Codio Projects
Resources
Video Script
At this point, you should have completed the “Hello Real World” example project. This module contains GitHub Classroom assignments and Codio projects for the rest of this course. In this video, I’ll briefly explain what these are for and how they work. As always, if you have any questions or are unsure what to do, contact the instructors via cc410-help for assistance.
Looking at this module, the first item you should see is the Codio Playground. This is a blank Codio project that you can use for just about anything. You can explore Codio’s interface, test new code snippets, and try new development tools. This Codio project starts with exactly the same setup as the two other projects in this course, so you’ll have the same experience here as in the others. Finally, if you ever have issues or want to start over, just contact the instructors and ask them to reset your playground project. Of course, you’ll lose all your content, but it is a great way to try things and make mistakes until you get them right.
The next four items in this module are for the two major programming projects in this course - the restaurant project and the final project. Before we discuss those individually, let’s talk about what they have in common. Both of those projects have a matching assignment in GitHub classroom that you’ll need to accept, just like you did for the Hello Real World project. Once you’ve accepted that assignment, you can clone the assignment’s repository into the associated Codio project and get started coding. Feel free to follow the guide from the Hello Real World project to set up your environment. You can even copy and paste the content from Hello Real World into these projects and use that as a starting point! For these two projects, you’ll be using the same Codio project all semester, which can always be accessed through this module. We’ve placed it toward the top of the module list so it is easy to get to quickly. Once you’ve completed a milestone for a project, you’ll follow the steps you learned in the Hello Real World project to create a release on GitHub, and then submit that URL via Canvas to complete the milestone assignment. The instructors will give you grades and feedback within a couple of days, but you’ll be able to move on and start working on the next milestone immediately. You can always update your release later with a new version if needed. Finally, this course will move pretty quickly, so you can expect to complete around 1 project milestone each week, in addition to the tutorials and examples for that week’s module. Most examples won’t be nearly as big as Hello Real World, but they’ll still require an hour or so of work.
Now, let’s talk about the individual projects. First, we have the restaurant project. In this project, we’ll build a point-of-sale system for a fictional restaurant. This is a guided project, and you’ll follow along with the tutorials and examples to complete each milestone. We’ll show you be basics, and then you’ll continue to build upon that in each milestone. There will be several milestones to complete for this project, and they include building a class library using object-oriented programming concepts, building a useful graphical user interface or GUI, and learning how to access and build your own web APIs to extend the usefulness of the project. So, starting in Module 2, you’ll learn all about building a class library and start working toward the first milestone.
There will also be a final project in this course. This is a self-directed programming project, where you get to choose the project and what it will do. This project will include just a few milestones spread throughout the course, roughly designed to coincide with work you are doing on the restaurant project. For this project, you will be asked to find a topic that fits with your interests. A good place to look would be within your major or concentration, but it could be anything that interests you. At the end of the semester, you’ll develop a presentation and present your work to the class. For students completing the CS certificate or in the integrated CS program, this project will also serve as a capstone project for those programs. Watch the course announcements and later modules for more information about the structure and requirements of the final project.
So, when you are ready to begin a project, where should you start? Here’s a quick rundown of the steps we recommend following. First, accept the assignment via GitHub classroom to create your own private repository for the code. Then, open the associated Codio project from this module, and follow the steps outlined in the Hello Real World example to set up the project. When you are asked to clone the GitHub repository, make sure you use the URL for correct assignment repository that you accepted in an earlier step. Then, once your project is all set up, write your code in Codio and make commits to the Git repository as you go. We highly recommend committing code often, usually many times per day, as it makes it easier to undo mistakes and fix bugs later on. Once you’ve completed work on a project milestone, follow the steps in the Hello Real World example project to create a GitHub release, and then submit the URL for that release to the project milestone assignment on Canvas. You will not submit the Codio project like you did in earlier CC courses - instead, you’ll be able to keep using the same Codio project for the entire semester. You’ll just create and submit additional GitHub releases for later milestones.
Hopefully that all makes sense, but if not feel free to forge ahead and ask questions as you go. At this point, you are ready to skip ahead to Module 2 in Canvas and start there. In that module, you’ll complete a tutorial and example, and then you’ll see the requirements for a project milestone. Once you are there, come back to this module and open up the relevant Codio project to start working on that milestone. Once you’ve completed work on that milestone, create a release in GitHub and submit the URL back in the milestone assignment in the module you are working in to complete it and move on to the next module. Once you’ve done this process a couple of times, it should be pretty easy to follow.
Finally, don’t forget to check the bottom of the Modules list in Canvas to find some additional content that may be useful in this course. We’ve included links to the textbooks for all prior CC courses, as well as a set of helpful Codio tutorials for learning the Linux command line. The first four are especially useful if you’ve not used Linux or the Linux terminal before. We’ll also be adding links to tutorials and helpful information for learning how to use tools like Git and GitHub, as well as some information for setting up your own integrated development environments, or IDEs, on your own computers. While all the work in this course can be done via Codio, you are welcome to use your own tools if you prefer, provided your project meets all the requirements. Basically, if it works in Codio, it should be fine.
Since this is a new course, we’re always looking for feedback. So, as you go through this course and work on the project milestones, please feel free to contact us via the cc410-help email address if you have any comments or suggestions for how we could better organize or explain the information in this course. You could even earn some “bug bounty” extra credit points!
So, feel free to move directly on to Module 2 in Canvas and start there, then come back here to begin working on the projects once you reach the appropriate points in the course. As always, if you have any questions, please let us know. Good luck!