Getting Started with Project Hosting

Project hosting on Google Code provides a free collaborative development environment for open source projects. Each project comes with its own member controls, Subversion repository, issue tracker, wiki pages, and downloads section.

This guide provides step-by-step instructions for setting up a new project, working with your source repository, and highlighting some useful customization features.

Create a Google Account

Project hosting is open to anyone with a Google Account, including Gmail users. If you don't already have a Google Account, create one now.

Create a Project

New projects are created through the Create a Project page.

Your project's name must consist of a lowercase letter, followed by lowercase letters, digits, and dashes, with no spaces. The project name will be part of your project's URL and unlike other options cannot be changed later. For example, if you name your project 'foo', your project's URL will be http://code.google.com/p/foo/ or http://foo.googlecode.com/ (the latter redirects to the former).

Your project's summary is a one-line description that will be shown when the project's name is shown.

This project description will be the main content of your project's home page. You may use wiki markup.

Your choice of license determines how others are allowed to use your work.

Project labels help to classify your project so that other users can easily find it or browse projects by label.

Note: you have a lifetime creation limit of 10 projects in total. If you need more, please come to the google-code-hosting Google Group to get more--we're glad to raise your limit if you need it!

Working with your Source Repository

Each project comes with its own Subversion repository. If you aren't familiar with Subversion, the Subversion Book is a good starting point.

The Source tab within each project provides instructions on how to check out its Subversion repository from the command line. Any user, whether they have a Google Account or not, can check out and browse the repository anonymously, while project owners and members are granted full read and write permissions.

Note: If you plan on syncing from an existing repository, you must click the "reset this repository" link at the bottom of your Source tab before making any other changes to your repository. This includes creating any new wiki pages.

Customizing your Project

Projects can be customized via the Administer tab, visible only to project owners.

Some notable areas for new projects include the Project Summary tab, where the options set during project creation can be modified, along with setting up email alerts and analytics, and the Project Members tab, where new owners and members can be added to the project.

One customization that you will likely want to make is to set up mailing lists for notifications of commits and issue changes. If you already have such mailing lists, just enter them on the Administer tab. If not, you may want to create them using Google Groups. Either way, be sure to add codesite-noreply@google.com as an allowed poster to your mailing list.

Finding Further Help

For general questions, check the FAQ wiki page. For help creating your own wiki pages, refer to the WikiSyntax page. If you have a question still isn't answered, bring it up on the Google Group.