Propagate Che user informations and preferences to DevWorkspaces

[benoitf]

Is your task related to a problem? Please describe.

For example:

1. che-theia will require dashboard URL to display redirect.
   But for example this information is not propagated to a workspace (no che api server to reach or no config map having this information)

2. I would want to grab user information (like che user id/user name/ user email, etc)

Describe the solution you'd like

Have dashboard/che creating configMap with this kind of information

Describe alternatives you've considered

N/A

Additional context

che-theia can't grab information if it's not provided by 3rd party

[tsmaeder]

@benoitf "workspace/user settings" is a technical term in Theia IDE. What you mean is information about the che user and che workspace, right? How about we call it "workspace configuration" for clarity?

[benoitf]

I called it 'che information' like workspace/user settings as it's a che information coming from the Che Rest API.
Che has REST api endpoints: /workspace/settings and /user
It's not tied to Theia

[skabashnyuk]

What about an idea to put user profile/preference to some CR in user's namespace. Would it be possible from the Theia side to read it directly from CR without having a REST API for it? CC @sleshchenko

[sleshchenko]

What about an idea to put user profile/preference to some CR in user's namespace. Would it be possible from the Theia side to read it directly from CR without having a REST API for it? CC @sleshchenko

yes, but it's the question who will put that info near DevWorkspace CR.

[skabashnyuk]

We could create such two secrets (separate for user profile and prefereces) that can be reused Che7 based workspaces and Devworkspaces after k8s namespace provisioning.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: che-user-profile
  namespace: user1-che
  annotations:
    che.eclipse.org/automount-workspace-secret: 'true'
    che.eclipse.org/mount-path: /che-conf/user/profile
    che.eclipse.org/mount-as: file
  labels:
    controller.devfile.io/mount-to-devworkspace: "true"
    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: che.eclipse.org
    app.kubernetes.io/component: workspace-secret
type: Opaque
data:
  id: id
  name: user1
  email: user1@site.com

apiVersion: v1
kind: Secret
metadata:
  name: che-user-preference
  namespace: user1-che
  annotations:
    che.eclipse.org/automount-workspace-secret: 'true'
    che.eclipse.org/mount-path: /che-conf/user/preferences
    che.eclipse.org/mount-as: file
  labels:
    controller.devfile.io/mount-to-devworkspace: "true"
    app.kubernetes.io/part-of: che.eclipse.org
    app.kubernetes.io/component: workspace-secret
type: Opaque
data:
  k: v
  k2: v2

[l0rd]

@skabashnyuk looks good to me. A few comments:

• we don't really need that for devfile v1 workspaces don't we? I mean: if that makes things easier che server side and theia side let's support v1 ws too, but otherwise that's not required.
• we should avoid using che in the path to make productization easier (i.e. for crw). What about /home/user/.workspace-config/user/[profile|preferences]?
• controller.devfile.io/mount-path and controller.devfile.io/mount-to-devworkspace should be annotations, not labels

[skabashnyuk]

we don't really need that for devfile v1 workspaces don't we? I mean: if that makes things easier che server side and theia side let's support v1 ws too, but otherwise that's not required.

We thought about that in two contexts

• of data migration for the users who have Che7 based workspace now and eventually want to use devworkspace.
• Changing backend/(single point of truth) for Che7 based workspaces from database to k8s secrets.

If that is not needed we can make them for devworkspaces only.

we should avoid using che in the path to make productization easier (i.e. for crw). What about /home/user/.workspace-config/user/[profile|preferences]

That path was selected because of https://github.com/eclipse-che/che-operator/blob/9cfd823f536b69dd44b8ee308750157adba2e258/pkg/deploy/defaults.go#L158. What about /config/user/[profile|preferences] I have some doubts that '/home/user' is standard for all our images CC @nickboldt

controller.devfile.io/mount-path and controller.devfile.io/mount-to-devworkspace should be annotations, not labels

you right for mount-path, for mount-to-devworkspace it looks like a label.
Are you sure https://github.com/devfile/devworkspace-operator/blob/ea794d07cb897c3fee05b3380c2ef8b88946678f/pkg/constants/metadata.go#L27 devfile/devworkspace-operator#417

[l0rd]

My understanding is that even if we create those secrets the devfile v1 to devfile v2 migration would still require users to manually convert the workspaces so I am still skeptical on the value. And I would not invest in devfile v1 workspaces anymore: we should push hard on devfile v2 and deprecate v1 as soon as we have all the features that we need.

👍 to use the path /config/user/[profile|preferences]

Ack for mount-to-devworkspace as a label

[xbaran4]

Resolved with eclipse-che/che-server#117