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mw.iteduc_193458 avatar image
mw.iteduc_193458 asked Erick Ramirez commented

How do I setup my "environment" for the workshop?

I can follow all the Cassandra and CQL code. And partitioning is similar to Oracle and SQL-Server.

What I can't get past is setting up the environment. The only guy that I can understand talks so quickly and talks under his breath skipping over setting up the environment.

I have git, and the files are on my local drive. Then what? They never mention what or where I am supposed to go from there. When I double-click on the .tar files, Windows asks how I want to open them.

I have been using notebooks for writing my Python code. How am I supposed to use notebooks here?

As soon as can understand the environmental procedures and setups, I will be able to breeze through the lessons. I easily understood all of the lessons in the videos.

And this communication will not even let me ask a question unless I can decode the *Topics field. I can't put in a valid topic. And it won't give me a list of topics to choose from.

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2 Answers

Erick Ramirez avatar image
Erick Ramirez answered Erick Ramirez commented

Thanks for the feedback. We'd be happy to help.

However, it's not clear to me which aspect you need assistance. I'll try my best to respond to the points you raised.

What I can't get past is setting up the environment.

What environment are you trying to setup?

The only guy that I can understand talks so quickly and talks under his breath skipping over setting up the environment.

Which guy? Are you watching a video recording? If so, please provide details (and links) so we have context.

I have git, and the files are on my local drive. Then what? They never mention what or where I am supposed to go from there. When I double-click on the .tar files, Windows asks how I want to open them.

Who is "they"? And which tar files are you referring to? Again if you provide us the details, we'd be happy to assist and clarify them for you.

I have been using notebooks for writing my Python code. How am I supposed to use notebooks here?

What is "here"? We need more info from you to be able to assist.

And this communication will not even let me ask a question unless I can decode the *Topics field. I can't put in a valid topic. And it won't give me a list of topics to choose from.

When you say "this communication", did you mean this Community site? If so, you don't need to "decode the topics field". You can tag it with whatever topic you think is appropriate for your question and we will handle the rest. Cheers!

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mw.iteduc_193458 avatar image mw.iteduc_193458 commented ·

I thought that this was the discussion for the:

  • Cassandra Workshop Series so I am trying to do the exercises from the Week 1 and Week 2 videos. The guys on the videos say "do the exercises": where? on what platform? using what questions? .tar files-> Github
  • Wednesday for the Americas and Thursday for Europe. Are you not aware of this series of workshops?
  • The top of the page says: Home > Cassandra Workshop Series

"HERE" means the homework for the Workshop. Somehow using Datastax to customize an Astra database. Is here on Datastax and a browser? or my desktop?

you don't need to "decode the topics field". You can tag it with whatever topic you think is appropriate for your question

No, each time I tried to enter an appropriate topic, it was rejected and said to update the fields in red. It would only take my comments when I chose an existing topic.

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Erick Ramirez avatar image Erick Ramirez ♦♦ mw.iteduc_193458 commented ·
I am trying to do the exercises from the Week 1 and Week 2 videos.

If you tell me which specific video/topic/step you're stuck with, I'd be happy to help.

Are you not aware of this series of workshops?

Yes, I'm aware of the workshops. I'm one of the "guys" who co-hosts and answers the questions live on Discord and YouTube. :)

"HERE" means the homework for the Workshop.

It sounds like you're not familiar with GitHub and are having trouble accessing the tar files. Is that correct? If so and you're accessing GitHub on a Windows machine, you need to click on the Raw button to download the tar file. I've provided a screenshot here to make it easy for Windows users.

No, each time I tried to enter an appropriate topic, it was rejected and said to update the fields in red.

It sounds like you're not hitting the Enter key. You need to hit enter once you've put in a topic. Cheers!


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bettina.swynnerton avatar image
bettina.swynnerton answered Erick Ramirez commented

Hi @mw.iteduc_193458,

it looks to me that you are only missing one important step.

You got the github repo from week1.

Now you need to setup an Astra instance to be able to do the hands-on exercises. This gives you an instance of a Cassandra database to follow along with the exercises.

Sign up to Astra -- https://dtsx.io/workshop

You can use your Github, Google accounts or register with an email

Then follow all the steps here, they are all in the repo README:

https://github.com/DataStax-Academy/cassandra-workshop-series/tree/master/week1%20-%20Getting%20Started%20with%20Cassandra#1-create-your-astra-instance

Take care to use exactly the form values (database name, keyspace, user, password) that we suggest, or the experience with the exercises won't be as smooth as we hope.

Once this is set up, you can import the notebooks that you have in the github repo, again this is explained in detail on the link above.

Looks like you are only missing these instructions, and then you should be on the right track.

Let us know if you need more help.

Cheers!

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mw.iteduc_193458 avatar image mw.iteduc_193458 commented ·

Yes, I got the Astra db setup the first day. And I got signed up with a Datastax ID.

it is the: Once this is set up, you can import the notebooks that you have in the github repo, again this is explained in detail on the link above.

That I don't understand. I got the notebooks on my HD. I don't know what to do with them. I am working with Jupyter Notebooks. They appear in the same list. When I open them they are mostly garbage. And I am not (at that time) connected to Astra or Datastax.


Again, I have worked with several databases, and the commands and structure look fairly simple and the code looks easy => just as I would expect. I just can't get into the flow of how the mechanics of the class are supposed to work. Is it a windows vs. Linux problem?

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Erick Ramirez avatar image Erick Ramirez ♦♦ mw.iteduc_193458 commented ·

Using week 1 of the workshop series as an example, Step 1d of the workshop materials on GitHub instructs you to open DataStax Studio (hint: click on the Launch Now link on your Astra DB):

Once you've launched Studio, click on the Add a Notebook icon (with a big + sign) then click on the Upload tab to upload the notebook tar file you downloaded:

Once the notebook has loaded, you can follow the rest of the instructions in the notebook itself. Cheers1

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bettina.swynnerton avatar image bettina.swynnerton ♦♦ mw.iteduc_193458 commented ·

First of all, thanks for staying with us.

Once the Astra instance is up, you can launch a Developer Studio from the connection dialog, click on Launch Now in the lower right corner:

This should launch Studio. You can the set up the connection to the database (use the user name and password that you defined earlier) and then you can import your notebooks into Studio.

Click on the big plus button to import a notebook:

Let us know if you need more help, we want to help!

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mw.iteduc_193458 avatar image mw.iteduc_193458 bettina.swynnerton ♦♦ commented ·

Ok, I had gotten as far as launching the studio and having the one square with the plus sign up. I did not know where to go from there. Do I drag a file from a browser that I am using for Jupyter notebooks? (it lists the class notebooks as well), or do I drag them from a file explorer, and drop them on the + in the Developer Studio browser? Should I drop the entire .zip file instead? (the same question for Week 2)

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