Training Objectives:

• Understand and apply Git for version control in local Laravel / Codeigniter projects
• Use GitLab to manage repositories, branches, merge requests, and issue tracking
• Collaborate in a team-based GitLab environment with real-world workflows
• Configure and automate deployment to a LAMP server using Git, Webhooks, or CI/CD pipelines

By the end of this training, participants will have gone through a complete development lifecycle—from local development to team collaboration and all the way to production deployment—using modern tools and best practices.

Day 1

Git & Gitlab Basics Time Activities

•  Course intro & ice breaking
• Quick tour: Git, Laravel / Codeigniter, GitLab
• Confirm dev environment :
  • Laravel / Codeigniter installed
  •  Git installed
  • Terminal and code editor (VS Code, etc.)
• Distribute or clone a base Laravel / Codeigniter project (optional starter repo or laravel new myApp)
• git init, git status, git add and git commit
• gitignore (Laravel-specific)
• git branch, git checkout -b and git merge
• Inspect changes with git log and git diff
• Intro to merge conflicts and resolution
• Creating a GitLab account
• SSH key generation
• Adding SSH key to GitLab
• Intro to remote repositories
• git remote add, git push -u origin main
• Gitlab repo structure overview
• Cloning an existing repo via SSH

Day 2 

Development Workflow & Collaboration

• GitLab group/project setup (trainer preps a shared repo)
• Everyone is added as a developer/member
• Cloning shared GitLab project
• Branching from main (or production)
• Naming conventions: feature. bugfix or hotfix
• Creating and assigning Issues
• Using Issues to track tasks and bugs
• Creating a Merge Request (MR) from a branch
• Referencing Issues in MR (Closes #issue_number)
• Reviewing and merging MRs in GitLab
• Keeping branches updated with the latest main using pull or rebase
• Handling fast-forward vs non-fast-forward
• Resolving merge conflicts when others have changed the same file

Day 3

LAMP Server & Application Deployment Time Activities

• SSH access to VPS
• Navigating Virtualmin
• Creating virtual servers and domains
• Setting up Apache, PHP, MySQL
• Uploading and configuring a basic WordPress site
• SSH basics
• Installing server tools (Git, Composer, Node.js)
• Directory navigation and permissions
• Laravel / Codeigniter deployment requirements
• Set up a new virtual server for Laravel/ Codeigniter
• Creating a new DB
• Adding SSH deploy key to GitLab
• Cloning Laravel / Codeigniter project and configuring .env
• Intro to Webhooks
• Writing a webhook.php receiver
• Creating and testing deploy.sh