Changes to Che-Theia preferences are persisted and loaded at every workspace start using a ConfigMap

[l0rd]

Is your enhancement related to a problem? Please describe

Che-Theia preferences are not persisted anymore. When I refresh the browser, when I restart a workapce ore when I create a new workspace, the preferences are reset.

Describe the solution you'd like

Persist preferences after refresh/restart and across all user workspaces.

Release Notes Text

When Che-Theia user preferences (including plugins preferences) are changed, they are persisted in a Kubernetes ConfigMap. When a workspace is restarted or when a new workspace is created the existing user preferences will be loaded. There is still a bug that prevents color theme preferences to be persisted. This is something that already worked whith DevWorkspace disabled.

[l0rd]

@svor @vinokurig: since che-server doesn't manage users preferences anymore, we should use a mechanism similar to what we do for secrets but using a configmap to store the preferences of a user.

[l0rd]

Related to eclipse-che/che-server#117

[vinokurig]

blocked by #20749

[max-cx]

Hi, a question to the assignee of this issue:

Will the outcome require any changes to the relevant content of the Installation Guide or Administration Guide or End-user Guide?

Yes/No?

[vinokurig]

@max-cx

Will the outcome require any changes to the relevant content of the Installation Guide or Administration Guide or End-user Guide?

I don't think so, this is just a technical debt.

[benoitf]

moving issue to 7.42 milestone as this issue is part of the endgame

[svor]

fixed by eclipse-che/che-theia#1260 and devfile/devworkspace-operator#675

[l0rd]

This doesn't work for me. I am trying on next channel but preferences are not persisted. I have started a workspace, I set git user name and email, I have changed the theme but when the workspace is restarted these preferences are lost. Reopening.

[svor]

for some reason colorTheme preferences were overridden after restarting , other preferences were restored without problems:

screencast-nimbus-capture-2022.01.24-13_35_24.mp4

[l0rd]

@svor I forgot to mention that I had setup gitcredentials secret with my github token in my namespace. That may have an effect on git user name and email.

To clarify I have done the following on an openshift cluster:

• created the git credentials secret
• started the workspace
• set git user name and email
• restarted the workspace and the git settings were lost

[svor]

some investigation around clolorTheme: I've tried to set colorTheme on old version of Che 7.40.2 and see the same bug that preference is overridden:

screencast-git.luolix.top-2022.01.24-14_14_01.mp4

[svor]

@l0rd @vinokurig I've created another issue about restoring Theme Color preferences #21065
It's reproducible with older versions of Che and I don't think it's related to the current work.

[l0rd]

The problem with git config may be related to the new way of the DevWorkspace to set that: devfile/devworkspace-operator#708 (comment)?

[vinokurig]

Yes, the problem is that gitconfig is not stored when workspace stops, but I am not sure if this is related to this issue.

[vinokurig]

@l0rd Could you please elaborate on how did you set git user name and email?
If you updated the .gitconfig file directly, then it is related to a problem that gitconfig is not stored.
If you updated the settings.json file then it didn't cause the .gitconfig because of the bug which is fixed here: eclipse-che/che-theia#1307. Anyway the problem is that gitconfig is not stored yet.

[l0rd]

I create a secret:

USERNAME=<my-gh-username>
PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN=<my-access-token>
GIT_WEBSITE="github.com"
CREDENTIALS=$(echo -n "https://${USERNAME}:${PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN}@${GIT_WEBSITE}" | base64)  #<== this command works on macOS only

kubectl apply -f - <<EOF
kind: Secret
apiVersion: v1
metadata:
  name: git-credentials-secret
  annotations:
    controller.devfile.io/mount-path: /etc/git-credentials/
  labels:
    controller.devfile.io/watch-secret: 'true'
    controller.devfile.io/git-credential: 'true'
type: Opaque
data:
  credentials: ${CREDENTIALS}
EOF

And then I updated the settings.json file (from Che-Theia preferences widget) with git name and email.

[vinokurig]

I tried to create the secret by oAuth flow but this is brocken: #21077
When I tried to manually create the secret and restart the workspace I had such errors:

[vinokurig]

So I managed to add a github token secret to the user namespace, and the settings.xml with the git settings was restored after workspace restart.

[vinokurig]

The settings.json file with git settings was successfully restored on openshift che either.

[svor]

@l0rd do you still have this problem?
we can't reproduce the problem when git preferences are not restored

[l0rd]

Let me start a cluster to check that

[l0rd]

I was not able to start workspace (#21089). I will try again on Monday.

[l0rd]

@l0rd do you still have this problem?

@svor @vinokurig unfortunately I still have problems although one thing is working:

1. When I restart the workspace after I set the git configuration, the settings.json is persisted 👍

2. But even if git.user.name and git.user.email are set in settings.json I still get this message in Theia status bar:

3. And the git config is not set in the command line

[svor]

@l0rd Thanks for testing it. It seems that the problem is not related to the Preferences persisting. The information about username/email in the status bar is taken form the .gitconfig which doesn't exist in the container. The problem with .gitconfig is related to devfile/devworkspace-operator#694, I'm going to close current issue, please reopen it if you don't think so

[l0rd]

@svor @vinokurig I have created this separate issue: #21115

[devstudio-release]

sync'd to Red Hat JIRA https://issues.redhat.com/browse/CRW-2714