Git assume unchanged files

Working on the BBB mobile client I came to the problem that when I want to test the client with my local server I need to change the server address in the LoginPageViewMediator file.

Once I am done with local changes and testing and want to proceed with pushing the code to github, obviously Git will tell me that LoginPageViewMediator was changed and will give an option to either checkout the master version of it(reset) or add it to the commit. What I used to do - is every time before the submission I will discard the changes in LoginPageViewMediator with git checkout command, push my branch, and then when I start working on another branch I have to do the same procedure with changing server address again.

Luckily, Git has a command to assume that specific file is unchanged, however the file will contain all your changes.

Now I can do it only once: 

git update-index --assume-unchanged LoginPageViewMediator.as 

and then file is not marked as changed anymore.

If I actually decide that file needs to be changed and included to my commit - I can revert file to the default state:

git update-index --no-assume-unchanged LoginPageViewMediator.as 

Now, file is marked as modified and ready to be added to the submission.

Also, if you want to see all the files that were marked with --assume-unchanged.

Following command worked for me:

git ls-files -v | grep ^[a-z]

Hope this helps.

First week at CDOT ! Hello BigBlueButton!

Two weeks ago I've joined Centre for Development of Open Technology at Seneca College as Research Assistant, I've started working on BigBlueButton project, which is a open source web conferencing system for on-line learning. With this system you can share audio, webcam, chat, whiteboard, upload documents, and all this FOR FREE! In my opinion, this is a perfect tool for people who can't afford all the available enterprise solutions. Check it out for more details: bigbluebutton.org

In the first week, I've been setting up my machine, working environment, getting familiar with the team, project, and had a chance to go a little bit through the code.

In the second week, I received a task to re-enable ability for user to choose a color of the chat message. This feature is been developed some time ago, but because it wasn't in demand, it's been depreciated. So for me it wasn't too much of the actual coding, but more of going through the project and find all the places where Color picker was used before and restore it, which still gave me a great opportunity to get more acquainted with code and the workflow.

And last but not the least part of the procedure was the code submission, this is where GitHub comes into action. Just to remind, GitHub is web-based hosting service for software development projects that use the Git revision control system, which nowadays got very popular, especially in Open Source circles. It took me some time and probably will take me some more to become comfortable with Git, however I did manage to push my changes to the Git project successfully!

Now if BigBlueButton user wants to have the option to choose the color, the only thing they need to do is in Config.xml file they need to set colorPickerIsVisible="true", since it is invisible by default.