GitHub Desktop Workflow - Branches, Pulling and Pushing Changes

[Kourtney-Burger]

When collaborating with multiple people on one repository, GitHub Branches can be used to safely experiment and make changes without over writing others work.

Starting with a repository you already have cloned to your local machine (i.e. PAM-SI-Mtg-March2024)

1. Open GitHub Desktop
2. Use the 'Current Repository' drop down to navigate to the repository
3. Open the 'Current branch' drop down, click 'New branch'
4. Create a descriptive name for the branch (i.e. Report-ClimateSummary-Burger) and click 'Create branch'
5. Click 'Publish branch' to push your branch to GitHub
6. Click the 'Open in RStudio' button in GitHub Desktop and make changes to branch as necessary
7. Save and render changes in R Studio, return to GitHub Desktop and commit changes to your branch (using a descriptive title and description)
8. Click 'Push origin'
9. Click 'Preview Pull Request', review changes, and 'Create pull request'
10. The new pull request will automatically open in a new browser window, review request and click 'Create pull request' (here you can edit your title and description, assign reviewers, and add the request to labels and projects)
11. Reviewers (i.e. repo owner) will then compare and merge all changes to the main branch