GitHub Codespaces is a browser environment that can be used to complete the exercises from this course without needing to install anything on your local machine. This codespaces.md document will explain how to launch and configure the Codespaces environment.
To launch the codespace, click on the green "Code" drop-down menu in the top-right corner of the repo display (to the left of the right-hand sidebar), navigate to the Codespaces sub-tab if it is not already focused, and click the + icon.
This will open a new tab containing a familiar VSCode-style interface. It may take up to a minute for the tab to populate, during which time "Opening Remote…" will be displayed in the bottom left corner.
Eventually, the Codespace will display the readme for the repo in the top two-thirds of the screen, and a Temporal Service running on the command line in the bottom third of the screen:
There are two things you’ll want to do before getting started: open the Web UI, and open some terminal windows to work in.
To open the Web UI, click on the "PORTS" tab near the middle of the screen (there may be a highlighted number next to it):
Then, on the row for Port 8080, Ctrl+click (Cmd+click on Mac) on the "Forwarded Address" link highlighted in blue like a regular URL:
This will open the Temporal Web UI in a separate tab:
You should navigate to this tab any time you need to access the Web UI.
To open some work terminals, navigate back to the Codespaces tab, and click on "TERMINAL" next to the "PORTS" tab that you clicked on earlier.
You should see "bash" in the right-hand sidebar. Click on "bash" to get a work terminal:
Then, to create more work terminals for this course – you’ll usually need 2 or 3 – use the drop-down arrow next to the "+" sign on top of where it says bash, and in that drop-down menu, navigate to "Split Terminal," and then "bash (Default)."
Repeat this for as many terminals as you need:
You’re all set. Don’t forget that you can Ctrl+click on the links displayed in the repo readme to open the readme for each individual exercise as you progress through the course:
Your Codespace will automatically be stopped 30 minutes after you close the browser tab. This is to prevent excessive resource utilization. It can be resumed from the same part of the Github UI if needed, within 30 days of the last time it was used.
