GitLab Product Marketing, 18 Oct 2019

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From YouTube: GitLab onboarding: Learning Git, local terminal vs WebIDE

Description

Jen and William chat about learning Git along with the differences between working on your local laptop and working all in GitLab while making a few example MRs.

A

So the way we do this is I'll say: I am William and I am on the product. Marketing team, Beckett lab and I'm chatting with Jen I am.

B

On the I'm, the customer reference manager for peer reviews also on the marketing team productivity also.

A

A part of the product marketing group and how long have you been at get lab Jen this.

B

Is my fourth day day.

A

Four, so we're we're just chatting about get using, get lab working through your onboarding issues and we thought hey. We should just record this for YouTube. So this is our conversation, so it sounded like the the challenge you were. Having are there's this kind of section of the onboarding and it's it sounds like it's basically learn get. Yes,.

B

A

It doesn't necessarily have like a project for you to work on it's. It sounds like it's just kind of telling you like. These are concepts that you should familiarize yourself with, but there's not like a project you're trying to make happen. Yeah.

B

It just talks about here. This is what it is, and it sends you to this link. The first link says by now. You should really understand, get which I don't.

B

And then it takes you through, and it tells you to make sure you have get on your computer and to run a command to do that and I spent about 15 minutes trying to figure out how to open a command on my macbook, because I have I'm not familiar with MacBooks, so I googled that and figured it out, and then it was trying to tell me how to sort of run some get code on the terminal, which is the command prompt and Mac I guess, and that is where I got confused, because I thought I was supposed to be doing it in get lab.

B

Which is why I reached out to you because I don't know how the computer terminal command prompt relates to get lab. That.

A

Is an awesome question: I can there's a lot of recording because I can guarantee you a ton of people have that question yeah, so it's kind of weird chatting earlier. This is basically this is how software engineers work every day, and every software engineer had to learn this at some point and so at git lab everybody, regardless of the role, even if they're, like finance or sales gets to learn like a little bit of software engineering, and even that a little bit is, is very complex and can be intimidating and takes some time to learn.

A

So this kind of concept like what's on my local machine in my terminal window, on the command line and what is on getting how those relate. So this is part of the magic of git, and this is the git is a thing. It's called a version control system and that's what gitlab uses as its version control right so get lab.

A

Is this like bigger tool that does a bunch of stuff and it uses git, and so the get part of get lab is we were talking earlier about how you have a branch, and it has all these changes and you can make other branches.

C

A

Then, within that model you also have this concept of the remote branch and a local branch. So the way it works is you can actually start in either place. I like to start it on git, lab and I wonder if we can even I might even just screen share and.

C

Let me see, and this it.

B

Is starting on get lab the remote branch yeah.

A

Exactly so, if we just go to, let's go to the git lab handbook and.

A

You know, let's just go to let's say: product marketing, I.

A

Bet, it's probably even.

A

And I don't know: let's, uh let's make an update somewhere, it doesn't even matter what update we're, making I won't, merge it, but so every page here has this really nice. If you scroll to the bottom and at this page and have you seen that one uh no.

B

Where are you so.

A

On any on any page on the website or in the handbook, any page at about.com, and actually this is true of our Docs as well. If you scroll to the bottom of the page, there's a there's, an awesome, little link that says edit this page. Yes,.

C

A

It's a it's cool because literally anybody in the world can do this. Not just get levers like.

B

Quints and merge requests.

A

Yeah so that'll open this file and it looks like I was actually the last person to change it. So so what's cool is like this is the file that that builds like this web page right. So this is what it looks like when it's all nicely styled and like live on the website. This is pulling from the web server and when I go to this edit, this page link now maybe.

C

Let's see can I go there.

C

A

A map- maybe my network- is just a little slower, I confused. It.

A

So what pops up in a moment, what I'm actually opening up is the git repository on github comm and the.

B

Republican edit this page, it opens up again repository. That's.

A

Right so it basically, it goes to the code like what is the what's the code that generated this page and in this case it's showing me a nice like preview, because it's on, like the display, a rendered file. But if I click on this to play, the display the source.

A

And this is a little bit sluggish today, so this is not normally it's.

C

Normally speedier.

A

It's actually, you know it's Murphy's Law, that's uh that's! That is true. So this is. This. Is the source code of that page and it's in socking year earlier about markdown yeah.

B

A

Also, this probably looks familiar as well right, yeah, so inside of markdown you can actually also embed HTML yeah.

A

So so this is the file. This is the code you can think of it as code. It's it's markdown and it's basically a real. What do you call it? It's text without formatting and the thing that you call that it's now slipping plain text. There's a plain plain text: file: okay, so I'm going to go here to edit this file, and so now I'm in git, lab I'm in the get lab app and I'm get lab is going to. Let me edit this file and now I'm gonna, say product marketing at git.

A

Lab is really cool right and so I have some options now that it with this edit, so I can have a commit message and if you remember each changes its own commit. So, what's usually good to say here is to talk about like what was what did I change or why did I make this change later on when you're? Looking at the log of all the changes, if want to go back to one, it's helpful to to just look at all those commit messages and see why it changed.

A

If that all the commit messages say like updated index, it's hard to know so this I'm gonna call like make the page cooler right and then it's gonna have a target branch, and this is a really awesome. Part of gitlab is what it does is when I commit this change, it's going to create a separate git branch. For me, it's going to commit this change to the end of that new branch and it's going to automatically make a merge request to merge that new branch back into master.

A

So so that's kind of what's happening here, where I'm saying like start a new branch and call this one patch, nineteen, seven. Eighty six start a merge request with these changes, so I'm going to commit the changes to this branch and it's going to automatically start a merge request for me.

B

So the changes are committed on that branch and it's creating a merge request that once it's completed will become part of the original tree right.

A

Exactly into the into the trunk of the into the master branch, so it's telling me that that branch off already happens to exist, so I am going to just call this one cruel, PMM page so I'm I'm, just you can name these branches whatever you want, I like to make them descriptive changes.

B

Or do you have to work it get lab to do it so.

A

Anybody in the world, with a get lab comm account, can do everything I'm doing right now, which we.

B

Have to work it get out. No.

A

No, like that, has a count on get lab comm, that's so like literally. Basically, anyone in the world, anyone in the world can sign up for.

B

Get lab and deal everything got it yeah.

A

And so here are some we're. Gonna start a new merge request and the merge request has some elements. So there's a title make the page cooler and maybe sometimes it might have a description in this case. I'm gonna say, like you know, doing some onboarding with.

B

Janelle JL Parker JL.

A

Parker and so when I put your name in here, you're gonna get a little ping from get lab on that.

C

A

Then I, honestly, when you make em ours, you usually don't need to worry about a lot of this stuff, you'll kind of learn it later. Basically, the only thing you need to make NMR is the title. You don't need the description you can basically assign it to Colin or your manager like I'm, happy to merge request for you as well, but, basically to start out, you can just always assign the Colin and eventually you'll kind of figure out who lands.

B

What part Colin and not me.

A

So that's a really good question, so there's different workflows. This is kind of getting in the weeds a bit but like so potentially you might assigned to yourself and that's basically saying like I'm working this right now and then, when you're done with it and you want it to be merged, then you would assign to Colin. Oh.

B

Because he needs to approve it right.

A

He would be the one to either merge it or to tell you who can merge it. Okay,.

B

A

B

In and assign it higher, but.

A

Potentially I don't know actually I, don't even know if he has merge access but, for example, like I, have merge access to the website so like, and a lot of people do probably too many.

A

So if you assign to anybody with merge access and they feel like they can approve that change, so sometimes people send things to me and I'm like I, can merge this, but I don't own. This page I need so-and-so's approval before I, merge and I'll. Do that kind of a thing, but uh basically you just need a title in the mr you're gonna say: delete the source branch and squash. The commits I won't go into the weeds about what these things do. I would just say: I always check those boxes that it's it's.

B

Safe to basically just all the extra stuff- and it makes the makes everything merge into the one right.

A

It's kind of like when I it's kind of like when I merge, just clean, clean stuff up got.

B

It the thing I made part of the master and get everything else gone. Yeah.

A

So I'm gonna submit this merge request and now it's going to open up the mr view. So this is a gitlab merge request and honestly, this is one of the coolest things we have anyone who's, a software developer um that uses this kind of tool and there are some other ones. There's like github, there's Atlassian bitbucket like git Labs, is the best like if you're a software developer. This thing is so cool it just it. So it shows you a few things.

A

So, first of all, it shows you the pipeline, and what this is doing is it's running a whole series of builds and tests on this change. So, let's say, for example, the change I made I just updated like a little bit of a text. Right I changed it from this to this, and this is the view here. It shows you like.

A

Oh, this one's red, that's the one you got rid of and this one's green, that's the one thing I'm adding right mm-hmm now, let's say, though: I did some kind of like syntax change or I messed, I messed something up and get lab, can't actually build it all right, I say get lab the software.

A

It's actually something called runner it's running as running these scripts, but if it breaks for some reason, then this thing will tell me right now it's running, but when it's done it'll give you a green check, box, yeah and if it doesn't work for some reason, it'll give you a red X. So this is a nice part of git lab because in other tools this like live somewhere else or it's not all I kind of integrated into one. So this is called the pipeline.

A

That's like where it's on compiling or building the code, and then you know running tests on it and then it actually does a deployment. So it installs that code and it installs it on a special server. We call a review app and a review. App is basically like on that change running. In its own little web server, so when this is all done, we'll be able to see the version of the website that has just this change. If that makes sense, is.

B

That part of the continuous integration and.

A

Exactly this, this is CI CD, continuous.

B

A

And continuous deployment so.

B

What version are we looking at? Is this the free version, or are we using as get laberd's ourselves? Are we using the free version or a premium version so.

A

As a skit lab, are we, our accounts have access to like the highest here, so we actually have gitlab ultimate features. Okay,.

B

A

Anybody actually what's cool is anybody who opens up a free account as long as their code is public because, like we want to support open source, they actually get access to all the all the highest here as well, so that the only time we lock down the features or make you pay for them is, if you have like what we call private repositories. Okay,.

C

A

So you can see that there's some there's some options here. This is a little healthful box like who who can approve this. We don't require approvals, but like some some pieces of code and some companies do, and so what this is helpful is these are the code owners so.

B

Ashish Jon Jeremiah Dan.

A

And and I'm on here too, but for any, which is weird I showed up on on the other page I showed up as a code owner, but not on this one, which is totally cool and by capita 3. The point is, is whenever you need help on a specific page or you want to know who does this belong to if it has a little code owners thing here like those are people you can thing for this page if I were to change the analyst relations page on the handbook, Collins and Joyce's picture shows up here.

A

Ok, so see ya, so the pipeline's running I've got like these are people who I could look at that might be able to help me out if I have questions about this and then there's a few little buckets here. So here's like a place where we can have comments I'm, giving you like the full get lab demo.

B

A

Then, like you can respond to comments, like you know, sounds good, so this is a way that we can like have a discussion asynchronously. um So you don't need to call a meeting. All you have to do is make an mr and then tag someone and say like hey. Can you look at this and then one day are done, dropping off their kids or are back from like yoga practice like they can respond to you so.

B

This is doing get in get lab. How does that relate then to the scary terminal.

A

Yes, so um so what this would look like is, let's say: I wanted to change this locally and let me see if I can orchestrate my windows such that I am NOT sharing too much, and let me see if I can I'm gonna do this, so let me see if I can.

C

Share a portion of the screen, ok and I'm gonna- do this and I'm going to try to do this and then I'm gonna open up my terminal and.

A

So this is my this is my local shell right, mm-hmm.

C

A

Or this this has a few names. You can call it the terminal, that's the name of the mac app. You can call it the shell, because this is actually a shell. It's it's it's bash act is a type of shell people, call it the command line. So all of those things terminal, shell command line, yeah.

B

A

Our intents and purposes, those are all roughly the same. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna say, for example, I can click on this check out the branch, and it gives me these nice command line commands right. So this is using the git command. It's then passing like the fetch modifier to the git command and I'm, saying, like git, fetch origin right so here on my local machine.

A

I have cloned this branch locally right, so essentially, I've done is taken that remote branch and I said hey I want to clone this, and this would be like a step. You would do to get it onto your local machine and what.

B

Is getting it on my local machine dude, it takes it out of get lab comm. It.

A

Makes a copy it makes a clone okay.

C

A

I have here on my local machine. This is a copy of all of that code. So, for example, if I open it up in my atom editor.

A

C

A

This is a what's that, what's.

B

An atom editor so.

A

Oh no, your your questions are all good. Atom is, what's called an an IDE or an integrated development environment. Okay, so developers tend to work with a command line. I use terminal, all those other kinds of command lines, I just use the one that's built in, and then they're gonna have some type of code editor to go and write, and edit their code also called an IDE, and that is what Adam as a type of IDE there's there's other kinds. This is one I like okay, so here you can see.

A

I have all of these files on my local machine. So if I'm not connected to the Internet, I can still access the whole website and play and work with it, but.

B

It would need to be it would, but if you're not connected to the Internet, would it be the most recent website or would it be whatever it is that you had just saved it's.

A

The right, so it's so I have a bunch of different branches locally and so I have. The thing I have locally is whatever was like the last time. I got that so, for example, you know I could I could check out master mm-hmm.

B

A

My way of saying, like whatever branch I'm on switch back over to the master branch, so.

B

Like that guy who had bad internet connection this morning at his hotel, he may have copied the code and worked on on his machine locally to mess with the code. So he could still work without worrying about the internet. Exactly.

A

You can I I've edited code on a train, spotty Wi-Fi. It's like not Wi-Fi,.

B

A

B

I was making a joke and.

A

Then the other reason to do it locally is it tends to be faster like once you get a grasp of all of these tools, which takes a lot of work and effort to do, but once you do that, then it's much faster to work locally. So that's the advantage. That's why it's good to like eventually set this stuff up. My recommendation is, like you probably don't, even need this stuff for at least a month or longer like say.

B

A month, that's he's fast: okay, I'm.

A

Talking in get lap time, we we make very very small changes and we do them very rapidly.

A

In fairness, I tell the story at my last two jobs in the the amount of time it took me to ramp and be productive within six months. Yeah.

B

A

Me only two months: I get lab really.

B

A

That's yes, I got honest. My.

B

Last job it took me I felt like it was like about three months to understand it in six months to be an expert and I'm. Seeing all of this massive amounts of content and I'm like how long is it going to take me to be an expert of get lab, because it's a lot so.

A

That's like that's the cool thing is that um in some ways you don't need to be an expert. You don't need to know all the stuff, because it's all written down. Yes,.

B

A

In my last job, I had to figure out who knew that thing and I had to get their knowledge out of their head in a mind. And it like took me six months to ramp yeah.

C

A

Gitlab everything was just written down, so I could just like I wonder about thing X like what happens if I just do a Google search for get lab handbook thing X! Oh there's a page on that, like amazing I, don't need to remember this stuff like I, probably don't even need a book market like I can just Google for him. Yeah.

B

I've been putting everything in my pocket, it's just my my pocket is gonna, be the entire handbook which.

A

Is which, which is totally cool, I, think that um I had a yeah there's there's a few spots that I bookmark, but there's things to learn. There's like technical knowledge and ways that you like there's, definitely ways to ramp. I I would honestly say, like you've, never done software development before I might even like. If you wanted to learn this like I, want to learn to work on my local terminal like it's. It's not super hard.

A

It takes a little bit of dedicated effort um and it's just like your mileage may vary like, for example, like our content team, like they do em ours. All the time like every single blog post is a code change so like very, very early on, like they put a lot of work in to like learn how to do this locally and that made them more effective because they do that. A lot yeah in my opinion and I mean like I, said mileage may vary.

A

You could chat with with Colin and Joyce and see how often they do stuff and if they work locally. But uh my personal belief is I think you could be very productive rapidly. Using only the remote tools on get lab comm, we we've built a really cool thing like so. The the other part of this is like back in the day like the web tools didn't have all of this stuff. Yeah.

B

A

Like the reason you work locally was because you had to, but it lab has like a web IDE just built in, like that's pretty cool, so I can get lab. We've actually built everything that you need is actually built in. To get lab and and honestly I I do want to check out the onboarding and maybe.

B

You will make me do the local first, it seems it's.

A

Probably a legacy artifact of like once upon a time we didn't like years ago. We didn't have a web ID and it wasn't awesome like it is today. You.

B

Know my last job I made them change the entire onboarding process. So, let's just let's just change it. You.

A

Are already thinking like a good lever like like literally like the the the the best mindset you could have is this is not working I'm going to propose a change? That's it.

B

Would be easier to understand, get lab before understanding the big scary black box yeah as act, the writing major and customer reference manager non coder. You.

A

Know what so so that makes sense like I, have this local branch and if I I can make changes locally and then I can sync it back to the remote branch mm-hmm.

C

A

That's that's why you use a git command, so there's there's a git push in a git pull okay and I get I get fetch. So this is this is saying fetch, so I could actually do this and I could like. Basically, this is saying like go out to the remote repository and get me all the latest stuff. So all of the branches that have like laid it like anybody's made that are hanging out that I don't have yet on my local machine go and get all that metadata. That's.

B

From just from wait so fetching from just your machine or this.

A

Is sorry this is my machine fetching I should say this. Is my machine fetching from gitlab got it so like going out to get lab said, give me all the latest stuff and get labs like here's all the latest stuff? Now you have all the latest stuff. It's on your local machine running.

B

A

So that updated, it was very fast. You can see this. It is very fast and now I'm gonna check out that branch. So this is this cool, pmm, page branch and now I'm working locally on the same thing. That's in this, mr this cool, pmm, page branch and if I make a change locally, which I can even do that.

A

So, if I, like I'm in atom and let's say, I- want to open up a file which would be handbook marketing, actually product, sonic marketing, there we go so this is the file that I want and it says, get get lab is really cool, but I want to say bodacious Lee cool right on it spell check, is choking on it. So now on, my local machine I can take that change to this file.

A

Going cool to bodaciously, cool and I can stage it so and get you have this concept of there's like there's like a batter on deck or there's like a staging area. There's like the backstage I'm ready to go out on stage right, and so, when you make changes and you save them, they end up in this little. Staging area and then, when you're saying like yeah those changes, look good I actually now want to commit them to the branch. Then you stage, that's called staging the changes. Now here my changes stage.

A

This change right here and I'm gonna commit it and I'm gonna say making it totally tube tubular.

B

Geez, are you gonna really allow all this stuff to go straight to the internet, so.

A

So so now it's all still local right. It's all still on my machine, though you can see here's a list of here's, the that log I was telling you about you can see. These are all the commit messages and the history and so mine has make the page cooler and then make it totally tubular. That's on my local machine, okay, the remote branch. If I look at the commits on the remote branch, it only has them make the page cooler, because.

B

It hasn't synced, yet right.

A

So to sync, it up I'm going to push my changes from my local machine up to get lab and I could do this on the command line with a command called git push more and my IDE here I can just say: push and.

B

We're in the command line, that's in the in the terminal thing that.

A

That's right so in the terminal, I could say, for example, git push. Okay.

B

A

I would also to get.

B

Lab and somehow pull it from.

A

That's that's right, so I did that all I did that when I used this git fetch and then get check out. Okay, so yeah on my terminal, I said get git fetch. It went out to get lab and it fetched the stuff.

B

I was wondering if you can somehow beyond get lab and then say: okay now go to my terminal and get everything that I've updated. No, you can that's.

A

I sorry I get like so excited about this.

A

You can so you can make a change ways.

B

You can do it on the terminal in atom or on get lab. You can pull and touch so.

A

I'm sorry I, maybe I misspoke, you cannot, you can't go to get lab and say, go and force a change out to all the local machines. No.

B

I'm, it find the information from my local machines and and grab that code yeah.

A

You can't do that. What you need to do is like, when you're on the local machine, you have to say, push this to remote or give me it from remote. You have to do that when you're on the local machine got it so now you can see I pushed it. If I, if I do like a refresh here now, I have two commits and that totally tubular is now on remote, get lab where I made that push awesome.

B

A

All that's to say is I think what should happen is I should stop sharing and I'm. Just gonna. Like close this merge request, I'm not gonna, merge it yeah.

C

A

Would be totally tubular to merge it, but we're.

B

Gonna go to the product marketing page and be like what maybe.

A

It'd be fun, but we also wanted to be clear, so it might be confusing for people yeah.

B

Too much like Wikipedia, it's like what am I reading right now.

A

So what I think we should do is I'll walk you through how to do this. 100% on gitlab no command line, no IDE required you're going to use the gitlab web ID, okay and we're gonna we're actually going to make an EM our proposal to the onboarding template and.

B

We're gonna one of my first things on the job is to tell them to stop making me do the job they want me to do. Yes, that.

A

Is totally the gitlab way? Okay, like I'm, not even joking, like in the reason? Why is, if you think about it, like this right, your onboarding and your new, and this is a process- that's not working for you. In fact. It's the reason it's there is. It's probably left over from a time when we didn't have a web IDE and it just it's just was stuck in there and everybody who's going through onboarding. It struggles with the same thing. You do yeah.

B

A

By you fixing it, you are globally optimizing for everybody and.

B

We have a youtube video for proof right.

A

Right and- and so this is with a cool part, I get lab culture is, is because everyone is empowered to do this kind of like hey this thing's broken I'm gonna propose a change. Okay,.

C

A

And what will happen is we're just gonna we're just going to make the mr, so we're gonna send it over to people the people group and they might look at it and they might be like wow there's. Actually these other reasons why we want to keep that in there. Okay.

C

A

There might be like you're totally right. This is like legacy. We should just kill it. So that's how we can have the discussion so I'm gonna, stop, sharing I am gonna. Let you share and I will walk you through making an mr2, be onboarding template to remove the learn get stuff. Oh my.

B

Goodness well- or maybe you just put it second- maybe I get.

A

Stick it at the end or put it we'll put it in your like an optional bucket.

B

Maybe learn get lab then learn get like. Maybe I learned the multi syllabic words after I learned how to speak basic English.

A

So so the first thing we're gonna do is just open up get lab they're, like you're logged in to get lab here. So.

B

Here's here's here's my on onboarding issue. Yep! That's get lab right! So.

A

That's right, so you are now on get lab calm and you are in the issues part and we are gonna go over to the code repository part, because the issues is for project planning. Repo is for making changes right. Repository.

B

What I'm hovering over right now, that's.

A

Right and there's you know, there's all this stuff in there commits branches all that stuff, but if you just the main files view, this is all the files. Yes and we are gonna, look for a specific file, so you can click on that fine file or even just hit the T key.

A

Yabba Tiki titi opens up the fuzzy finder. Okay.

B

A

um So this is gonna, say: okay, I'm looking for a file, and what are we going to call this? This is going to be onboarding, so if you type in onboarding in fact, I even see it there. So you can see that inside of a issue templates folder there is a file called onboarding dot. M d 2m d stands for markdown, so go ahead and click on that one there and let's take a look at this template and you can see the last change to it was even a day ago, mm-hmm.

C

A

Here is the here's, the template and, let's just scroll down to.

B

A

For and yeah, if we click on that to expand it here is stuff, so it may be overwhelming at first, don't hesitate to reach out to a more experienced, get lab team member, which is exactly what you did yeah and we host onboarding office hours. So let's just take a look at this. It has like read this blog post about get lab 101.

A

B

A

That was helpful. Okay,.

B

I was fine. It made me feel reassured that I wasn't the only one who was going to be terrified so.

A

That I think the one that we struggled with here is, it says, become familiar with how git lab works by watching the videos forget newbies, know.

B

And then it was actually it was at that the videos were fine. We talked when I got to those we talked, but then it was actually learning our gate. Lab six took me into this terrible rabbit, hole of adding my public key, creating a project to start using it lab, but but to create a public key I had to go to my command line gosh, and so it was really. This was just the most confusing part.

B

I, don't know. If necessarily it's terrible, because then the next part is.

B

Learning our gate lab a basics hold on going back here then it starts talking about creating a project to start using git lab, which is on git lab, but it was the the key and then I had to start running.

B

Go to my command line following the instructions to it to generate my key pair. It was all this stuff was a whole lot of stuff yeah.

C

B

Was like what is what does this have to do with get lab, and that was where that whole, this all started. Gotcha.

A

So an SSH key is it's a it's a cryptographic way to authenticate between two devices, so it's basically I have a private key that stays on mine. My machine and I give gitlab a public key and then basically what happens is when I make requests. So when I do this get get push, get pull git fetch when I'm going out to get lab Gil Lab is kind of asking do. I know who this is.

A

Does this person is this person allowed to pull this code mm-hmm right and the way that it knows is by checking my key so I say: hey I'm, I'm, W Chia, a key lab calm can I pull this code and get labs like? Are you really are you really I mean? Let me look at your credentials and it's like creds look good thumbs up, here's the code. So that's what the key is for again.

A

This is like only if you need to work remote like work, local, which I I, don't I, don't think you do I! Think there's like I there's reasons for it, but we have built so much cool stuff in the gate. Lab I think you could be productive without ever creating an SSH key mm-hmm.

B

Or maybe doing it after I learned get labs, it was just. It was just a very.

C

B

First Mountain, it was like it was a lot to start with yeah.

A

Exactly like hey now, I can understand some gitlab basics and eventually, I really want to do this. Local development I want to create a key locally. All I want to do this. Eventually, it's a it's kind of a lot to digest on day four, when I've never done software development, it's.

B

It's um what's it called it's. um It's a barrier of interest entry. It's a it's! A big one, yeah.

C

A

uh Yeah, let's take a look at our onboarding issue. There am.

B

I on the right one.

A

Yeah I think that's the yeah, so.

A

So, let's see it, what is it? What is it all? So it says like become familiar with how a lab works by learning art get lab. Basics says download.

B

Basics, so it might actually be the handbook. That's confusing, and this.

A

Is our this? Is our Doc's, our documentation page so.

B

It might not be the onboarding issue itself, it's confusing it's the gait lab basic, the very first basic is, is very confusing if they could just add make the SSH wait at the bottom. There well.

A

Let's, let's do this, let's make it, let's make a proposal and, let's say hey: instead of dropping people into technical documentation intended for software developers who know what a public SSH key already is right like let's, let's have for like the majority folks, a more.

A

Appropriate intro project, so let's.

A

See I'm just looking at that gitlab there was that gitlab videos that it said to watch. Yes.

B

A

Let's take a look at that page and see if there's a better video that.

A

So it says so those ones are all about git, so there's get and then there's get lab and so into the get lab. There's like intro to get labs flow.

C

A

Uh-Oh, it's actually under the get section as well so yeah. So what did you think about that? Intro to get lab flow? Video I've.

B

Watched a lot of videos.

B

Which one it was honestly I have to rewatch it to tell you my thoughts on it. I watched a lot of videos today so I'm sorry.

A

No I think I think that's totally cool. This is like a 5 minute. Video I think.

B

It was the one that took it. Is this the one that just talks about like the merge requests and like how they go through the yeah I'm.

C

Good thanks, branching and merging yeah.

B

It was, it was fine yeah, it was. This is the one I was saying, was for sort of mastered, we're pretty theoretical. It wasn't like do this and do that I think it was my primary criticism and a lot of people's criticism too much Theory too much theory I.

C

B

Want more point-and-click training, then it's and.

A

This is a good. This is a good critique as we probably what what seems like what would help you as if there was a video that was like alright when you're starting I'll get lab like wait here. He's like here use one here, click here do this: basically, what I'm walking you through right now, yeah.

B

This what this is this is what this is. When you click on this, this is what'll happen. We would love that. Yes, absolutely, my previous job was actually a training lead, and that would be great so.

A

Let's see, is there any proposal or modification, then you would make to the bullets there.

B

To the bullets there add a video with training for just walking through yeah.

A

Or let me so, let me ask this so I would say if we need to generate net new content, we can make an issue for that and say I think this content should be generated. If we're gonna propose a change to the existing template, what we would say is: is there existing content? That's better! Well,.

B

Is because when I was, but that was you guys created it so, but when I was, you know interviewing for the job in order to understand what get lab was I wanted to see, essentially what the I'm gonna call it.

B

A dashboard is so I went and found like a six or seven minute overview and I saw it was some guy and he was I think he was a customer and he gave like a seven minute breakdown of the urge requests and and everything so I hadn't, a general understanding, I didn't I, didn't really have a user and in understanding and.

A

I had a Trek. If you had to track down that video, do you think you'd be able to find it again.

B

Probably I I'm pretty good at finding stuff on the Internet. Okay.

A

Because that sounds like a good video to add to this webpage. Okay, you know what I mean mm-hmm like.

A

Like maybe new, to get lab or whatnot, maybe that sounds like it's a good video I. Don't.

B

Know what version it was I mean because you guys we we we update every five minutes this. This.

A

Is true that is honestly, that's probably why there's not a here. Let me walk you through the interface I've made several of those and I know how do people have to and they do they keep going on a date really fast, but do.

B

These training videos- probably a lot so it'd, probably be relatively easy to just rerecord yeah.

A

That's that's true all right. Let's, uh let's do this then over in the mr that we're making, because I was like I, was thinking to myself. Let's actually do an MRI.

C

A

And so that's kind of in the next tab over yeah that.

B

One I'm computer just wasn't reacting. Oh okay,.

A

So I would say to these steps, would you um are there any that you think are worth removing like just like.

C

B

Not necessarily I think the videos are fine. I honestly think it would be better if we had it's honestly the links that we click through that need changing more than the the onboarding issue itself. So adding a step-by-step click here, click here, video on the videos forget newbies, would be great being changing the steps on the get lab basics, so the first thing I'm doing isn't creating an SSH key um would be great, but the onboarding issue itself is okay.

A

Let's think, let's think about it, this way we we can change those things as well and there's the mechanism in a process to do that, but we're gonna do an MVC we're gonna make like the smallest, tiniest change. We can and changing our Docs or making a whole video is like a big change right, yeah, reordering the docs and and writing a whole new onboarding. That's like a big change. A small change might be like so one small change, that's really easy would be like. Would this onboarding flow be better without this link.

C

A

Assuming it's not going to change at least for a day or a month, assuming everybody else who on boards tomorrow or who gets to this onboarding tomorrow, is going to hit that link and have the same experience as you. Would it be better to just take it away? Oh no.

B

Because I mean we still have to create a project using git lab which I haven't even gotten to, because I got to step one and freaked out and perfect. You so.

A

The gute, so here's the goofy part on I, would say for you to be productive at your job. You don't ever need to create a SSH key. You probably will never need to create a project. Okay,.

B

A

Every project that you use already exists there there's a high degree of that. There might be some edge case I'm, not thinking of right now, but you don't need to create a project. You'll, never need to create a group. You will create a branch, but the way that you will do it is how I just showed you right. You'll. Do it in the context of like clicking on edit this page, you will never need a fork, a project.

A

Adding adding files to an issue will happen in the context of a merge request, creating an issue, that's something you would do, but so so here's my thought is rather than having like this kind of Doc's page, where there's kind of like a list of things that may or may not be understanding or cohesive, I would I would say in the onboarding. We should just have what the onboarding should be right. So, rather than going to the docks and seeing like okay I need to go, create an issue now by like.

A

Why am I creating an issue like what's it, for it's probably gonna, be a lot easier to understand to say like now that you've been onboarding? Maybe you think there's an improvement to the onboarding, create an issue and tell us how onboarding could be better right, because now you actually have an idea. Oh okay. So now, when you're going to create the issue, it's within the context of something yeah.

B

There, it is very out of context you're, just like I, don't know why I'm doing this or what I'm doing and I was actually my first question: I was like I, don't know like what's this, for, like is for no reason and.

A

I will say this when in the onboarding, do you get to adding yourself to the team page? Because you do actually do that? It's.

B

Supposed to be on day three, but it's five o'clock, my time I'm pretty sure day, three is gonna earth day for its I'm, pretty sure it's gonna be bleeding into day five, because it's it's right here, gotcha.

A

B

Lab team page, but I got held up on the whole I mean I had a few calls today and then, of course, we had. We've talked a good bit so.

C

A

B

A

So this is my suggestion, is I would say that there's there's no reason to send people to the docks mm-hmm without more context, so my recommendation would be either we suggest removing that line and say hey. This is really confusing for people and they don't know what SSH key is- and this was bogged me down it'd be better to remove it.

A

Stick it in somewhere else or the other very, very small change we could make. Is we can change what this line says? So, instead of saying like become familiar with how git lab works by learning our basics, that makes you think I need to go check on this and I need to do all of these things, which, honestly you don't.

A

ah We could say something like visit the gitlab basics in the docs and and scan and scan the items on the page to familiarize yourself, with with some of the things that you can find in the get lab, Doc's yeah.

B

A

Don't need to read these all now, but knowing that they're there will be helpful if you want to get to them later. Yeah.

B

Especially because this, but if this onboarding is for more than just people like me who are not in the development world, then they might want to see that so.

A

Let's, let's make that change so if you scroll up a little bit to the top you'll see that that there is an option to edit like I, think I showed you earlier, but there's also the option for the web IDE. Okay,.

B

I have to move my little. My little screen share there. Oh.

A

Yeah yeah the zoom right yeah.

B

A

If you click on web IDE and where.

B

Do I, where do I blame you for this? When I, do it you're.

A

Gonna you're gonna, say right in the description, you're gonna say like look.

B

A

Made me: do this, it's his fault. I I'm.

B

New, don't fire me.

A

A

This is really so. This is. um This is very interesting to me because I'm I'm, like so used to how empowering gitlab culture is yeah, I've kind of forgotten that, like at my last job, I I kind of had this like wow. What do I change like I, don't want to step on toes right, yeah.

B

Like beg them to listen to the customers and going live online, I'm gonna stop.

A

Well, I yeah I get love. Have you seen our values page where it talks about short toes? Yes,.

B

I have like yeah yeah.

A

So a good lab, we hey, we have short toes you. You really can't step on people's toes, so no one's like no one gets offended. In fact, people will probably thank you saying like wow, like you struggle with this, you are now helping everybody else. After you, you did a really cool thing hi before we continue. I suspect that this will take us another 15 to 20 minutes and I totally want to respect your time because I realize it's like after five your time. That's.

B

Fine, it's it's fine! I! Don't have to pick up my kids to like 6:30, okay, good.

C

A

So, let's find that line in the web IDE here you can kind of see it looks a little bit like my IDE. It has the all the files on the side. Yeah, that's kind of the experience, but it's all just baked into gitlab and something you can do is if you click on that pain like if you just like a click, click where you're at and hit command F.

A

It opens up this little search box, and so we could search for get lab basics and there it is so you can see how there's that line there that says become familiar with. How get lab works. I would say: let's change that to become familiar with the hit lab, Doc's.

C

B

A

We could even say with the get lab documentation.

B

And maybe, instead of by learning, argot love basics by reading over or scanning by.

A

Scanning the get lab basics page.

B

And do I need to do it after the URL here, because it's.

A

Exactly in in markdown, that's the syntax for making a link as brackets and.

C

Then I think yeah.

A

And we can even say it by scanning our get lab basics page and.

B

In no way completing all of the tasks right.

A

We're gonna say like so you know, so you know the content that's available if you need to reference it later to.

B

Gain and understanding too so you know, and you.

A

Know something like that, like you're.

B

Standing of the content, yeah.

A

To gain an understanding of what's there, so you can reference it later. If you need to.

B

Available content for later reference or.

A

Later reference, sorry.

B

Writing major I love.

A

It I too was a I. Actually was a literature, major, but literature.

B

Minor, so, okay, so, let's see become familiar with get lab documentation by scanning hard get left, I'm scrolling wrong way: basics page to gain an understanding of the available content for later reference. So.

A

That that's probably an improvement, that's that's better than what was there before. What was there? It's kind of set the expectation I need to read off and do all these things. Yes, um but now this is more like okay. This is a helpful link, I'll tuck it away, and if I need to go, look at this stuff, I can just.

B

Add it to your pocket, but don't you know that's.

A

Right this step should be like add this to your pocket or bookmark it. This stuff should not be like spend a half a day doing all this stuff. This.

B

Is exactly what I've done you.

A

So, with this little change with this, like forty minute video we've made here right now, we're now saving like five hours of time or four hours of time for everyone else who joins gitlab. Yes,.

B

A

That's the high leverage, work, I, think Oh, so good.

B

Mind Lee a restful day for you. You know yeah.

A

I did I got I got like a my brain, just Chuck cocked out on me, so this is. This is fun. This is fun for me.

A

Okay, so let's we're gonna commit this change. So when you open up the web IDE it, you know it made a branch for you or it's going to make a branch for you, and so you can see on the left. There's that commit button, it's a little bit different layout than the one I used earlier. This is this: is the web there, so there's a editor which is more lightweight and the web IDE does more stuff, so it.

B

A

So you're gonna hit commit a.

B

Merge request, but also commit it right right.

A

It's not nothing's gonna happen yet, but when you hit the commit button which is really funny hitting a button called commit you're not actually committing to anything. Yes, it's just saying. Would you like to make a commit, so you can see again you have like little staging area. You haven't gone on stage yet and staged changes, it's showing you. What what's in the red on the left is what it was before and the green is what you changed it to and.

B

Then I need to make the message something that we can reference, that we know and I can make it like William Chia made me do this well.

A

Will blame will blame me in a moment: let's make this like small and pithy so that in a list of things, so you might, you might say easier.

B

During less SSH.

A

We might call this one like clarify, clarify, get lab docs for non developers; okay, something like that.

B

Clarify get lab, Doc's I have to have no spaces right in.

A

The commit message you can write, as you normally would so with with spaces and all that stuff.

C

A

B

Wondering I was like tonic, which way do I go. Thank you.

A

So before we can actually let me look at this okay, so we're gonna create a new bridge. You see it's already figured out for you, it's gonna call it jail, Parker master patch, which is you can leave that name.

A

That's fine and you want to start a new merge request, and so you so you basically want to take all the defaults, and so when you hit that button that says stage and commit it's going to take it off it from the from the staging area, it's going to stage them and it's going to commit it to that branch and here's now your Mr now in the description part, you're gonna, say at William Chia.

A

Made me make this, mr, it's his fault.

A

See you too will link that will link the video later and then under that, actually maybe maybe not up at the front and I'll. Tell you why? Because I think it's funny but or you can keep meeting totally keep that or whatever. Basically, whatever you want to say there, you can totally keep it I'm. Just gonna suggest we put that at the at the bottom of the description.

A

B

The home button on this thing, I'm just gonna like.

A

So in the in the top of the description tell them why you're making that mr say something like when I went through onboarding just kind of your experience there.

B

What's it called again command? What do you call it line.

C

A

B

A

Yeah, no, no, that's good and you could say what what could you say: yeah good.

A

Go yeah going through eight up a lot of my page. Was that ate up a lot of my.

B

Line I meant to say time, but it was hidden by the zoom zoom.

A

Yeah yeah yeah, so I think we say it a up a lot of my time.

A

And turned out not to be particularly relevant. I might add, after that paragraph.

A

You know something like here's, you know, here's a proposal or you know I, I, recommend or I suggest I think it would be more logical, that's great to go through you lab itself. So, let's, let's save this one for another issue, so essentially for we're making a very small change and everything we talk about here is only related to this change. Don't.

B

A

So we're so we're actually to take that sentence and put it in another issue where we'll address that, so this here we're basically just giving a description to the person who's going to review this just like this is why I'm making this mr and so, if you add it, underneath this, like another paragraph and maybe just say something like I recommend, you know, I recommend messaging it this way, you know wording it wording it so that you know newbies or new hires, don't feel compelled to you know complete all of the steps or.

C

Whatever yeah that's great.

A

There we go, and so now you can say yeah yeah, bTW William. She made me make a seminar, okay.

B

A

B

Who do I assign this to so.

A

Yeah we don't know yet and I'll show you how to figure that out so we're just gonna scroll down and submit it. Oh actually, look at that. So, let's see those approvers there Oh.

B

Trevor, these are all the people who are onboarding me yeah. They love me.

B

Okay, so I'll assign it to uh Trevor. Then you.

A

Know what that's funny that Trevor is in here he's taping right, I think that's legacy. He actually as a.

A

I'll do not Ian yeah; let's, let's do it. Let's assign a the Nadia we got. A new rule was really cool. I. Think I think he is well-deserved. He's awesome.

B

I had my i9 didn't come through properly. There was like an issue with my um my driver's ID thing. Wasn't right, so I was like harassing him on slack like what was wrong with this. He sees.

A

Oh yeah, so we're just gonna submit the mr and we might do a few more things after we submit it. So no.

B

Milestone, no labels, no dependencies do.

A

B

Have to worry about those.

A

Labels are helpful, but we can talk about those in another day and for this for this, mr right, now you don't need any labels and.

B

Do I do the delete and squash always.

A

B

Always delete, or in always squash yeah.

A

For that, for the mrs, that you make there's no reason to ever not check those boxes submit.

B

Merge arrest, which.

A

Is like anything to the website and anything to the handbook.

A

So there you go. It's kicking off the pipeline now and we assigned to Nadia. But let's, let's scroll down to the comments section and I always do this as well. I signed to somebody and I like to ping them and say: hey at Nadia.

A

Can you can you please review and merge this change if it looks good.

A

And then a question mark and then underneath we're gonna, see see your other on borders and the way we do is by literally just saying CC at oh yeah, actually CC Colin, yeah yeah.

C

A

B

Or dried to say at so.

A

In if you put in front of him, if you say CC that basically lets him know like why he's getting tagged, it's basically like a hey, I'm, carving copy I'm, sending you a notification on this thing.

A

So so we want to do Colin and who else is part of your onboarding is probably some of them and.

B

Someone else I think.

A

In the little circles, right towards the top left of your screen, yeah.

B

It's it's um well right now we're in this issue, so it's not the same, but it's yeah.

A

Over you see the green merge button, I'm.

B

Just gonna go yeah I, don't want to click if I clean.

A

B

A

No, actually, what I was just gonna say is I think that they're already on the screen. So if you see right above that green merge button, there's like little circles there, you eligible of privilege.

B

Oh yeah, sheesh yeah.

A

B

Common, that's Trevor right.

A

B

A

On view eligible approvers, Caroline.

B

Shoot lose it. You.

A

Didn't actually it's cool? You can go back. Okay,.

B

A

B

A

And who else has.

B

Siana deadener.

A

Have you all of them have been helping you out, I've.

B

Spoken to Caroline on on my issue with like I added her and um I, haven't done anything with good.

A

Let's, uh let's see see Cassiano then or.

B

You mean the ones I talk to you or.

A

The one that you talk to you, sorry, whoever yeah, whoever it is you're just going to also give her a heads up and so yeah. So now, if you comment that.

B

And they can also see I blamed you right. That's.

A

Right yeah, that's like 100%, my fault, okay,.

B

Sorry that I'm very concerned about that. Oh very impressed actually.

A

I'm, just I'm actually like I'm puzzling on now, because I'm thinking to myself like this is probably a very common thing and a common blocker to contribution. Okay, so I get lab, we want everyone to contribute and we actually want more em ours right like we like. We want to accelerate how soon people make em ours and we want people to make more of them like we want everyone to be like. Actually, it's even a problem, a problem right now is that, like not enough, people make em ours, especially the handbook, and the reason.

A

Why is because of things like this? It's technically difficult. The tools are kind of challenging. If you're not a developer or haven't like learned software.

B

Development- it's not just because I want to blame you. It was also because I didn't necessarily know how to do it. You know right without you walking me through it. So right.

A

Yeah, there's like lack and training, lack and understanding the tools and software development in general, and then also another barrier might be um just like: hey I couldn't really I've, never really been able to do this at any other job I've had. Is this business copacetic a lot.

B

Of a lot of jobs are like that they say they have an open door policy and they want to hear from you, but when they do is kind of like okay right.

A

Like Williams telling me it's copacetic, but I, don't yet believe him, because I'm only on day, four yeah yeah.

B

I'm still a little bit leery of just sort of like putting myself out there and being like hey. This is really messed with me. Therefore, it's wrong so.

A

Let me ask you this: do you think, would it be helpful, maybe for other new people if we ask them in the onboarding, hey go and make a change somewhere go and like help us? Yes,.

B

A

B

Would like a video with a step-by-step process of how to do it before they're me right.

A

We'll get them on board a video, but on the particular blocker on kind of doubting whether you can do it or not. Like yeah.

B

A

We gave everybody like a blame: buddy yeah.

B

A

Like like, basically like courting.

B

Buddy, yes, yeah.

A

Like talk to your onboarding buddy and ask them if you're really allowed to do this and are really allowed to do this, yeah.

B

A

And then we train onboarding buddies to basically say like yes, like you can actually propose changes. Promise you won't get in trouble. In fact, we promise that it's gonna you're, like you, will be praised for this. You will be like thank you for doing this. Yeah.

B

Local high school you're actually you're supposed to roll the high school. It's in your prank, it's like you're you're supposed to and.

A

You can blame, you can blame me for it. Blame on that mic. That's I! Need it. I need to think about that and propose an mr2 like merge.

B

Request for Blane buddies, yeah.

A

Yeah, like literally like, like.

B

In my eye, let's put it on put it on him: yeah.

A

Well, if it helps you.

B

Hiring team right.

A

Like if it helps you rap faster and yet just.

B

Blame it's fine.

A

Well, I think we've done a good job. Look at this GRT. You already have an M R, but the one little one-line change I. In my opinion, I think this should get merged and you are now saving four hours of everybody else who comes after you like so.

B

In your opinion, I should skip that step and go to the next step.

A

You should 100% add yourself to the team page that is your next job or next I, don't say next task in the onboarding and um you should be able to do it 100% in gitlab. The way you just did this and how.

B

Do I see when this gets done? How can I monitor this merger quest.

A

So there are notifications, so, let's what's.

B

That yeah I just allowed those so okay, so.

A

There's a couple different kinds, so the ones that you allowed are the browser notifications like in chrome. So when you scroll up a little bit in the pipeline part, you see how you got a checkmark like hey your pipeline passed mm-hmm.

A

What will happen is if you have an mr open, when the pipeline passes, you'll get a little notification from chrome, hey your pipeline pass or your pipeline failed. That's one type of notification is a pipeline notifications and then the other one is. You can see on the right there. How like notifications, is enabled that's part of like on the right towards the bottom. There's like a little blue toggle.

B

It was hidden by mine, my zoom again, oh.

A

Yeah, the zoom, so that's your global notifications and we can actually configure those if you go up to the very top right to your profile, the very, very top right, your picture. You click on that and you click on settings and we're going to go on the left to notifications about in the middle and.

A

uh You can see receive notifications about your own activity so and your channel is going to be Jay Parker gitlab comm. So if you check your email, you should have so your global notification level is participate. You can basically tell get lab like if you click on participate. You can see the options. It's like tell me about. Absolutely everything. Tell me what whatever I like participate, because that's like hey stuff that I participate in, send me an email.

A

So what happen is you will get an email for this, mr and as there is changes on it like you'll, get an email when it's merged or when there's comments on about that kind of stuff and can.

B

I also just come to merge, requests and find it like yes for it. Yes,.

A

Yes, you can yeah exactly like if you type into the search filters there so right now it's at the top, but eventually other mrs will stack on top of it and the last the last thing to know- and this is kind of what I skipped over- but hopefully now this you have some context is that this is in the people group group in the employment project.

A

So you can see, there's a get lab. Comm group, that's like the entire company, then there's a people group group. That's like all of what we used to call people opps, that's like all of them. Some haze like her whole org, and then in that in that group, then they have subgroups. They probably have like one for hiring and recruiting, and this one is for employment, and so this mr exists in that project and.

B

That's because we did it in the onboarding right.

A

It's because we went we went to this. We went to this project there's another project, there's another mark, there's a marketing group and there are projects for different marketing functions, there's a project for the website that one's called WWF calm. So each project has its own set of mrs and its own set of issues. Okay, so we'll.

B

Be on our get lab unfiltered, that's.

A

Right so I'm gonna put this on get lab, unfiltered and you'd be surprised, sometimes at what people watch, but you can also like linked to various time stamps or in this case I'm going to actually pop it in the mr and let's go say like hey, see, YouTube and I'll put the link there so.

B

A

Any any anything else on kind of this topic or not.

B

Today, I'm sure at some point, I'll have more questions and I apologize in advance and I'll. Try to not wear you out and it's cutthroat.

A

Cool I'm also I'm, also pretty good at when I have the bandwidth. For this kind of thing, like I said today, was I had a good open chunk of time and I was kind of brain-dead.

B

A

I'll push back or direct you to other folks so enjoy your evening and good luck with the team page. Mr it's.

B