for tracking user activity on GitLab:

• Solution Validation: Validate the effectiveness of your solutions by tracking user activity and gathering feedback.
• Tracking actionable insights: Keep track of the insights gained from user activity to inform future decisions.
• Tracking gold, silver, and bronze UX research projects: Monitor the progress and impact of different UX research projects.
• Tracking research velocity: Measure the speed and efficiency of your research efforts.
• Unmoderated usability testing: Conduct usability testing without the need for a moderator.
• Usability benchmarking: Compare the usability of different versions of your code.
• Usability testing: Test the usability of your code with real users.
• User story mapping: Map out user stories to understand user behavior and needs.
• Using quantitative data to find insights: Analyze quantitative data to uncover valuable insights.
• Using RITE to test navigation: Use the RITE method to test and improve navigation.
• Using the UX Research Google Calendar: Utilize the UX Research Google Calendar to schedule and organize research activities.
• UX Bash: Participate in UX Bash events to collaborate and share knowledge with other UX researchers.
• UX Cloud Sandbox: Use the UX Cloud Sandbox to test and experiment with UX research tools and applications.
• UX Research growth and development: Continuously grow and develop your skills as a UX researcher.
• UX Research shadowing: Shadow experienced UX researchers to learn from their expertise.
• UX Research tools/applications: Explore and utilize various tools and applications for UX research.
• UX Researcher pairings: Collaborate with other UX researchers to enhance research outcomes.
• When to conduct UX Research: Determine the appropriate timing for conducting UX research.
• Writing a discussion guide for user interviews: Prepare a comprehensive guide for conducting user interviews.
• Writing a website usability testing script: Create a script to guide website usability testing.
• Analyzing and synthesizing user feedback: Analyze and synthesize user feedback to gain valuable insights.

Monitoring and Analytics in GitLab is a crucial aspect of any DevSecOps workflow. By monitoring the performance and analyzing the data in GitLab, organizations can gain valuable insights into their development processes and make informed decisions. With the right analytics tools, teams can track the efficiency of their CI/CD pipelines, identify bottlenecks, and optimize their workflows. Additionally, monitoring and analytics in GitLab enable organizations to detect and respond to security threats in real-time, ensuring the integrity and security of their codebase. To leverage the full potential of Monitoring and Analytics in GitLab, visit our website Home Page – DevSecOps and discover how our comprehensive solutions can help you streamline your DevSecOps practices and achieve greater efficiency and security.

Conclusion

In conclusion, obtaining code from GitLab is a straightforward process that can be accomplished in just a few simple steps. By following this step-by-step guide, you can easily download or clone code repositories, making it easy to collaborate with others and contribute to open-source projects. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced developer, GitLab provides a user-friendly interface and a wide range of features that make code management and version control efficient and effective. So why wait? Start exploring GitLab today and unlock the power of collaborative coding!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is GitLab?

GitLab is a web-based platform for version control and collaboration that allows developers to manage and track changes to their code.

How do I create a GitLab account?

To create a GitLab account, go to the GitLab website and click on the ‘Sign up’ button. Fill in the required information and follow the prompts to create your account.

What are the benefits of using GitLab?

Some benefits of using GitLab include easy code collaboration, built-in continuous integration and deployment, and robust version control features.

How do I create a new repository in GitLab?

To create a new repository in GitLab, navigate to your project and click on the ‘New project’ button. Fill in the required information and click ‘Create project’.

How do I clone a repository in GitLab?

To clone a repository in GitLab, go to the repository’s page and copy the SSH or HTTPS clone URL. Open your terminal and run the ‘git clone’ command followed by the URL.

How do I push code to a GitLab repository?

To push code to a GitLab repository, navigate to your local repository and run the ‘git push’ command followed by the remote repository’s URL.

How do I add collaborators to a GitLab repository?

To add collaborators to a GitLab repository, go to the repository’s page and click on the ‘Settings’ tab. Under ‘Members’, enter the usernames or email addresses of the collaborators and click ‘Add’.

How do I enable two-factor authentication on GitLab?

To enable two-factor authentication on GitLab, go to your account settings and click on the ‘Two-Factor Authentication’ tab. Follow the prompts to set up two-factor authentication.