Cloning a C# Project

Follow along with the provided walkthroughs to learn how to clone repos into Visual Studio. Try it out on your own by forking and cloning the LaunchCodeEducation/csharp-web-dev-examples repository page. First, fork the repository into your own GitHub account by selecting Fork from the top right of the page and then clone the newly-created repository to your own machine to start working on it locally.

Windows Users

Clone a Git Repository in Visual Studio

Note the path where you save this repo.

Mac Users

Cloning an Existing Repo

Be sure to note the Target Folder where this repo is saved.

Exploring the Cloned Repo in Your Terminal

While you can do this through the Visual Studio interface, you should practice using the terminal as well. The interface may change or some places may test your comfort with the terminal. Keep practicing those command line skills!

Once you have cloned it in Visual Studio, locate the repo using your terminal.

On a Windows machine, it is a path you saved your repo at. On a Mac, it’s in the Target Folder.

Once you find the repo, cd into it. Look for the Solution file which uses the .sln file type.

students-computer:csharp-web-development-examples student$ ls
HelloMethods                 csharp-web-development-examples.sln
TempConverter

Try to open the solution using the command line prompt:

Windows Users: start *.sln

Mac Users: open *.sln

Return to the terminal. Locate your Program.cs file for the HelloMethods project. This will be contained in the project directory of the same name.

students-computer:csharp-web-development-examples student$ ls
HelloMethods                 csharp-web-development-examples.sln
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students-computer:csharp-web-development-examples student$ cd HelloMethods
students-computer:csharp-web-development-examples student$ ls
HelloMethods.csproj  Message.cs              Program.cs

You have now stepped into the project files for HelloMethods. All of the files here are related to the HelloMethods project.

As you work with repos in this unit, some solutions may contain a single project and others may contain multiple.

How to Work with a Cloned Repo

We recommend using the terminal to open and work with your repos. You will be able to interact with git easily this way.

Use the terminal to locate the repo you wish to open. cd into the solution. You can verify this by looking for a file that has the .sln type. Use the command prompt above for your operating system.

Open the solution file tree in Visual Studio. If you see multiple projects, you can select which one to run two ways:

1. Right-clicking on the name of the project and selecting the Run option.
2. Open the project’s Program.cs file then use the run button in the menu bar.

Check Your Understanding

students-computer:csharp-web-development-examples student$ ls
HelloMethods                      csharp-web-development-examples.sln
TempConverter

students-computer:csharp-web-development-examples student$ ls
HelloMethods                      csharp-web-development-examples.sln
TempConverter