Introduction to BitBucket

BitBucket is a cloud-based service that helps developers store and manage their code, as well as track and control the changes to their code. BitBucket provides a cloud-based Git repository hosting service. Its interface is user-friendly enough so even novice coders can take advantage of Git. We generally require a bit more technical knowledge and use of the command line to use Git alone. Additionally, BitBuckets provides a variety of services like it gives teams to collaborate and create projects, test and deploy the code. To learn BitBucket, we need to have first-hand knowledge of:

• Version Control
• GIT

Version Control: It allows us to manage changes to files over time. It is also known as revision times. It’s one of the important software configuration management. For ex: Atom Code Editor. Atom is one of the big open source project. If a developer wanted to make some changes to one specific part of the Atom codebase, it wouldn’t be a good practice to have them directly merged to the official source code. Version Control lets developers safely and more efficiently work through Branching and Merging. A developer can copy/duplicate part of the source code(repository) with branching and can safely make changes to that part of the code without affecting the rest of the project. After making changes in the code, the developers can merge that code back into the main source code to make it official. All the changes can be tracked and can be reverted if required. GIT: It is an open-source vision control system created by Linus Torvalds in the year 2005. Git is also known as a distributed version control system i.e all the codebase and history are available on every developer’s computer, which allows for easy branching and merging.

Creating your BitBucket account

Creating an account on BitBucket is very easy. One can start by following the given steps: Step 1: Visit bitbucket.org and sign up. Enter your email account, name and password. Verify your email by clicking on the link given in your inbox. Step 2: After completing the verification, you have to create a unique username for BitBucket Cloud. Step 3: Create your first repository or import a repository. You can add a readme file by clicking on the checkbox (With a template or with a tutorial). Then click on Create Repository. Now you can add new files, manage notifications, download repository, share repository and a lot more.

Features & Applications of BitBucket

• Code Review System Bitbucket has a super-fast code review system that helps the developers and the reviewers to review the pull request in very less time. It has a unique commit-level review system and makes it easy for the users to check the updated code easily. Also, multiple reviewers can be added to make contributions.
• Powerful JIRA Integration JIRA is one of the best tools to track bugs within the code. This tool can easily integrate Bitbucket and JIRA. Thus, enabling a user to freely track the issue status or the bug report, without leaving the current tool.
• In-line Discussion In-line Discussion can be used to add inline comments and threaded conversations within the code snippet. Thus, making the reviewers and developers interactions better. For example, if a reviewer has suggested a change in the font styles, it will be visible near the code segment.
• BitBucket Cloud & Server BitBucket provides two different services as per the need of the users. If your team size is small (1-5) then you can opt for Bitbucket cloud or you can opt for BitBucket Server for big teams.
• Built-In Issue Tracker Issues can be easily tracked in BitBucket with it’s Built-in system. This tracker is flexible, easy to use and has a number of configurable fields like version, milestone, etc. The built-In Issue tracker can also help us to check the status of the bugs, new feature requests from the client/developer and the tasks assigned.
• BitBucket Interface BitBucket interface is quite simple to use and one can easily search for repositories, pull requests, branches, usernames, other features of the tools, etc.
• Powerful Trello Integration Trello can be easily integrated into BitBucket easily. As it is very easy to use, even non-developers can also use Trello easily.

BitBucket Advantages:

• Query Management System – The query management system provided in BitBucket makes the work easy by providing an integrated system.
• Authentication via Github – BitBucket allows the user to authenticate and add social media via Github.
• Integrated JIRA Tool – BitBucket also supports BUg tracking tool JIRA. It automatically detects bugs in the code and updates the information when a new commit is performed.
• Import Repositories – We can also import old repositories from third-party services.
• Pricing – BitBucket is free for small teams (0-5). You can use an unlimited number of free private repositories. The students and teachers can also get the free benefits of BitBucket.

BitBucket Disadvantages:

• BitBucket doesn’t have the same simplified PR management tools as other competitors.
• The private repositories are free for a team of 1 to 5 members. If the team is larger than 5, you have to pay for each additional team member.
• Sometimes integrated applications like SourceTree perform strange errors, causing loss of time.
• Bitbucket does not capture the details about the force push. There should be some way to capture the details of force push as force push deletes the history.
• There are some search-related issues when finding a particular file. First, you need to launch the repository and find it locally. It’s a bit long process.