Gitlab Account Students

How to create GitLab Accounts for Students (Step-by-Step)

If you’re a student, the chances are that you’ve heard of Git. Git is a powerful version control system that is used by many software developers.

While developers often use version control systems to manage code, they can also be used by students to manage their coursework. There are many benefits of using Git for your courses.

First, Git allows you to keep all of your work in a single place. This can be especially helpful if you have multiple courses with different deadlines.

Second, Git makes it easy to track your progress over time, as you can also use it as a project management tool. You can easily see which assignments you’ve completed and which ones you still need to work on.

Finally, using Git can help you collaborate with other students on projects.

If you’re working on a group project, you can use Git to share your code with other members of your team. GitLab also allows you to delete projects you no longer need. In short, there are many good reasons to use Git for your courses. So if you’re not already using it, be sure to sign up for a free account today.

Creating a GitLab Account for your Courses

Creating a GitLab account for your courses may sound complicated, especially if you’re doing it for the first time, but it’s actually quite simple. Follow these steps to create your account:

Step 1: Go to https://gitlab.com/users/sign_up. If you have an existing Google or GitHub account, you can as well use them to sign up.

  • Step 2: When you’re on https://gitlab.com/users/sign_up, key in the necessary details and click; ‘register’ to complete the sign-up process.
Gitlab Account Students
Gitlab Account Students

Step 3: Confirm your email address and then proceed to personalize your profile as shown below:

Step 4: Select ‘Create a new project’ under ‘what would you like to do as shown below, and then click ‘Continue’:

Gitlab Account Students
Gitlab Account Students

Creating a New Project

The next step is to create a new project. After filling out the details, as shown above, a new window will pop up with the options for ‘Creating a new project’ or ‘Importing an existing project’ to GitLab.

A project in GitLab can be thought of as a repository where you’ll store all your coursework. To complete the creation of a new project, fill in the blank spaces with your ‘Group’ and ‘Project’ names as shown below, and then click; ‘Create project.’ And that’s it!

Gitlab Account Students
Gitlab Account Students

You’ve now created a GitLab account for your courses. After you’ve created the project, you can copy the project URL. Alternatively, you get it from a clone URL.

Permissions and Roles in your GitLab Project

Please note that the users you add have varied abilities defined by their roles in specific projects or groups. If you have a user in both your project and the project’s group, that user will assume the highest role in both your public and internal projects

Public and internal projects have different rules for who can be a Guest. If you have a team member who exits a team project, all the merge requests and issues assigned to them will be automatically unassigned. 

Adding or Importing Users

Now that you’ve created a project, it’s time to add some collaborators. GitLab makes it easy to add collaborators to your project. Before adding collaborators to your project, here are a few basics you need to know about adding collaborators;

  • Your team’s users and groups that have access to your project are known as ‘Members.’
  • Each member of your group is assigned a role. This role defines what they can do in your project. For example, a project member can;
  1. Be direct members of your project.
  2. Inherit the project’s membership from your project’s group
  3. Become a member of groups you shared with your projects
  4. Become a member of groups you shared with your projects’ groups.

Add users to a project so they can take action and have specific permissions. Only the group level may contain the Owner position.

Please note that you must have the role of ‘Owner’ or ‘Maintainer’ to add or import users to your project. Follow these steps to add users to your project:

  • Step 1: Navigate to the top bar on your browser, click Menu, and select ‘Projects.’ After that, select your project.
  • Step 2: You should see ‘Project Information’ on the left sidebar. Select it and then open ‘Members’
  • Step 3: Click on the option labeled; ‘Invite Members.’
  • Step 4: Proceed to key in the email address of the members you wish to add and then select ‘roles’ for them. Depending on your preference, you may choose to add an ‘Access expiration date’ for the members you’re adding to your project. By adding an ‘Access expiration date,’ you’re basically defining the time period they will be able to access the project.
  • Step 5: Click ‘Invite’ to complete the process of adding users to your project.

Please, note that if the user you’re inviting already has an active GitLab account, they will be added to your ‘members list.’ They should receive an email if you added their email when inviting them.

Also, keep in mind that the users you add to the project may not accept your invitation. If for any reason, the invitation you sent wasn’t accepted, GitLab will follow up with reminder emails.

This isn’t done immediately, so the invited users may receive the emails within two, five, or ten days. GitLab automatically deletes all invites that are not accepted after 90 days.

You probably, could be wondering, ‘what if the person I have invited doesn’t have an active GitLab account?’ Well, it’s quite simple; if you have invited someone who doesn’t have an active GitLab account, GitLab will prompt them to create their accounts. They will be creating this account using the email addresses you used when sending the invitation.

Can I Import Users from A Different Project?

If you have another project, it is natural to wonder if there is any possibility of importing them to the new project you have created. GitLab also makes this quite easy for you.

Please note that when importing users from another project to your current project, they will retain the permissions they had from the project from which you are importing them. To import users, you also have the ‘Owner’ or ‘Maintainer’ roles.

To import members from another project, please follow these steps:

  • Step 1: Navigate to the ‘Menu’ on the top bar and select projects. A drop-down menu should appear with various options, including ‘Your Projects’. Select ‘Your Projects’ to find the project to which you wish to import users.
  • Step 2: Find ‘Project Information on the left sidebar and open it. After that, select; ‘Members.’
  • Step 3: Choose the option; ‘Import from a project’ and then proceed to select your project. Keep in mind that the only projects you will be able to see are those in which you have the role of a ‘Maintainer.’
  • Step 4: Once you’ve selected the project, click; ‘Import Members’ to initiate the process of importing them.

If the import were successful, you would see a ‘Success’ message on your screen. Refresh your page to see your new members. And that’s it! You’ve just imported members from another project.

Closing Thoughts

Creating Git accounts, creating new projects, and adding members to your project can initially seem quite frustrating. However, it is quite simple once you get the hang of it. Just remember to be patient, as with anything new.

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