Show 'Connect To Tunnel' on Welcome page in vscode.dev

[aeschli]

`Connect To Tunnel... should be prominently on the https://vscode.dev/ welcome page.

We want to explore if it's even possible to show the available tunnel names (if logged in)

[bhavyaus]

We now display "Connect via Remote Tunnels" in the start list entry on insiders.vscode.dev. It displays the list of existing tunnel options if signed in.

[bhavyaus]

We want to explore if it's even possible to show the available tunnel names (if logged in)

Once a workspace has been opened via tunnel, it would show up in the Recents list anyway and would be accessible from the Welcome Page. Should we still consider adding quick links to the existing remote tunnel connections? If yes, we could consider displaying existing tunnels under the Recents tab. We would need to ensure we pick the most recently used tunnels (or some other criteria) to only display a pre-determined number of tunnels in the list.

I also considered adding a new Connections list on the Welcome page to display remote connection links, but I worry that the welcome page might become too cluttered (with the addition of featured extension)

[aeschli]

Thanks for adding Connect via Remote Tunnels, that's great.
What about naming it Open Tunnel... (to match the other open command) or Connect to Tunnel.. (to match the name of the command in the remote menu)

[aeschli]

I was thinking that after the Connect to Tunnel... link we could show a list of tunnel names, e.g. 'Office-PC', 'Surface'.
Should not be more than 2 or 3 entries, anly only the open ones.

Connect to Tunnel... Office-PC Surface

Listing them in Recent would also work, but it's not exactly a recent entry

It was just an idea, of course it's not fitting right in the current getting started framework.

[bhavyaus]

I'll rename the command to Open Tunnel... as you suggested.
We could track usage of the command for now and later decide if it would be worthwhile to consider showing other remotes? (not just open tunnels) on the welcome page. For now, the list of available tunnels and their status is only one click away from the welcome page.

[aeschli]

We could track usage of the command for now and later decide if it would be worthwhile to consider showing other remotes? (not just open tunnels) on the welcome page.

Sounds good! IMO we want to keep the open list short and focus on the command that are most useful on the given platform. For the web that's open a tunnel or a remote repo.

[aeschli]

BTW, the welcome page now has hardcoded knowledge about the remote hub and tunnels extensions. It would be better if the list of additional open entries comes from product.json. Other products that are based on code oss might not want such open commands.

I think with such a list (label, command id), you can also avoid special handling for the tunnel extension in remoteStartEntry

[bhavyaus]

BTW, the welcome page now has hardcoded knowledge about the remote hub and tunnels extensions. It would be better if the list of additional open entries comes from product.json. Other products that are based on code oss might not want such open commands.

I think with such a list (label, command id), you can also avoid special handling for the tunnel extension in remoteStartEntry

Labels coming from product.json would not be localized. I'll create a debt item to have it be setup for localization before refactoring since the remoteHub command and labels have existed in OSS for a while and I don't want to break that localization

[aeschli]

Closing as fixed