GitHub Integration With Visual Studio 2015

This article will demonstrate GitHub integration with Visual Studio 2015. Github is defined as "a development platform inspired by the way you work. From open source to business, you can host and review code, manage projects, and build software alongside millions of other developers."  

 

This article begins with adding GitHub extension in Visual Studio 2015. After that, it will show how you can connect with your GitHub account. Finally, it will discuss how you can create and sync your repositories as well as commit changes in your repositories.

Prerequisites

There are 2 prerequisites before you integrate your GitHub account with Visual Studio.

1. Visaul Studio IDE (its community edition is free) installed (Get Visual Studio)
2. GitHub account which also is free (Sign Up GitHub)

After you have successfully installed Visual Studio 2015 and signed up for GitHub account, follow the steps mentioned below.

Step 1

Open Visual Studio 2015 and go to Tools > Extensions and Updates.

Step2

A window will appear. Select "Online" from the left pane and search for Github in search bar. Select "GitHub extension for Visual Studio" from the list and click on "Download" button.

Step3

After successfull installation, click on "Restart Now" button.

Step4

A new Visual Studio instance will open. Select View > Team Explorer.

Step5

Click on "Manage Connections" icon.

Step6

Select GitHub and click on "Connect..." link.

Step7

A window will appear. Enter your GitHub account credentials and click on "Sing In".

Step8

After successful login, click on "Create".

Step9

A window will appear. Enter the name and discription for GitHub repository, choose path for local repository or leave as default one, and click on "Create" button.

Step10

After successful creatoin of repository, it will appear on GitHub section of Team Explorer window. Double click on generated repository.

Step11

As you can see, Visual Studio will provide you a bunch of options for changes, branches, sync, issues etc. Click on New project and solution.. link.

Step12

From installed templates, select Windows > Console Application or choose any other project of your choice. Write the name of project, choose location, and uncheck "Create new repository" option. After that, click on OK button.

Step13

After successful creation of project, it will appear on the Solution section. Click on "Changes" option from the Project section.

Step14

Here, you can see all the changes that have occured in your repository. Write the description for commit and click on "Commit All".

Step15

These changes are commited on local repository. In order to sync these changes to the server, click on "Sync".

Step16

After this, sign in to GitHub account and choose the repository that you have created in step 9 from your repositories section.

You can see the project you have created in step 12 and syncronized in step 15.

 

That is all about GitHub integration with Visual Studio 2015. You can also create branches, pull requests, view issues etc. through VS. GitHub is very helpful and beneficial for developers as it helps in managing their projects. Also, team members can discuss about projects, review the project code, and can build as well as integrate software easily etc.

Thanks for reading.......Stay tuned for more articles ....:)