i-campbell

I started my first project over at [prj:mqttchat]. I documented my steps in the hopes it will help others publish their first project, and to be used as a basis for improving the forge platform to make these steps even easier.

1. If relevant, talk to your employer about it. In my organization, there is a work instruction for this very thing, called "AA: Produktentwicklung: Forge Development".
2. If you already have TortoiseSVN installed, make sure your svn path variables are set:
3. (Start > Control Panel > Programs and features > TortoiseSVN > Change > Next > Modify > Tick the option for command line client tools > Next > Install)
4. If not, simply install TortoiseSVN and tick the command line tools option
5. Install SVN plugin CODESYS from store.codesys.com
6. Install cforge package CODESYS from https://forge.codesys.com/tol/cforge/home/Home/ (big "Download package" button)
7. Run <CODESYS Install directory>/cforge/Setup.bat
8. edit <CODESYS Install directory>/cforge/Setup.reg ==> and replace %V with \"%V\" if not already done
9. Run <CODESYS Install directory>/cforge/Setup.reg
10. Pick which area to create your project in forge (Drivers and targets are obvious, Projects are for if it does something all by itself, libraries are if it is just a part of the users application, and tools are for non-codesys projects that might be useful when you make codesys projects)
11. Go to your chosen area's homepage and "Register a new project"
12. Give it some cool names and metadata
13. Go to the Code section of the website of your new project, and press the [checkout] button. This checks it out with cforge
14. BOOM! You have an SVN repository at C:\Users\<username>\<forge neighborhood name>,<project name>,<code>
15. ... but it's empty
16. in the code section of your forge project it has some suggested steps... but they are not customized to the cforge workflow. You've already checked out with cforge though.. so in windows explorer, navigate to C:\User\<username>\<forge neighborhood name>,<project name>,<code>
17. make three new empty directories: trunk branches tags
18. select the three of them, right click > TortoiseSVN... > add
19. right click the C:\Users\<username>\<forge neighborhood name>,<project name>,<code> folder > cforge > commit.
20. Give it a commit message like "Just adding the default SVN folders"
21. pop your .project (or .libs or whatever) in /trunk
22. select all your files, right click > TortoiseSVN... > add
23. right click the C:\Users\<username>\<forge neighborhood name>,<project name>,<code> folder > cforge > commit.
24. Give it a commit message like "First publicly available code, it currently does what it says on the tin most of the time"
25. back in forge.codesys.com/<your project>, go to Code and find the file you want people to download. right click and copy url
26. Edit your homepage for your project, describing how to use it, and include a [[download url=<copied_link> label=<the label, eg. project>]]
27. when you have the permission to, give it a license of UNLICENSE
28. let people know about it on social media or forge.codesys.com/forge/talk

TODO: Investigate the forge .package mechanism described at https://forge.codesys.com/forge/wiki/Migrating%20Projects/