The DevRoadmaps Clarion Library (DCL) on GitHub

Owned by David Harms
Last updated: Apr 26, 2013

The DevRoadmaps Clarion Library (DCL) is available by download from GitHub. 

There are several ways you can get the library, but the two easiest are to clone the repository using GitHub for Windows or download the library as a zip file:

Downloading the zip

Downloading the zip is dead easy - just click on the Zip button. But you won't get any automatic notifications of changes, and you won't be able to see what those changes are unless you download the zip again, extract it to a new location, and use a comparison tool to view the differences. 

Cloning the repository with GitHub for Windows solves those problems.

Cloning the repository

Dealing with Git repositories in Windows can be a royal pain. Happily, GitHub for Windows (released May 2012) makes Git a whole lot easier to use. 

If you don't have GHfW installed, go to http://windows.github.com/ and click the download link. When you run GHfW for the first time it will ask you to log in to GitHub.com. If you don't have a login click on the link in GHfW to register. After you've registered, log in using GHfW. 

At that point you can go to the DCL page at https://github.com/devroadmaps/DevroadmapsClarionLibrary and click on the Clone in Windows button. GHfW will clone the DCL repository, and you should see something like this in GHfW:

You may want to check out the June 8 2012 ClarionLive webinar recording, where I went through the process with Arnold and Lisa. 

About repositories

So here's the thing about Git repositories. Git is a distributed version control system, meaning that there doesn't have to be just one repository somewhere that everyone uses. Git is capable of synchronizing between repositories. 

When you clone the DCL you get the repository with all of its history. There's a good chance that will be a one-way street - when the DCL gets updated, you'll use GHfW to synchronize your copy with the GitHub repository. But you can also make changes to your own code, commit those changes to your local repository, and take advantage of Git's ability to merge the GitHub changes with your local repository commits. 

Getting DCL updates

Getting library updates is easy. Just run GHfW and bring up the DCL repository. This screen shot shows a blue sync button indicating I have a pending update on GitHub - John has committed some new files. If I hover my mouse over the sync button I'll get a tooltip telling me my local repository is behind by one commit. 

After I click on sync and update my repository, the button changes to indicate my local repository is in sync with the one on GitHub. 

Moving the repository

Chances are GHfW has put DCL under your documents folder, and you probably want to move it to somewhere more Clarion-friendly. 

To move a repository just move the entire DevRoadmapsClarionLibrary folder tree to its new location. GHfW will notice that it can no longer find the files. Using Windows Explorer, drag and drop the DevRoadmapsClarionLibrary folder onto the GHfW application. That's all you need to do. 

Using the library

Once you have the DCL where you want it, you're ready to start using it. 

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