The Collaborative browser-based IDE, REPLIT

Replit logo

Hello Everyone. 🙋🏽‍♂️

A few weeks ago, I had to work on a code snippet with a good friend of mine.

We were faced with the challenge of finding the best way to share the code without loss of structure.

I eventually remembered the best online Multiplayer IDE I’ve ever used till today, Replit! 🤯

So I decided to write a post to share my knowledge on Replit, its basics, and how to quickly start collaborating. I hope it helps.🤞

About REPLIT

• 📌It is an online collaborative IDE[Integrated Development Environment] that allows multiple people to work on a code base together in real-time. This concept of collaboration is technically called pair-programming.
• 📌It provides an online computer environment called REPL[Read-Eval-Print Loop] that allows you to write on an online IDE without worrying about using your own computer resources.
• 📌It provides an environment to run server-side tests before proper integration and deployment.

Getting Started

Create a REPLIT account here

After completing that, you should have something similar to the image below,

Home Page

The next step is to start creating your own REPLs. ⚒️

You can do this by clicking on the + Create button.

You should see something like the attached image below.⬇️

Creating a REPL

Choose a template/language, give your REPL a title, and click on the + Create Repl button.

NOTE: You have the option of importing a codebase from GITHUB. I wouldn’t be covering that use case in this article.

In my case, I chose HTML, CSS, JS because it’s fairly common among programmers and easy for people to follow.

Coding environment

You should have something similar with a prewritten template if you used HTML as I did. Hit run and it displays Hello World on the in-browser.

Yay! You’ve successfully ran your first REPL! 🍾🍷🍻

This environment comes with a console, an in-browser, a folder structure, tests, packages, CPU, RAM, Storage, and several others. I wouldn’t be going so deep in this article.

PS: Every language comes with a template. 😎

Collaborating

The most interesting part of REPLIT is the collaboration. Here’s how to set that up.

On the top right, there’s an invite button.

OPTION 1: You can input the username of a replit handle, mine is ObsidianBlaze, or use an email address to invite the collaborator.

OPTION 2: You can generate a join link. In my case, I am generating a join link in order to give several people[50 multiplayers] the opportunity to join my REPL and edit the code as they wish.

Here’s my generated REPL link

Inviting collaborators

Side Note:

I’m currently learning RUST using Replit as it’s tricky to install RUST on windows and Replit is just way faster to play around with.

I have also collaborated with a senior developer using Replit and got my code corrected on the fly while coding. It was a really awesome experience as I could see firsthand how senior developers think and optimize code.

If you find this article helpful, you can give me a follow, react and share.

Thanks for reading,