Increase Eclipse Theia presence via the Ubuntu Store or PPA

[kevintanhongann]

Increase Eclipse Theia presence via the Ubuntu Store or PPA. At least people get to easily install Eclipse Theia and try it out.

[JonasHelming]

I find this pretty interesting, we also got requests about Debian. @kevintanhongann Do you have experience publishing something to Ubuntu store?

[kevintanhongann]

@JonasHelming unfortunately no. Is there also way to package the app into a .deb package? I think that is the easiest way for people to install Theia on Ubuntu and straight away have the app icon available in the start menu.

[JonasHelming]

We will do an investigation of this feature request

[kevintanhongann]

Useful links

https://askubuntu.com/questions/290871/uploading-apps-to-the-ubuntu-software-center

https://snapcraft.io/

Hope that helps.

[JonasHelming]

Thanks, we started to discuss this!

[alculete]

Just adding more useful links, you can get some help on the forum

[jfaltermeier]

Electron Builder supports building both .deb and Snap packages. We currently have a .dev package available here: https://download.eclipse.org/theia/ide/1.51.0/linux/. However, please note that since this was not part of our official release, it has not been extensively tested. We would also have to check how to automatically publish this to a PPA.

To support Snap packages, we would need to enable Snap builds and then explore options for automatically publishing them to the Snap Store.

[JonasHelming]

@kevintanhongann Do you want to give the .deb package a try? The latest version is here: https://download.eclipse.org/theia/ide/1.52.0/linux/

[kevintanhongann]

@JonasHelming I played around with the .Deb package yesterday. Installed it using gdebi and installs perfectly. Just the icons on the task bar didn't show properly(it shows the gearbox icon). Still pretty good effort btw.

[JonasHelming]

See eclipse-theia/theia-blueprint#372
We will try to review this PR soon.

[alculete]

@JonasHelming, is there any plan for the snap version or will only stay available as AppImage and DEB?

[JonasHelming]

I cannot only answer that we (EclipseSource) currently do not have immediate plans to work on a snap version, but we might work on this in the future. Theia is an open source project, so maybe some other party is interested in working on this. Would you be interested in a contribution?

[alculete]

Unfortunately, I have never worked with snaps. I have mentioned your project in the snap forum, maybe they will build in the future.

[JonasHelming]

Unfortunately, I have never worked with snaps. I have mentioned your project in the snap forum, maybe they will build in the future.

Thanks, that would be very cool and we are definitively willing to provide support to them!

[Mailaender]

Created https://github.com/Mailaender/theia-ide-snap and submitted theia-ide for review by @canonical. I would like to get the git repository moved into the @eclipse-theia organization, as the preferred way for this is upstream maintenance. Please register an @eclipse store brand account, so I can hand this over properly.

See eclipse-theia/theia-blueprint#372
We will try to review this PR soon.

Yes, please do for the next release, so I can finally remove the workaround to display icons and also, please don't ignore eclipse-theia/theia-blueprint#371 as the right click open folder is the main way I start these type of IDEs.

[JonasHelming]

Hi @Mailaender

this is really great! I have a couple of questions.

1. Repo
   https://github.com/Mailaender/theia-ide-snap is currently private. Do you mind making it public, so we have can have a look whats inside?
2. Brand Account
   If you maintain the classic Eclipse IDE, what brand account is used for this? I agree it makes sense to get an Eclipse brand account, but this would need to be done by the Eclipse Foundation.
3. Process
   Can you quickly describe the process with all necessary steps to publish a new release, once the everything is in place? Would you be willing to contribute to this process too (of course no commitment forever necessary :-) )

Thank you for driving this!

[Mailaender]

1. Made https://github.com/Mailaender/theia-ide-snap public. Sorry
2. The classic IDE is currently maintained by @snapcrafters, but they will delete the package when an official entity comes along and takes over.
3. I like Theia so updating the snap scratches my own itch. Automatizing is as simple as parsing YAML and updating a version string and sending a pull request. If you provide me with access to your Jenkins, then I could set up something using GitHub CLI.

[JonasHelming]

Thank you for publishing the repo. Do I understand correctly: If some would:

1. Update the version number in the repo
2. Execute this Github Action

A new version of the snap package would be published? Or only built for now?

"Automatizing is as simple as parsing YAML and updating a version string and sending a pull request. If you provide me with access to your Jenkins, then I could set up something using GitHub CLI."
=> Is this about automizing the update, i.e. the two steps mentioned above? If so, I believe it might not be worth automating, at least not in the first place :-)

[Mailaender]

Added https://github.com/Mailaender/theia-ide-snap/actions/workflows/publish.yml to display how publishing works now that the package name has been approved. Updating a stable version is basically just editing the version number. It rebuilds and publishes automatically on commit. Also requested https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/classic-confinement-for-theia-ide/41947 so we are allowed to disable sandboxing.

[JonasHelming]

Sounds perfect, added it to the agenda for today: https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia/wiki/Dev-Meetings

One final question for now: Is there any signing required?

[Mailaender]

No signing is required if you mean code signing or contract signing.

[JonasHelming]

People in our call were really to see your initiative. One question that came up: Would it also be an option to have this hosted at SnapCrafters (like the eclipse IDE)?

[Mailaender]

I am not a member of @snapcrafters so I can't really. As far as I understand it, that is a community initiative for cases when upstream has not embraced snap themselves yet and not an official repository like @flathub for @flatpak.

[JonasHelming]

OK, but this means, if they accepted contributions to the Eclipse IDE, they also might accept your contribution of the Theia IDE, right? The reason I ask is that i fear it might take a while until we have an official brand account.

[Mailaender]

Filed https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/matthias-mailander-snapcrafters-membership-application/41949

[Mailaender]

Regarding https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/matthias-mailander-snapcrafters-membership-application/41949/6 How is the progress on the Eclipse brand account? Did you create a ticket at gitlab already?

[JonasHelming]

I have this on my todo list, but did not do yet. Thinking about it: What would be the advantage compared to snapcrafters? Maybe an Eclipse brand account would be more trustful. However, in this case, the maintainers of Theia and more importantly of the Eclipse IDE would need to maintain this. While for Theia I can control it, I am not sure if there is interest for the Eclipse IDE.
WDYT? Would you be fine with going for snapcrafters for now?

[Mailaender]

The @snapcrafters asked if they can upstream their IDE snap because that is their policy so this is currently stuck between the both of you. I asked at https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/issues/5021 now myself to get this going again.

[JonasHelming]

Thank you for creating the issue.
"currently stuck between the both of you" => Please note that the Eclipse IDE and the Theia IDE are dedicated projects (both hosted at the Eclipse Foundation) and the maintainers of the Theia IDE (including me) are not maintaining the Eclipse IDE and are also no from the Eclipse Foundation. I just wanted to clarify that this is only about the Theia IDE, let's focus on this.

[Mailaender]

I meant I was stuck between @snapcrafters wanting upstream maintenance and you opting for @snapcrafters as a quick intermediate solution. My https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/classic-confinement-for-theia-ide/41947 is also unanswered. There are instructions in the README on how to compile locally while we wait.

[Mailaender]

Brand account has been created and https://snapcraft.io/eclipse already claimed. I am handing over my snap as we speak. Please fork https://github.com/Mailaender/theia-ide-snap in this organization and give @fredg02 admin access to that repository so he can setup the store login secret.

[Mailaender]

I still have access after the transition and uploaded https://snapcraft.io/theia-ide but kept it unlisted while we wait for sandbox restrictions removal https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/classic-confinement-for-eclipse-theia-ide/42177

[JonasHelming]

Brand account has been created and https://snapcraft.io/eclipse already claimed. I am handing over my snap as we speak. Please fork https://github.com/Mailaender/theia-ide-snap in this organization and give @fredg02 admin access to that repository so he can setup the store login secret.

Cool! I cannot fork your repository in this orgnaization, we will need to transfer it. This also includes that you officially contribute the content. We can wither transfer the repo or I create a new one and you push the content. The first involves an admin and I think some overhead, the second is probably faster, but a (tiny) bit more work for you. Are you fine with the second option?

[Mailaender]

Yes, create a new one. That is fine with me.

[alculete]

One more thing shouldn't you guys request a verification badge for this account?

[Mailaender]

Suggested it at https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/issues/5021#note_2823488 but my personal experience is that @canonical distributes them at random and might ignore your requests for it.

[alculete]

I think as the original maintainer for Eclipse and Theia IDE they have an advantage here and maybe not all points mentioned on that list would be valid for being able to be verified.
If you will be the one pushing updates I think you can make the request (Maybe)