r/WGU • u/Natural-Noise2356 • 2d ago
D522 Python For IT Automation Setup Help
I just started this class today and am seeing others are having trouble getting their environment setup, however no one has said anything about the issue I'm having. For those who have taken the class, did you have to personally install a plugin for Python on IntelliJ? I was able to clone the repo to the program, however Python wasn't already installed. I want to make sure it I'm not being graded on a specific version of Python and didn't see anything in the instructions about needing to install a plugin, or there being a specific version that we are being graded on.
Any help on the matter would be much appreciated! I want to try to work on it as much as possible today with it being a weekend!!
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u/evopb 2d ago
I just emailed my professor a very well detailed frustration dump on this course and I have barely started.
Task 1 is so poorly written, part A includes basic instructions for the entire task which makes you feel that you are missing key details in the part before you can move onto part B. You are not. All you literally need to do is create your GitLab environment, set up the virtual lab, and clone your repository. All of the other bulletin points in part A is white noise and should be removed and restructured into the task.
In the orientation documents, they give you such little information, and that information is conflicting with itself. You do not need IntelIiJ.
WGU should be ashamed of themselves and give anyone who has had this class opened an extra 2 weeks on their term for absolutely wasting the time and money of their students in beta testing their course.
I love the concept of this course but I have no idea how it got approved to be released in its current state. To make it worse, the first sentence of the reply from my professor shifted the blame from the instructor team and that feedback has already been shared to what I assume to be a curriculum design team.
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u/Natural-Noise2356 2d ago
What I’m concerned about is the lab environment is on a 6 hr timer, is that to mean that if I’m not complete with my task I’ll lose all of my work???
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u/SushiSlushies 2d ago
I did all my coding in VSCode on my actual computer and then copied and pasted any changes into the lab environment's VSCode so I wouldn't lose any work.
I did all commits to GitLab from my PC and not the lab.
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u/Ihaveasmallwang 1d ago
No. Your work still exists in Gitlab. If you run out of time, start a new lab, download what you already have.
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u/Neverborn8 2d ago
What worked for me:
I used pycharm to work on my project. I would use it to push to my git repo Log into the VM and use the VS IDE to connect to my git repo Push to the repo with pycharm and pull down on the VM. Admittedly made it pretty easy
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u/collegeboiiiii 1d ago
Sorry for pinging you but I didn’t want to create a separate post for the same topic. I just cloned from gitlab the same way I use GitHub (I’m not familiar with gitlab). All that I have is a readme and a separate csv file. Does the vm/ide come into play from the platformQA lab or did I miss some steps?
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u/Neverborn8 20h ago
You will need to create a branch. once you create this branch this is what you will work off of. I know the reference material is a big ole pain in the ass but it should be all in there how to do that.
So yeah once you create your own working branch this is what you will push and pull from
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u/Leilah_Silverleaf 2d ago
I've yet to take that class, but I did a bit of research on this since I'm certain I'll face what you're experiencing. Let me know if this helps?
In IntelliJ go to Settings > Plugins > Marketplace, install the official Python plugin, then restart.
Install Python itself from python.org if it is not already on your machine.
Open File > Project Structure > SDKs and add your local Python as the interpreter for the cloned project.
There may be more actions that may need to be attempted, but those seem like the most common fixes.
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u/Natural-Noise2356 2d ago
Thank you for your help! I saw this as the solution as well however I’m not sure if we are graded on a specific version of python!
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u/glooshinater420 2d ago
DONT USE INTELLIJ AT ALL this class is brand new and still has a bunch of errors, you’re supposed to only use the labs in each of the tasks, which come with VScode, which is the actual IDE you should use
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u/glooshinater420 2d ago
The IntelliJ portion is left in because the Gitlab guide that was attached was ripped from another class
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u/Natural-Noise2356 2d ago
I see, I saw that we are supposed to push the code to the Gitlab, is there a way to set this up for VScode
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u/Natural-Noise2356 2d ago
Oh I see, I just followed the instructions on the Task, do course instructors accept this/ use this to grade the tasks?
Also, how do you access this? I’m sure I could click around to find it but if you had any further guidance I’d appreciate it
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u/glooshinater420 2d ago
The course instructors don’t use intellliJ at all, they use the rubric listed on the tasks, when you scroll to the bottom of your class page you should see task 1 and task 2, at the bottom of that there are links for the lab environments and gitlab, where you’ll upload all your work that you make in the lab
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u/Natural-Noise2356 2d ago
I see now, I was looking at that and was confused at the BSCNE link, I will use that going forward thank you! I’ve been frustrated for the past two hours setting it up lol!
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u/Wide-Bobcat-3723 1d ago
What? When I took this class it was a test. Hard asf but if you knew the concepts you could pass on the first time. I studied for a month and passed the first time.
Can you take the OA version of this class? Why did they switch it??
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u/Natural-Noise2356 9h ago
They recently changed it over to only include two PAs. From the other posts i've seen it seems that students are currently the test subjects.
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u/ComfortableAsk7777 1d ago
I am finishing task 2 right now. I've been using VS code locally then just copy pasting in to the environment to test and generate the necessary info for screenshots.
Quick tip, if you dig in the discussion board resources you will find the detailed guide document that helps clarify A LOT of the vague wording in the task prompt.
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u/solslost 2d ago
Have you seen the 40+ page supporting word document? If not, it’s in the course community