Format Readme Github



You can use a versioned diagram in a Github README file in a number of different ways, and include links to edit the diagram or use it as a template for a new diagram. You can also use Github.

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  7. Github Format Readme File

It is worth or even necessary to add a README file in every new project. Today we will focus on good practices of writing such a file - with a few examples, and a ready to use template.

What is a README file?

README (as the name suggests: 'read me') is the first file one should read when starting a new project. It's a set of useful information about a project, and a kind of manual. A README text file appears in many various places and refers not only to programming. We will focus on a programmer's README, though.

example of README for a Bootstrap gem (Ruby On Rails)

  • GitHub’s new profile page README feature is bringing some personality to the Myspace pages of the developer Internet. Though Markdown lends itself best to standard static text content, that’s not stopping creative folks from working to create a next-level README.
  • GitHub is where millions of developers gather every day to collaborate on open source software.
  • There are many great README templates available on GitHub, however, I didn't find one that really suit my needs so I created this enhanced one. I want to create a README template so amazing that it'll be the last one you ever need - I think this is it. Here's why: Your time should be focused on creating something amazing.


Added README file on GitHub appears under the list of files in a repository.

If we work professionally or learn coding, many times we come across the public repositories. We use the libraries made available by other developers as an open source code or we make our contribution to a project, reporting/fixing bugs, and adding new functionalities. Certainly, we use these projects because they just come in handy, and offer a high quality solution. But would we use them if they lacked a user-friendly description, that is, a good README?

Rest assured - you will get to know the feeling of disappointment when finding a potential solution to all of your problems in a library or a project which description is poor, useless or isn't available whatsoever.

What's the use of writing a good README?

I think you can guess it already. A good README is for others to understand what our code includes, and why it's noteworthy. A README file is also essential to retreive a project - on GitHub but also in browsers (e.g. Google).

I am just learning so why should I be bothered about adding a README file? That code is just for me, after all, not for the whole community.

I doubt the code is just for you. And adding a README file is a good move.

README for Junior Devs

OK, now let's check why we should care for our README files since the first project!

Even if the code is just for you, possibly you will come back to it after a while. A good README enables you to relaunch a project - without wasting your time on recalling: What was it all about?

For a budding programmer, GitHub is a calling card. The projects on GitHub are most often our portfolio. When we're at a career stage without a considerable commercial experience or nice-looking non-profit projects, a presentation of our achievements in a form of repositories is one of the best way to get visible to the recruiters. A preparation of several demonstration projects we want to show off during the interview works the best. Usb if xhci usb host controller driver.

Ip video system design tool 7. If we are just learning and we drop our training projects there, let's pay attention to their good description. Even a non-technical recruiter will be able to recognize the technologies we touched, and check if it goes in line with a candidate's profile he's/she's looking for.

In Polish or in English?

Certainly, in English.Add a project description in English even if your project is in Polish language. The projects realized at the university might be treated as an exeption as they often demand a documentation in Polish. In every other case, describe your projects in English.

README.md - wait, what's it all about?

.md extension comes from a word: markdown. It's a markup language for text formatting. Maybe at first it isn't be obvious but markup has been created to make text creation easier. In HTML language, the most important heading goes with h1 tag. Similarily, we will have # before a heading in our document.
We edit .md files in any text or code editor (Notepad, Sublime, Atom, CS, etc.).

You'll find out more on markdown usage on GitHub, and on dillinger.io you'll find an editor with a preview.

Writing a good README - newbies manual

Open a README.md. file in a new project.

Make sure the file always includes the following elements:

  • Titles and internal titles
  • Introduction - the project's aim
  • Technologies
  • Launch
Format json github readme


Consider also using additional elements such as:

  • Table of contents
  • Illustrations
  • Scope of functionalities
  • Examples of use
  • Project status
  • Sources
  • Other information

That's a lot! There's not so much to say about my project!

There is - but you're not aware of that already.

Titles and internal titles

A title should explain clearly what we have here, and it's usually a project's name - a H1 heading prefaced with #. If a project's name doesn't disclose its content, still it's worth to suggest what it is.

Moreover, the text should include the titles of sections, and - if necessary - the internal titles. To keep our README coherent, we write them similarly in every other document. In our README.md file, the headings should be written down with a multiple of #:



Introduction

Introduction is like a summary. It shouldn't be too long as we don't want to read an essay on a project. We should describe in an interesting manner what's the project aim, and what problems does a given application solve. Two or three sentences are enough in case of a small project.

If it's a training project, mention your incentive. Why did you want to create it? To learn a particular technology? Was it a hackathon project? Was it for a non-profit organization? Is it an application created to memorize the material from workshops or and online course? It's worth mentioning here, without a doubt.

Technologies

Let's write down the languages we used, the libraries and its versions.
For example:

  • Bootstrap 3 or 4
  • AngularJS 1.6 / Angular 2+/4/5/6
  • PHP 5 or 7
  • Python 2.7 or 3.6
  • Rails 4 or 5


Why? Firstly, it will be helpful when launching the project in the future. The versions of libraries change, and an inconspicuous change might cause many problems later on. It's good to know the version that has been used when our code was working exactly the way we wanted.

Another thing: recruitment. IT recruiters browse through their candidates' GitHub accounts. Even though they lack a technical knowledge to estimate the quality of solutions, they know the keywords related to their job offers. A description of used technologies might make you stand out among other candidates.

Let's assume there's a multitude of candidates for an internship, and a recruitment time is limited. CVs have been selected, there are two similar candidates, and a last available date in a calendar. The candidates' GitHub accounts include the same number of projects. One of them mentions the technologies in every project. A second candidate doesn't add README files or his/her projects are described poorly. What do you think, which candidate will be invited for an interview?

Launch

How to run a project? Does a project has minimum hardware requirements?
We mentioned the libraries and their versions earlier. If necessary, technologies, launch, and hardware requirements can be merged together. But if we split it into two subsections, it's worth to focus here specifically on launching a project. When we have a website or application, it can concerned setting up a local environment, a link to GitHub pages or deployed application on Heroku. Do we need input data? If so, in what format?

Let's focus on other elements that can improve our README.

Table of contents

Table of contents comes in handy in case of extensive documentation. It can work as a simple list with the links to headings.

GitHub automatically adds id to headings according to the content inside a tag (spaces will become a sign '-'). Therefore, the links are constructed this way: https://github.com/user/repo-name#header-name. It enables to create a simple table of contents, e.g.:


And it will look like:


Illustrations

GitHub allows for graphics in README. A technical documentation doesn't need to be pretty but legible and understandable. The illustrations aren't necessary - nevertheless, they can aesthetical value to our project. You can show an application's logo, diagrams, schemes, exemplary screenshot. Maybe an illustrated manual is something you want?

Create a file in your repository, and add an image there. Use a file path to display it using: ![tekst alternatywny](ścieżka/do/pliku). You can use the images from beyond you repository if they're publicly available - but there's always a risk that the owner of these sources would delete them from his/her domain, and they'll disappear from your documentation: ![tekst alternatywny](url grafiki)

Git Readme Template

Example: In my README file, I want to place a block schema that would illustrate how an algorithm works. I keep my schema.jpg file in a directory called images. To display it in my documentation, I will use a code:

Scope of functionalities

There's no always use in describing the scope of functionalities. For a website-visiting card or a simple application of to-do type, the list of functionalities is an excess of form.

Git Readme Formatting

On the other hand, a seemingly simple project such as to-do list can be extended with many interesting options we can be proud of: users register, recording and classifying the tasks according to date, adding commentaries to the tasks or data export to the files.

Examples of use

In case of reusable code or your own library, providing a manual how to use our project might be necessary. It can work as a fragment of code:


which will be displayed as:

The project status

It's worth to add a project status - especially if the project is still being developed. If it's our library, let's mention planned changes, direction of development or to emphasize we're done with its development.

Sources

Should we add information when our project was based on a tutorial or we got inspired with a given task? Yes, sure.


I don't get the doubts in that matter. There's nothing embarassing in the fact that we learn from various sources and we document our progress. We complete many tutorials, choose learning material. A thoughless copying without providing changes in it - and without learning at all - mostly doesn't happen.

Download

If our code was based on somebody else's code, we should add such information.

Maybe we use an old tutorial - for example, we write an application with Rails 3 tutorial. From scratch, in accordance with Rails 5 version, using new framework mechanisms. Certainly, it's worth mentioning here.

When our code was only inspired by another solution/an application, you can mention it and write the way you got inspired, what changes you made, what functionalities were developed.

When we solve the sets of exercises, it's worth adding where others can find their description. If we will want to come back to these sources, the link will come up easily. This way, the author who shared his/her knowledge is, spent his/her time to prepare and share this material is also respected.

Other information

Information on the author, contact, www and social media links, a type of license under which the code is made available or the information on how to contribute to a project - these are only the examples of what can be added to your project.

A good, legible README

The suggestions above are mine. The most importaint point is just legibility. A thorough documentation make your repository shine in front of the recruiters and other programmers. There are many approaches to writing a good README. Take a look at the following examples:

  • Node-chat – a simple description, screenshot of the application, examples of use
  • WebApp – a splendid example of description provided for a landing page type of website and application using API. Description how it works, screenshots, technologies employed in this solution, additional information on functionalities that will be implemented
  • Pomolectron – we have a logo, the screenshots, an instruction on installation and a description how it works
  • Git point – exemplary Android application. A table of content makes navigation easier, the screenshots, mentioned functionalities, and information how to support application's development


README template

I leave you here an example of README.md file template you can download. Take a look at its formatting, and copy a raw version to your README.md file.


The article is also available in Polish on Flynerd.pl blog.

This tutorial teaches you to create R Markdown documents with RStudio and publish them via GitHub, using GitHub Pages.

RStudio is a popular integrated development environment for R. It integrates the tools you use with R into a single environment. GitHub Pages allows you to host websites directly from your GitHub repository.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to:

  • Create a new repository.
  • Work with your repository on your local machine using Git and RStudio.
  • Use the GitHub.com website or GitHub Enterprise to complete the GitHub workflow.
  • Publish and share your R Markdown documents using GitHub Pages.

Prerequisites

Format Json Github Readme

  • For this tutorial you will need an account on GitHub.com or GitHub Enterprise.
  • If you are new to Git, GitHub and GitHub Pages it is recommended to complete the GitHub Pages from the command-line course first.
  • Some programming knowledge with R will be helpful but is not required.

Install Git and RStudio

For this tutorial you will use Git and RStudio to work with your GitHub repository.

  1. Download and install Git.
  2. Download and install RStudio (1.1.383 or higher).
  3. Open RStudio.

Create the remote repository on GitHub

Now that you have what you need installed locally, let’s create the repository that will hold your new website.

  1. On GitHub.com, create a new repository.Note: if your organization uses GitHub Enterprise you can also create the repository there.
  2. Name your repository cars. You can use a different name.
  3. Enter a description for your repository.
  4. Choose Public visibility.
  5. Select Initialize this repository with a README.
  6. Click Add .ignore and select R.
  7. Click Create repository.

Clone the repository with RStudio

After you’ve created a repository on GitHub (the remote repository), the next step is to clone it to your local environment.

  1. On GitHub, navigate to the Code tab of the repository.
  2. On the right side of the screen, click Clone or download.
  3. Click the Copy to clipboard icon to the right of the repository URL.
  4. Open RStudio on your local environment.
  5. Click File, New Project, Version Control, Git.
  6. Paste the repository URL and enter TAB to move to the Project directory name field.
  7. Click Create Project.

Create an R Markdown document in RStudio

Now that you have a local copy of the repository, let’s add an R Markdown document to your project.

  1. In RStudio click File, New File, R Markdown.
  2. Choose HTML output as default output.
  3. Click File, Save to save the document.
  4. Enter speed-and-distance and click Save.

Commit and push the changes to GitHub

After you have created the R Markdown document and finished making your changes, it is time to commit them.

  1. In RStudio click the Git tab in the upper right pane.
  2. Click Commit.
  3. In the Review changes view, check the staged box for all files.
  4. Add a commit message, for example Add initial speed and distance report.
  5. Click Commit.
  6. Click the Pull button to fetch any remote changes.
  7. Click the Push button to push your changes to the remote repository.
  8. On GitHub, navigate to the Code tab of the repository to see the changes.

Create local branches with Git

Let’s make a couple of more changes in your project using the steps of GitHub Flow. As RStudio currently does not support local branches very well, we will use Git from the command-line in RStudio.

  1. In RStudio click the Terminal tab in the lower left pane. The Terminal tab is next to the Console tab. Note: if you cannot find the Terminal tab, check if you use RStudio version 1.1.383 or higher. Click Help, About RStudio to check the current version.

  2. Create a new branch. Replace <BRANCH-NAME> with a descriptive name, for example speed-and-distance-report:
  3. Check your repository’s status:

    Plagiarism checker free download for windows 7. Notice that although you created a new branch, you are still checked out to master, as indicated by the in-line response from Git.

  4. Check out to your new branch:
  5. Verify that you are now checked out to your new branch:

Make local changes with Git

Let’s generate the HTML output in a separate directory called docs. To do this we add a function in the heading of the R Markdown document to ‘knit’ the output in the desired output directory.

  1. In RStudio open speed-and-distance.Rmd and add the following lines in the heading under the title field:
  2. Click File, Save to save the changes.
  3. Click Knit in the document pane for speed-and-distance.Rmd.

Commit local changes with Git

After you have created the HTML output, it is time to commit the changes.

  1. Determine your file’s status. Remember that git status allows us to see the status of the files on our branch at any given time. Your file is listed under the heading Untracked files:
  2. Add your file to the staging area so it’s prepared to become part of the next commit:
  3. See your file’s current status. Your file is now listed under the heading Changes to be committed. This tells us that the file is in the staging area. It also indicates this is a new file:
  4. Commit your file. Replace <COMMIT-MESSAGE> with a log message describing the changes, for example Knit output to a docs folder. A commit tells Git to collect all of the files in the staging area and store them to version control as a single unit of work:
  5. See the history of commits:
  6. See the changes between the master branch and the current branch (HEAD):

Open a pull request on GitHub

Now that you have made some local commits, it is time to send your changes to the remote copy of your repository on GitHub and create a Pull Request.

  1. Push the changes to the remote repository:
  2. Create a Pull Request on GitHub.
  3. Fill out the body of the Pull Request with information about the changes you’re introducing.

Merge your pull request on GitHub

Format Readme Github Download

Since this is your repository, you probably don’t have anyone to collaborate with (yet). Go ahead and merge your Pull Request now.

How to write readme github
  1. On GitHub, navigate to the Pull Request that you just opened.
  2. Scroll down and click the big green Merge Pull Request button.
  3. Click Confirm Merge.
  4. Delete the branch <BRANCH-NAME>.

Create the pages site

This tutorial is going to use GitHub Pages to publish the HTML output. To initialize GitHub Pages we need to perform a few more steps:

  1. In your repository, click the Settings tab.
  2. Scroll down to the GitHub Pages section.
  3. Under Source, select master branch /docs folder.
  4. Click Save to save the changes.
  5. Click the generated GitHub Pages URL to view the rendered R Markdown document.

Note: GitHub Pages sites are always public when hosted on GitHub.com. If you want to share a site with a select number of people you can use Jekyll Auth. On GitHub Enterprise users need to authenticate to access GitHub Pages sites when private mode is enabled.

Update local repository

After you merge your Pull Request, you will need to update your local copy of the repository.

  1. In the RStudio Terminal pane, type:
  2. Type:
  3. Delete the local branch :
  4. See the history of your commits in a graph:

You can also view the history of your commits in RStudio. Click Commit in the Git pane to open the Review Changes panel and then click History.

Add welcome page, theme and navigation

Let’s add a welcome page, theme and navigation to allow you to publish a collection of R Markdown documents.

Format Readme Github

  1. First create a new branch. Again replace <BRANCH-NAME> with a descriptive name, for example add-theme-and-navbar:
  2. Add a file _site.yml with the following contents:
  3. Add a new R Markdown document index.Rmd. This is your welcome page.

  4. Open speed-and-distance.Rmd and remove the knit and output fields from the heading. The heading will now look like this:
  5. Save the changes.

  6. Open the Console in the left bottom pane and render the site using the following command:
  7. Commit the local changes with Git:

Best Github Readme

Open a pull request

Now that you have added the home page and navigation, it is time to send your changes to the remote copy of your repository on GitHub and open a new pull request.

  1. Push the changes to the remote repository:
  2. Open a Pull Request on GitHub.

  3. Go ahead and merge your Pull Request.

  4. View your updated site. The site should look similar to this image.

  5. Add the GitHub Pages URL to the repository description to make it easier to discover.

If you can’t remember the GitHub Pages URL you can always visit the URL in the GitHub Pages section on the settings page.

Congratulations! 🎉

You have completed the GitHub workflow with RStudio and added a GitHub Pages site to your project to publish your rendered R Markdown documents.

Format

Links

Github Format Readme File

  • The R Markdown Websites article on the R Markdown website is a good resource to build GitHub Pages websites that host collections of R Markdown documents.
  • Use GitHub Desktop if you prefer to use a graphical user interface rather than typing Git commands in the terminal when working with branches in RStudio.
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