How to install and link wakatime on your github profile

[MECR-0209]

So I'm very new to programming and I don't know how to use Git very well.

But I found a really cool feature of displaying the time you spend programming and I wanted to put it on my profile, but I had A LOT of problems because my English isn't that good and there are some things they don't specify.

From what I saw there are some different ways you can configure to display what you want from WakaTime but what I'm going to show here is the simplest and easiest way to understand that I saw.

Before starting to work on GitHub, follow these steps:

• Access the WakaTime website and register at https://wakatime.com/.
• After registering, get the WakaTime API key.
• Integrate WakaTime with your development environment, like VS Code. To do this, follow these instructions:
  • In VS Code, go to extensions and install WakaTime.
  • After installation follow the instructions on the page, write something in one of your files and restart VS Code.
  • Go to the WakaTime website and it will already show that it is linked, if nothing appears just wait a little.
• In your WakaTime account, you will find the API key that will be used later.

After following these steps, you'll be ready to use WakaTime integrated into your development flow on GitHub.

Just go to settings

Click on account and there is your key

Steps to link hours to your profile

1- First create a GitHub key

Go to settings

Click on the last option

I saw in some places that they put permission on only some of these options, but I decided to allow everything on mine so I can't really say exactly which permission you need.

2- After creating the key, copy it and go to the following place

In your repository README go to settings

Then open your secrets

There you place your GitHub key that you just copied and the WakaTime key

3- In your README file, copy and paste this into your code:

 <!--START_SECTION:waka-->
<!--END_SECTION:waka-->

4- You have to create a .github folder in your repository README

just create a new file

and then just type the following: /.github/workflows/whatever_you_want_to_name.yml

You just created a workflow and a yml file where you will put this code:

name: Work Stats Readme

on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule:
    # Runs every 2 hours
    - cron: "0 */2 * * *"

jobs:
  update-readme:
    name: Update this repo's README
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: athul/waka-readme@master 
        with:
          WAKATIME_API_KEY: ${{ secrets.WAKATIME_API_KEY }}

Additionally, I saw in some places that it is necessary to change the branch name to master, I didn't quite understand why, but it works. You just need to go to the main part of your repository, click on branch and then on the pencil, and thus rename it to master.

Well, basically what was happening to me up to this point was that everything was going wrong and I didn't even know what to do next.

So I'll show you what you're going to do to run the code and prevent possible errors. I found out that besides those permissions of the GitHub key you have to change a workflow config.

Go to the settings of your README repository, click on ACTIONS and GENERAL.

A little further down on the page there are these options, leave it as it is in the image and click on SAVE

Now try to run your workflow.

In your repository, go to ACTIONS.

Then, click on your workflow and click run.

In principle, there should be no error after all these steps, if something happens just leave a comment here.

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[Mohammedbbk]

Nice explanation!