Front-End Tools & Portfolio

Build Your Portfolio

You need a portfolio of work to show prospective employers or clients. In this class, we’ll help you get started on your own project.

Learn Git & GitHub

Git is the most commonly used version control system. Git tracks the changes you make to files, so you have a record of what has been done, and you can revert to specific versions should you ever need to. Git also makes collaboration easier, allowing changes by multiple people to all be merged into one source. It’s an important skill for any coder to have.

Git can seem mysterious at first, in part because many people use the command line to run Git. In this class we'll demystify Git and explain the typical workflows you'll encounter. We'll cover the most commonly used Git features to get you up and running quickly. 

We'll focus on using the terminal commands (which are not as scary as you might think), but once you understand how Git works, you could use a desktop app (or Git integration in some code editors) if you want to use a GUI (graphical user interface) instead of the command line.

Emmet & Visual Studio Code Tips

Did you know there are faster and easier ways to code? If you’re not using Emmet (coding shortcuts) and Visual Studio Code’s keystrokes and helpful features, you should be! These tools can greatly speed up your coding with less typing. Every web developer needs to know these. Let us show you how to speed up your development.

Here’s a sampling of what you’ll learn:

• With Emmet, you can navigate files faster. From finding a specific CSS rule among dozens, to moving the cursor to the right place in your code, keystrokes let you navigate quicker!
• Type a keystroke and 6 characters to turn a plain list like this:

  Chocolate
  Fruits
  Candy
  

  into this:

  <ul>
    <li>Chocolate</li>
    <li>Fruits</li>
    <li>Candy</li>
  </ul>
  

• Make the following 290 characters by only typing 24 characters!

  <ul>
    <li class="item1"><a href=""></a></li>
    <li class="item2"><a href=""></a></li>
    <li class="item3"><a href=""></a></li>
    <li class="item4"><a href=""></a></li>
    <li class="item5"><a href=""></a></li>
    <li class="item6"><a href=""></a></li>
    <li class="item7"><a href=""></a></li>
  </ul>
  

• Quickly change a tag by editing start and end tags simultaneously.
• Place multiple cursors to edit multiple lines or attributes at the same time. This is phenomenal!
• Wrap tags efficiently and beautifully (nicely indented).
• Paste new code perfectly indented.
• Even more awesomeness!

This class will focus on coding efficiency, assuming you understand HTML/CSS code.