Interactive Sessions 10

Collaborating with GitHub

Find a partner. Designate who is “Starter” and who is “Collaborator”.


Working in main

Starter: Create a new version controlled R Project, make & push an update

  • Create a new repo called eds221-day10-collab (with a ReadMe)
  • Clone, create a new version-controlled R Project
  • Create a new .Rmd in the root (git_test.Rmd), delete everything below the first code chunk
  • Add a line of text in your .Rmd like “Hi partner!”
  • Stage, commit & push all changes back to your GitHub repo

Starter: Add a contributor

  • Go back to your eds221-day10-collab repo on GitHub
  • Go to Settings > Manage access > (Enter password if requested) > Invite collaborator > Enter Collaborator’s username or email

Collaborator: Accept invitation & clone repo, make an update

  • Check your email. You should receive the invitation to join the repo. Accept.
  • Clone (do NOT fork first) and create your own local R project
  • Pull just in case (this should say already up to date)
  • Open the git_test.Rmd
  • Add a new line to the .Rmd with a nice note below the line your partner added
  • Save the .Rmd, then stage, commit, pull & push
  • Check that the updates show up on GitHub

Starter: Pull & add something new to the .Rmd

  • PULL to get remote updates locally in RStudio
  • Open git_test.Rmd and see updated text from your partner
  • Add a new line of text to the .Rmd
  • Stage, commit, pull, then push

Collaborator: Pull & add something new to the .Rmd

  • PULL to get remote updates
  • Open git_test.Rmd and see updated text
  • Add a new line of text to the .Rmd
  • Stage, commit, pull, then push

Starter and Collaborator: Where goes what now on GitHub?

  • Both partners, go back to the repo on github for your collaboration
  • Go exploring (especially History & Blame)

Starter and Collaborator: Submit a new issue that references specific line(s) in your files

  • Still in GitHub, click on the git_test.Rmd file
  • Find a line that your partner wrote
  • Click the row number to the left of the line (or hold shift to select a range a lines) - the selected lines will turn yellow, and you should see a three dot menu button appear to the left of the code. Click on it, and choose “Reference in new issue”
  • Add a title and some text for your issue, and submit
  • Once you both have submitted an issue to your shared repo, check your partner’s issue, respond and close (resolve) the issue

Working in branches

Starter and Collaborator: Create new branch

  • Go to the GitHub repository and click on the branch icon next to the drop-down that currently says main.
  • This will take you to a new page that lists all of the branches currently associated with this repo
  • Click “New branch”
  • Give your new branch a short, but informative name. The best names include your name and a brief description of the updates you are planning (e.g. oliver-interactive-visuals)
  • Click “Create branch”

Starter and Collaborator: Work on new branch in local repo

  • Now go to Terminal in RStudio and run git pull. You should see that a new branch was created
  • Check out the Git pane and click on the drop-down that currently says main. Select the new branch that you created.
  • Create a new file with some code or change code in an existing file
  • Commit your changes to GitHub (still in your new branch)

Starter and Collaborator: Check out changes in remote repo

  • Go back to GitHub
  • You should now see a message that says your new branch has recent pushes
  • You can toggle between branches to compare code between branches using the drop-down

Starter and Collaborator: Bring new changes into main

To have your new changes reflecting in the main branch, you need to submit a “pull request” (or a request to move your changes from your branch into the main branch)

  • Click on Compare and pull request
  • Add a title and message describing the changes you made in your branch
  • Scroll to the bottom to see the changes you are proposing to make to main
  • Click “Create pull request”
  • GitHub will check if there are any conflicts between your changes and main
  • If not, click Merge pull request
  • You now can (and should) delete your branch by clicking delete branch


You have now both successfully committed changes to the main branch without getting in each other’s way!

End Interactive Session 10