How To Scrape A Website That Requires Login With Golang?

Thu, 23 Aug 2018 00:10:00 +0545

If you have been following my blog, you know, how much I love Python. It has been my goto language for scraping related works. I use Python and Django both at office life and personal life. I can do so much with little code and in so much less time. But recently, there has been a buzz for Go or Golang [as someone says] which made me to look into it. As a way to practice my knowledge and understanding of Go, I thought to write a program to scrape a website that requires login. I usually start my learning of any language from scraping [if possible] because it interests me so much.

In Go however, scrapping wasn’t very straight forward as I expected so I decided to write a tutorial for it.

In this tutorial, we will write a Go program to scrape a list of projects from our Gitlab account.

The source code for this tutorial can be found on my Github

First visit the following page https://gitlab.com/users/sign_in . You will see the page as below.

Note: If you are logged in, perform logout first.

Now in order to login to the site, we need to extract some information from the site and build a url.Values struct which is required while posting to a form in Go. Right click on the “Username or email” field and select “inspect element”. We will use the value of the name attribute for this input which is user[login]. This will be the key in the struct and our username/email will be the value. This may be different depending on the site.

Right click on the “Password” field and select “inspect element”. The value of the name attribute for this input is user[password]. This will be the key in the struct and our password will be the value. Again, this may be different depending on the site.

Another name attribute required is authenticity_token. Most of the sites will have this as a hidden input tag. We will use this as key in the struct and its value as well.

The above instructions differs depending upon the site. While this login form is simple, some sites might require special parameters that we should use for the login step.

Now let’s write some Go code. Create a project in our Go workspace:

mkdir -p $GOPATH/src/github.com/<your github username>/golang-scraper-example

We will be using goquery library so install it by typing:

go get github.com/PuerkitoBio/goquery

Next, create a file named main.go inside that directory, containing the following Go code.

Create a package main and import the required library.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io/ioutil"
	"log"
	"net/http"
	"net/http/cookiejar"
	"net/url"
	"strings"

	"github.com/PuerkitoBio/goquery"
)

Create a global constant baseURL to store base url of the website and variables username and password to store gitlab username and password respectively.

const (
	baseURL = "https://gitlab.com"
)

var (
	username = "your gitlab username"
	password = "your gitlab password"
)

Create struct App to store our http.Client, AuthenticityToken to store authenticity_token value and Project to store the list of repositories scraped from gitlab account.

type App struct {
	Client *http.Client
}

type AuthenticityToken struct {
	Token string
}

type Project struct {
	Name string
}

Create a receiver function getToken(). This function will scrape the value of hidden input authenticity_token from gitlab signin page. Without this field, we won’t be able to login. Here, first we are doing a get request to the login page and then passing the response body to goquery to get a struct document of type Document. It represents an HTML document to be manipulated. On this document, we can make selections to get the token using jQuery like syntax. We are storing the value of the token in AuthenticityToken struct and returning it.

func (app *App) getToken() AuthenticityToken {
	loginURL := baseURL + "/users/sign_in"
	client := app.Client

	response, err := client.Get(loginURL)

	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalln("Error fetching response. ", err)
	}

	defer response.Body.Close()

	document, err := goquery.NewDocumentFromReader(response.Body)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal("Error loading HTTP response body. ", err)
	}

	token, _ := document.Find("input[name='authenticity_token']").Attr("value")

	authenticityToken := AuthenticityToken{
		Token: token,
	}

	return authenticityToken
}

Create another receiver function login(). This function will login to the website using the credentials username, password and authenticity_token. We are doing a PostForm request in order to login. The value of authenticity_token is received from getToken function.

func (app *App) login() {
	client := app.Client

	authenticityToken := app.getToken()

	loginURL := baseURL + "/users/sign_in"

	data := url.Values{
		"authenticity_token": {authenticityToken.Token},
		"user[login]":        {username},
		"user[password]":     {password},
	}

	response, err := client.PostForm(loginURL, data)

	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalln(err)
	}

	defer response.Body.Close()

	_, err = ioutil.ReadAll(response.Body)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalln(err)
	}
}

Next create getProjects function. This function will return array of Project structs. It will scrape list of projects from dashboard page and build a struct array.

func (app *App) getProjects() []Project {
	projectsURL := baseURL + "/dashboard/projects"
	client := app.Client

	response, err := client.Get(projectsURL)

	if err != nil {
		log.Fatalln("Error fetching response. ", err)
	}

	defer response.Body.Close()

	document, err := goquery.NewDocumentFromReader(response.Body)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal("Error loading HTTP response body. ", err)
	}

	var projects []Project

	document.Find(".project-name").Each(func(i int, s *goquery.Selection) {
		name := strings.TrimSpace(s.Text())
		project := Project{
			Name: name,
		}

		projects = append(projects, project)
	})

	return projects
}

Finally, our main() function will utilize all the above functions. First, we are creating a cookiejar to store cookies required while logging into the website. Next we are creating instance of our App struct and passing http.Client with cookiejar. Then we are calling app.login() which will do the login and then we are calling app.getProjects() which will scrape list of projects and store in projects variable and at the end we are looping through the projects array and printing our project name to the console.

func main() {
	jar, _ := cookiejar.New(nil)

	app := App{
		Client: &http.Client{Jar: jar},
	}

	app.login()
	projects := app.getProjects()

	for index, project := range projects {
		fmt.Printf("%d: %s\n", index+1, project.Name)
	}
}

To run the program, type from inside your project directory and it should print list of projects from your gitlab account.

go run main.go

The source code for this tutorial can be found on my Github

React Native Github API Example From Beginner To Advance

Sat, 11 Aug 2018 11:30:00 +0545

For anyone who is learning React Native, the starting point is the official tutorial. You must have gone through it and now have a better idea of what React Native is all about.

You have no idea about where to go from here, though.

If you do a Google search, you will get lots of tutorials and blogs on seemingly any topic relating to React Native. But they also use lots of fancy words that you might not understand if you are just starting out or some might be too easy for you depending upon your level of experience. What most of these tutorials lack is the targeted audience. A beginner who is just starting to learn might get lost if you start talking about React Navigation, or Redux or Axios. What he expect is using the default set of libraries provided by react native to build something that can help him gain experience.

So, in this tutorial, we will build a project from scratch from the perspective of a person with little knowledge of React Native. We will progress step by step and gradually add more features to our app with the intention of learning by doing.

The project we will be building is named GithubAPIExampleRN. This project will help you learn all the basics of React Native from beginner to advance level. This app allows you to type a Github username and list all his repos. In other to make our task easy we will use Github API. The API is public and doesn’t need authentication.

So assuming you have followed basic tutorial of React Native from official site, let’s start.

We will build a very basic version of this app first and slowly we will update it and make it advance.

Create a new project by typing the below commands in terminal

react-native init GithubAPIExampleRN

Now lets go inside our project directory and start the project

cd GithubAPIExampleRN
react-native run-android

If everything is working properly, let’s get our hands dirty.

Open App.js inside our project directory and replace all the code with the following. Don’t worry, I will explain each and everything as we progress.

import React, {Component} from 'react';
import {
  StyleSheet,
  Text,
  View,
  TextInput,
  Dimensions,
  TouchableOpacity,
  Alert,
  ScrollView
} from 'react-native';

const screenWidth = Dimensions.get('window').width;

export default class App extends Component {
  render() {
    return (
      <View style={styles.container}>
        <Text style={styles.label}>GitHub Username</Text>
        <TextInput
          placeholder="Enter your github username"
          style={styles.input}
        />
        <TouchableOpacity
          style={styles.button}
          activeOpacity={0.8}
          >
          <Text style={styles.buttonText}>VIEW</Text>
        </TouchableOpacity>
      </View>
    );
  }
}

const styles = StyleSheet.create({
  container: {
    flex: 1,
    padding: 10,
    backgroundColor: '#FFFFFF',
  },
  label: {
    fontSize: 16,
    marginBottom: 6,
  },
  input: {
    width: screenWidth - 20,
    height: 38,
    padding: 4,
    fontSize: 16,
    borderColor: '#3a3a3a',
    borderWidth: 1,
    borderRadius: 8,
  },
  button: {
    height: 45,
    flexDirection: 'row',
    backgroundColor:'#263238',
    borderColor: '#263238',
    borderWidth: 1,
    borderRadius: 8,
    marginBottom: 10,
    marginTop: 10,
    alignSelf: 'stretch',
    justifyContent: 'center'
  },
  buttonText: {
    color: '#FFFFFF',
    fontSize: 18,
    alignSelf: 'center',
  }
});

Let’s go through the code step-by-step:

First we imported required modules and some extra modules which we will use later in our code.
Second we defined the component that represents the UI.
Third we created a style object that controls the component’s layout and appearance.

The main part to consider is render() function inside the App class. Here we are returning a View component which contains three child components.

The Text component is used to display text. Here, we are using it to display label for our form.

The TextInput component is used to get input from user. In our app, we need to allow user to fetch repos by entering Github username. So, we have used this component.

The TouchableOpacity component is used to create a button to submit the form. Inside, there is another Text component which is used to display the label for the button.

We have applied styles to all our component using the style property of the respective component to get a nice looking UI.

Save your changes to App.js and return to the emulator. Double tap R on your keyboard, and you’ll see your app starting to take shape:

You can skip having to refresh the app by enabling live reload feature. Press Cmd+M fr MAC or Ctrl+M for Windows/Linux in the emulator, then select Enable Live Reload:

So far, we have completed the UI of our app. Now, let’s add functionality to it so that it can be useful.

First add state object inside App component before render() function and add some default properties to it.

state = {
  username: '',
  repos: [],
}

Add new function _handleChange after state object. This function is used to sync the value of username property of state object with the value entered in TextInput component.

_handleChange = (evt) => {
  this.setState({
    username: evt.nativeEvent.text
  });
}

Add onChange property to TextInput component. This property allows us to link our _handleChange function to onChange event of TextInput

<TextInput
  placeholder="Enter your github username"
  style={styles.input}
  onChange={this._handleChange}
/>

Add new function _getUserRepos after _handleChange function. This function will call the Github API and get the list of repos for a given user in json format.

_getUserRepos = (username) => {
  username = username.toLowerCase().trim();
  const url = `https://api.github.com/users/${username}/repos`;
  return fetch(url).then((res) => res.json());
}

Add new function _handleSubmit after _getUserRepos. This function is used to handle the button. When the user clicks on VIEW button, this function will call _getUserRepos function and when response is received, it will update our state object.

_handleSubmit = () => {
  this._getUserRepos(this.state.username)
    .then((res) => {
      this.setState({repos: res});
    });
}

Add onPress property to TouchableOpacity component. This property allows us to link our _handleSubmit function to onPress event of TouchableOpacity

<TouchableOpacity
  style={styles.button}
  activeOpacity={0.8}
  onPress={this._handleSubmit}>
  <Text style={styles.buttonText}>VIEW</Text>
</TouchableOpacity>

So far everything is in place but if you type your github username and click on VIEW button, nothing will happen. We don’t have any way to display the response received from Github API.

Add new function _renderRepos after _handleSubmit function. This function is responsible for rendering repos list. We are using a ScrollView component and inside it, we are looping through the repos state and displaying the repo name in View component.

_renderRepos = () => {
  return (
    <ScrollView>
      {
        this.state.repos.map((repo, i) => {
          return (
            <View key={i}>
              <Text>{i}, {JSON.stringify(repo.full_name)}</Text>
            </View>
          )
        })
      }
    </ScrollView>
  )
}

Add { this._renderRepos() } after TouchableOpactity button component in render function of App component. Here’s the updated code.

render() {
  return (
    <View style={styles.container}>
      <Text style={styles.label}>GitHub Username</Text>
      <TextInput
        placeholder="Enter your github username"
        style={styles.input}
        onChange={this._handleChange}
        value={this.state.username}
      />
      <TouchableOpacity
        style={styles.button}
        activeOpacity={0.8}
        onPress={this._handleSubmit}>
        <Text style={styles.buttonText}>VIEW</Text>
      </TouchableOpacity>
      
      { this._renderRepos() }

    </View>
  );
}

Now, type your Github username in the Github Username field and click on VIEW button. Your github repos will be listed below the button and since, we have used ScrollView component you can also scroll the list if the list is longer.

This concludes our basic app. In next post, we will use FlatList component for better performance.

Congratulations on completing this React Native tutorial! You can find the complete project here

And After A Long Time The Boy Came Back Again

Sun, 05 Aug 2018 08:40:00 +0545

Its been so long, I haven’t written any blog post here since 2016. I did write some posts in August 2016 but due to some tight schedule back then, I was not able to continue. However, a lot had happened since then. One of the major event was, I along with Anup Neupane, Shankar Bhattarai, Mohan Tabdar and Tilak Parajuli co-founded a new startup called Zeftware Solutions on July 6, 2016 (official registration date) and most of my time spent working there. We took a small flat near New DSP Office, Biratnagar-01, Nepal and hired interns for frontend development with HTML, CSS and Javascript & backend in Ruby on Rails. We were able to set a culture to hire interns for the first time in Biratnagar. Since beginning, we had made a mindest that we would give them so much then they would ever expect. Most importantly, we want them to feel us. Analyzing now, I think, we were successfull in our goal. Below is the photo of founders of Zeftware Solutions.

Note: Tilak Parajuli sir is missing in this photo since he joined us in 2017.

They all were college students studying CSIT and most of them had little to no knowledge. So training them was difficult but not impossible. I taught them all the things from scratch. First, I made them comfortable in Ubuntu because as a developer, without Ubuntu, its really difficult to continue development related works. All of them switched to Ubuntu and made it as their primary OS. Then they learned HTML, CSS, Javascript, and Ruby on Rails. Most of my time in office was spent with them sharing different things. I was able to collect so many memories and experiences.

During that time, we also launched some of our products like namylo to solve the problem of location in Nepal. It allows you to give username to any location and rather than remembering gps co-ordinates, you can refer to your location using that unique username. The frontend was built using AngularJS, backend using Django REST API, database using PostgreSQL and mobile application using Android.

Similary another product we launched was NoticePanda to solve the problem of sending notifications to students and teachers in schools/colleges. The stack used was HTML, CSS, Javascript and Django for web part and Android for mobile part. Educational institutational were given login details and from their dashboard they can easily send push notifications to students for free.

But both of these products were discontinued when we launced our flagship product called zefed. It is a first SAAS based school college ERP in Nepal. We applied the concept of multitenancy using PostgreSQL and Django. Its still in use today. Most of the schools and colleges in Biratnagar are using this product. Initially we strugugled finding paid clients. Nobody believe upon us and let alone our product. Most of them were afraid to use web based software. Some even doubted on us regarding privacy. Some used the trail version but didn’t purchased. Some people told, price is very high and many reasons to not use our software and to not support us. But we were determined. We updated and tried so many strategies and looking now, so many things are changed. The situation now is favoring us. We have now earned so much reputation in our area and getting so many positive feedback. We were also awarded ICT Startup Award 2017, Nepal. We were the first company outside Kathmandu valley to won this prestigious award. Because of our achievement, many other people working in the field of IT in our hometown were inspired to start their own company. We motivated a lot of students, teachers, parents regarding importance of IT. We changed their mindset regarding web based applications and cleared all those confusion regarding offline desktop based web based software.

While building these products, I got to learn so many things like Python, Django, Java, Android, Postgres, etc. Though I knew Python at that time already but doing small part time projects and doing real world projects are two different things. I got to learn new concepts including multitenancy, wildcard domain handling, software deployment and much other small things.

As a bonus to interns, I taught them Python and Django because initially they joined us to learn ROR as it was our major language at that time but we switched to Django as most of our projects were done in Django. So. in other to get contribution from them, they were also taught Django. The first batch completed their internship in 2017 and another batch joined us the same time. The experience with first batch was really amazing. I was able to learn so many things from them by sharing my knowledge with them. All of them were friendly, co-operative and hard-working. Below are some photos with first batch of interns during the presentation of their project.

In second batch, we made some changes and divided them into 3 groups. We made a group for Python & Django, Java & Android and web designing. Time has gone so fast that in 2, 3 months they are also about to complete their internship.

As a whole, I collected lots of experiences in 2016 and 2017 and hoping to get more in 2018. From now forward, I will try to keep my blog updated with all things happening in my life. There are still some of things to share with you guys that I experienced in 2017 and I will be sharing them in upcoming days.

How To Display Network Speed On Unity Panel In Ubuntu?

Mon, 08 Aug 2016 08:39:00 +0545

The Indicator Netspeed displays the total current network traffic on the Unity Panel. It also shows current download and upload speed as individual values.

Installing Indicator Netspeed

The Indicator Netspeed can be installed by adding the PPA from webupd8.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-netspeed

You can also download the deb package from here and install it manually.

After the installation completes, you have to log out and log in again in other for Indicator Netspeed to work.

After Indicator Netspeed starts for first time, you have to specify the network interace from indicator menu because it does not detect currently used network interface and by default it selects wlan0.

How To Disable Error Reporting In Ubuntu 16.04?

Sun, 07 Aug 2016 21:06:00 +0545

Sometimes while using Ubuntu, you may get some error popups that asks you to report problems. These errors are really very annoying. In other to disable these error reporting, you can do either of the two things.

Stopping the error reporting temporarily

Open terminal by typing Ctrl + Alt + T and run the following command.

sudo service apport stop

Stopping the error reporting permanently

Open terminal by typing Ctrl + Alt + T and run the following command.

sudo gedit /etc/default/apport

After the file opens, change the value of enabled=1 to enabled=0 and save it.

That’s it. From now on, you won’t get those annoying error reporting popups.

How To Install Sublime Text In Ubuntu 16.04

Tue, 02 Aug 2016 11:53:00 +0545

Sublime Text is a lightweight, multi-platform text editor. It has lots of cool features which you will love once you start using it. It is available for Ubuntu, Windows and Mac OS X. Sublime Text has a proprietary licence, but the application can also be used for free, without needing to do reverse engineer hacking. Those who want to support the developer’s work can buy Sublime Text for $70.

Features of Sublime Text

Editing files side by side i.e you can have multiple views in same window
Cross platform
Functionality to find and replace with regular expressions
Batch edit with multiple selections
Rename variables quickly using multiple selections
The command palette give fast access to functionality
Using goto anything, you can quickly navigate between files

Installing Sublime Text

There are two versions of Sublime Text currently available to install. You can install any one version.

Installing Sublime Text 2

Open terminal and type the below commands to install Sublime Text 2

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/sublime-text-2
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install sublime-text

To remove Sublime Text 2

$ sudo apt-get remove sublime-text

Installing Sublime Text 3

Open terminal and type the below commands to install Sublime Text 3

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/sublime-text-3
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install sublime-text-installer

To remove Sublime Text 3

$ sudo apt-get remove sublime-text-installer

After the installation completes, open Dash and type Sublime Text and click on it to start the Sublime Text editor.

Some screenshots

How To Receive Daily Horoscope On Your Mobile For Free Using Zapier, Twilio and Astrosage

Wed, 16 Dec 2015 14:23:00 +0545

Have you ever wondered of receiving daily horoscope on your mobile for free? If yes, then follow this simple guide to setup your mobile to receive daily horoscope.

We will be using Zapier to automate the task, Twilio to send free SMS and Astrosage API for horsocope api.

So, let’s get started.

Setting up Twilio

First, signup for a Twilio trial account at https://www.twilio.com/try-twilio
Visit https://www.twilio.com/user/account/phone-numbers/getting-started and click on Get your first Twilio phone number button to get a phone number from Twilio.

After the modal window appears, click on Choose this Number and copy this phone number as we will need this later.

While you are on this page, click Show API Credentials and copy your ACCOUNT SID and AUTH TOKEN.
Visit https://www.twilio.com/user/account/phone-numbers/verified and click on Verify a number button to verify the phone number to which you want to receive horoscope.

Visit https://www.twilio.com/user/account/settings/international/sms and tick the country to which your phone number belongs to enable Geographic Permissions.

Setting up Zapier

Signup for a Zapier account at https://zapier.com/sign-up/
Click on Make a New Zap button

Click on Choose a Trigger app and select Schedule by Zapier from the list.
Click on Choose a Trigger and select Every Day from the list.
Click on Choose an Action app and select Webhooks by Zapier from the list.
Click on Choose a Action and select POST from the list.

Click on Continue button until you reach Step 4 Filter Schedule By trigger sreen.
In Time of Day select the time you want to receive daily horoscope and click on Continue button.
In Match up Schedule by Zapier Day to Webhooks by Zapier POST screen, enter https://astrosage-api.herokuapp.com/api/horoscope/{your-horoscope}/daily in URL field replacing your-horoscope with your own horoscope.
Select json in Payload Type.
In Data screen, click on plus button three times to add three more text boxes.
Enter the details as shown in the screenshot below replacing auth_token with your Twilio Auth Token, account_sid with your Twilio Account SID, to_phone with phone number to which you want to receive horoscope and from_phone with the phone number you got from Twilio.

Click on Continue button to go Test this ZAP screen.
Click on Test Schedule by Zapier trigger to check the trigger and click on Continue button.
in Name and turn this Zap on screen, enter the name for your zap and click on Turn Zap on button to turn on your zap.

Congratulation, you have successfully setup your phone numer to receive daily horoscope for free everyday.

If you find it complex to setup, you can order my Fiverr Gig and I would set it up for you or you can also contact me via email.

TwiPodcast, A Web App that Helps You Listen Podcast On Your Phone Without Internet

Sat, 14 Nov 2015 11:00:00 +0545

I am happy to release my new open source project TwiPodcast. Actually, I built this project for one of my best friend who lives in India.

We usually have a regular chat on Facebook and wishing her Good Morning and Good Night everyday had become my daily routine. One day, I thought, why not wish her everyday in my own voice via phone call. So, to wish her, I can use Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or Viber as there are so many VOIP alternatives. But all these options require active internet connection both to sender side and receiver side. If it was one day task, I could call from my phone or use those free VOIP apps but I need to wish her everyday and it is going to cost me a lot if I continue with existing call options.

As a developer, I thought why not build something myself that can be used to call phones for free. This is how the idea for the project comes in my mind. Initially this project was made specifically for my friend but then I realized, there might be many people like me, who wants to wish their beloved ones in their own voice for so, I generalized the project for normal people.

Though, the initial idea was to wish my friend but after working on the project for some days, the idea changed from wishing to listening podcast and so named TwiPodcast as there are many people who love listening podcast.

What is TwiPodcast

Twipodcast is a web app that allows you to listen podcast or any mp3 media file on your phone for free without internet.

Yes, you heard it right. You don’t need internet to listen podcast.

How it works?

The web app uses the url of the mp3 file and calls the given phone number to stream the mp3 file directly to the phone number via phone call without requiring internet to the receiver side. You can supply a valid url of any media file that is of mp3 format to stream the media file to your phone without internet.

Use cases

Listening podcast

Suppose, you want to listen any podcast on your mobile phone. To listen it, you must have internet connection and you know, it is going to eat your data package if you are on mobile network. In such a situation, you can use TwiPodcast to stream the podcast directly to your phone for free without internet.

Dedicating songs

Suppose, you liked any song and want to dedicate it to your beloved ones. In order to do so, you must have url of that song and you can also use TwiPodcast to dedicate song to your beloved ones.

Convert text to speech

Suppose, you want to convert the text into speech so that you friend can listen what you typed. In such a situation, you can use TwiPodcast to perform the task. You need to type the message and TwiPodcast will convert the text into speech once the call is made. The result is, your friend listens the message you typed in the textbox.

How to use TwiPodcast?

Create an account at http://twilio.com
Verify your email.
Get a Twilio number.
Verify the number whom you want to call.
Copy your account sid and auth token from Twilio dashboard page.
Visit http://sandipbgt.github.io/twipodcast/#/sendPodcast
Enter all the details.
In Voice text input field, type the message you want to convert to speech.
In Podcast Url input field, type the url of the podcast you want to listen. Some of the podcasts url can be found by clicking Browse Podcasts menu. You can also use url of any valid mp3 file.
Click on SEND button and a phone call will be made to the number that you entered in To phone input field.

If you are a developer, you might be interested in reading the source code at https://github.com/sandipbgt/twipodcast or the documentation at http://sandipbgt.github.io/twipodcast/docs

Note: Most of the countries are supported for Twilio phone calls. However, Nepal is not in the list currently.

How To Display Current Git Branch Name In Terminal Prompt In Ubuntu?

Mon, 26 Oct 2015 13:08:00 +0545

Git and GitHub is one of the most imortant tool for software development. One of its great feature is branching/merging. Whenever I am inside a git directory, I have to run git status to see which branch I am currently working on. Contstantly switching branches is always confusing to me.

The solution to this is to have the terminal prompt display the current branch name.

Installation

First create a .bash directory in your home directory and clone the project to it:

$ mkdir ~/.bash
$ cd ~/.bash
$ git clone https://github.com/jimeh/git-aware-prompt.git

Edit your ~/.bashrc and add the following to the bottom:

export GITAWAREPROMPT=~/.bash/git-aware-prompt
source "${GITAWAREPROMPT}/main.sh"
export PS1="\${debian_chroot:+(\$debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w \[$txtcyn\]\$git_branch\[$txtred\]\$git_dirty\[$txtrst\]\$ "

Now cd into any git directory, current branch name will be shown in the terminal prompt.

How To Install Arc Theme In Ubuntu?

Sun, 25 Oct 2015 14:11:00 +0545

Ubuntu’s default theme is nice enough, but it is hasn’t changed much in several years. If you want a stylish looking Ubuntu desktop, try an alternative theme. Mine favourite is Arc theme.

Note: You must be running Ubuntu 15.04 or later to use this theme.

Installation

Open your terminal and run the below commands

sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool
wget http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:Horst3180/xUbuntu_15.04/Release.key
sudo apt-key add - < Release.key
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/Horst3180/xUbuntu_15.04/ /' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/arc-theme.list"
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install arc-theme

Configuration

Launch Unity Tweak Tool from the Dash.
Click on Theme under Appearance section.
Select Arc theme from Available themes list.
Click Icons tab.
Select Elementary-xfce-dark from Available themes list.

Enjoy the new look of your Ubuntu desktop.