5Git inside Brackets

The first thing to do is install the Brackets-Git extension in Brackets. Start Brackets and open the Extension Manager by clicking the Lego brick on the right hand sidebar (highlighted in Figure 5.1):

Figure 5.1   Brackets sidebar

In the Extensions Manager, with the available tab selected, type brackets-git into the search box; the results will be:

Figure 5.2   Search Brackets extensions

One of the extensions in the resultant list will be called Brackets-Git (by Martin Zagora), in my case it is top of the list. Click the install button next to it.

The installation process has a Git Settings screen with several tabs. The only things I changed were on the first screen (Figure 5.3), I activated enable advanced features; this activates the reset to commit functionality of Git within Brackets (see § 7.2). I also selected the show terminal icon in tool bar, this allows the Git Bash terminal to be started from the sidebar, it puts an icon () in the right sidebar.

The installation process has a Git Settings screen with several tabs. The only things I changed were on the first screen (Figure 5.3), I activated enable advanced features; this activates the reset to commit functionality of Git within Brackets (see § 7.2). I also selected the show terminal icon in tool bar, this allows the Git Bash terminal to be started from the sidebar, it puts an icon () in the right sidebar.

Figure 5.3   Brackets-Git install—Features

Figure 5.4   Brackets-Git install—Shortcuts

Figure 5.5   Brackets-Git install—Git Config

Figure 5.6   Brackets-Git install—Debug

Click save and allow Brackets to restart.

One other extension that is useful with Brackets and Git is the Markdown Preview extension (GitHub uses a slightly customised form of Markdown for things like README.md files, the Markdown Preview shows how these files will look on a GitHub page).

To get the Markdown Preview extension, reopen the extension manager and search for markdown preview. The one you are looking for is by Loïs Bégué:

Figure 5.7   Markdown Preview extension

Brackets will now have a Brackets-Git icon and a Markdown Preview icon on the right sidebar (Figure 5.8), it will also have a Git Bash terminal icon if you selected that particular option:

Figure 5.8   Brackets-Git extension icon

The Git Settings (Figure 5.3-Figure 5.6) can be accessed at any time by clicking file → git settings.

The Brackets-Git extension itself has its own GitHub repository and can be seen here. Brackets itself also has its own GitHub repository here.