Gitea: [Idea] Web IDE using theia

[Th3Whit3Wolf]

Since Theia IDE 1.0 was launched I thought it might be an opportunity for a new gitea feature.

What is Theia

Eclipse Theia is an extensible platform to develop full-fledged multi-language Cloud & Desktop IDE-like products with state-of-the-art web technologies.

It is basically a self hosted vscode (it looks like vsocde and can use vscode extensions) and comes with it's own docker container.

I think using this would be a better experience than gitlab's web IDE in terms of both UI and functionality.

I am unsure of how much work would be required for this but I would love to hear what people think about this idea

[lunny]

• [ ] Open a IDE on one repository with special branch(default will open default branch). For different user with different permission, we can provide readonly mode and write mode. Did theia support read-only mode? Maybe a read-only mode is a first step. The IDE link entry could be in repository or in branch list, the link will be a new window.
• [ ] Load repository treepath from git on the IDE.(Asynchronize load the sub tree)
• [ ] When open a file on the IDE tree, extract the file from git.
• [ ] When save/delete a file, submit a change to git.
• [ ] Git integration. We should display the git blame on the IDE.

[roberChen]

What about the extensions support?

[sh7dm]

@lunny I experimented with Theia before, for the last (git integration) you can install GitLens VS Code extension, it's compatible, at least 70% of its main fuctions work. The most problem is security, as Theia exposes console.

[lunny]

@lunny I experimented with Theia before, for the last (git integration) you can install GitLens VS Code extension, it's compatible, at least 70% of its main fuctions work. The most problem is security, as Theia exposes console.

Yes, some feature should be disable. Is theia a npm package?

[lunny]

What about the extensions support?

extensions should be supported as well.

[sh7dm]

@lunny it's a set of npm packages. To create an IDE out of core, Theia extensions and VS Code ones, you need to create a package.json as in examples of Theia apps, define extensions and plugins there and build using their CLI. VS Code extensions can be loaded later using builtin Open-VSX registry. Security is bigger problem than you thought, there're a lot of functions relying on terminal. Probably it won't be safe to use without Docker.

[lunny]

Every user/repository branch will have one docker and it's difficult to know if it should be destroyed.

[roberChen]

I think it's better to regard theia as an editor rather than a full featured IDE for gitea, or allowing gitea to integrate theia just like how it does with drone CI.

[sh7dm]

For "editor" you don't need Theia as far as I know, you need Monaco editor, which is main editor of Theia.

[roberChen]

Maybe it's better to integrate Monaco editor with gitea for users who runs gitea on a Raspberry pi, I think...

[lunny]

I think that's different. Monaco editor could help to edit single file but theia will help to change the whole branch then you can send PR online.

[UnlimitedCookies]

Maybe there could be something similar to how Gitpod handles the Theia instances. It only allows for a limited number of containers per user (this should be pre-configurable) and automatically shuts down containers when they are not being used. I think it also pre-compiles some parts to make it faster for a dev to get started.

And of course this entire online IDE should be something entirely optional so the people hosting on a Raspberry Pi don't have to worry :)

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