Background and Links

All practicum and project modules at the School of Computing are managed via GitLab and the project dashboard:

GitLab

https://gitlab.computing.dcu.ie/

Project dashboard

https://projects.computing.dcu.ie/

CA326

https://projects.computing.dcu.ie/project.html?module=ca326

CA400

https://projects.computing.dcu.ie/project.html?module=ca400

CA472

https://projects.computing.dcu.ie/project.html?module=ca472

MCM

https://projects.computing.dcu.ie/project.html?module=mcm

Project repo naming

For these projects, your repo name (not your project name) must match a very specific pattern; examples:

  • 2024-ca326-ANYTHING

  • 2024-ca400-ANYTHING

  • 2024-ca472-ANYTHING

  • 2024-mcm-ANYTHING

The word ANYTHING can be anything at all, it doesn’t matter.

You might, for example, use your usernames or a short description of your project; e.g.:

  • 2024-ca400-mousem2-duckd31

  • 2024-ca400-flight-simulator

However, the leading part of the repo name does matter:

  • the year must be the current academic year; e.g.

    • the 2023/2024 academic year is known as 2024

    • the 2024/2025 academic year is known as 2025

    • and so one;

  • the module code must be your module code (or mcm), all lower case.

Common errors

Logging in to GitLab

Use your username (and password) — not your email address — for logging in to GitLab.

For example:

Right

mousem2

Wrong

mickey.mouse2@mail.dcu.ie

There are three tabs on the GitLab login page.

  • DCU — normally students should use this tab

  • SoC — students can also use this tab; try this tab if the DCU tab doesn’t work

  • Admin — do not use this tab

Repo name

The repo name must match the pattern described above. If it does not, then the project dashboard will not detect your repo and staff will not be able to find your repo.

There are instructions on how to rename your repo here.

Some details which students sometimes trip students up include:

  • capitalisation — there should be no capital letters in your repo name,

  • hyphens — the separator should be a single hyphen (-), not an underscore,

  • spaces — there should be absolutely no spaces in you repo name.

Example repo names
Good

  • 2024-ca400-mousem2-duckd31

  • 2024-ca400-flight-simulator

Bad

  • 2024 - ca400-mousem2-duckd31 (no spaces!)

  • 2024-CA400-flight-simulator (no capital letters!)

  • 2024_ca400-mousem2-duckd31 (use hyphens as separators!)

  • 2024—​ca400-flight-simulator (use just one hyphen!)

Multiple repos

There should be just one repo for your project, even if it is a team project.

Sometimes students create two repos for their project.

In this case, the project dashboard sorts the repos by the username of the team members and picks the first — which may not be the one which you intended.

If you create this situation, then you should delete or rename the project which you don’t want the dashboard to use.

Repo ownership

Your GitLab project should be owned by one of the team members.

You can check this by checking the project URL on GitLab.

For example, this project:

is owned by mousem2.

GitLab implements the concept of a project group.

Although this might sound useful for a team project, in fact it isn’t.

A project group is a group of projects, not a group of people working on a single project.

You should not create a GitLab group for your project.

If you create this situation, then you need to transfer the project ownership back to one of the project members.