Theia Source code not running on vscode

[Ahmed-Bilal-01]

after I run yarn run test:playwright it gives following error:

[JonasHelming]

Hi, what operating system are you using?

[Ahmed-Bilal-01]

Yes, I am using Windows . So how can it be resolved?

[msujew]

The problematic line is here. I'm not sure you can successfully run the line (due to the $PWD) on Windows, even if the env variable can be set using something like cross-env. @planger Any input?

[planger]

Yes, these scripts are mainly targeted at the CI environment running on Linux. As @msujew points out, the problematic parts are setting the env variables to set a ephemeral Theia config directory. We should generalize those yarn scripts at some point, e.g. using cross-env or similar.

I don't have a Windows machine at hand to test this right now, but as a workaround for you @Ahmed-Bilal-01 it should work to do something like:

   "theia:start": "rimraf .tmp.cfg && set THEIA_CONFIG_DIR=./.tmp.cfg && yarn --cwd ../browser start"

This uses set to define environment variables on Windows. If you encounter issues with setting the environment variable inline, we could consider using a cross-platform package like cross-env for setting environment variables.
First would we need to add it as a dev dependency:

yarn add --dev cross-env

Then we could use it in the yarn script:

"theia:start": "rimraf .tmp.cfg && cross-env THEIA_CONFIG_DIR=./.tmp.cfg yarn --cwd ../browser start"

Regarding the $PWD, I don't think it is strictly needed, but we would need to test this.

Edit: Regarding $PWD, actually I might be wrong, I guess Theia uses that path relative from the working directory in which Theia is started. As we start Theia with a CWD from one folder up (../browser), the path ./.tmp.cfg likely is wrong and would result into setting up the temporary config dir in ../browser/.tmp.cfg.
However, if it is just about running it locally, please just check where the .tmp.cfg folder is created and delete it before running the tests. This is just to avoid polluting your user Theia config dir and spilling config data from one test run into the next one.

[Ahmed-Bilal-01]

I changed ../browser start with build, it build successfully but when I again ran yarn run test:playwright it gave same Theia_Config_Dir issue which i posted before

[planger]

I'm sorry you are still having troubles getting this to work. It is difficult for me to debug this without seeing all changes and knowing which exact script you ran from which CWD.

But from what I can see in the screenshot:
Are you sure you ran the theia:start script you adapted regarding the env variable in the root package.json and not the one (which you potentially didn't adapt accordingly) in /examples/playwright/package.json? Because the theia:start script you've added to the root looks suspicious:, it invokes yarn --cwd ../browser build in the end. The cwd seems wrong given it is in the root package.json, also why is it calling build and not start?

But I might miss something else here from this limited view on the overall configuration on your end.

[Ahmed-Bilal-01]

@planger you are right, I was targeting wrong package.json (root). Now i did change in playwright package.json file, I replaced:
"theia:start": "rimraf .tmp.cfg && set THEIA_CONFIG_DIR=./.tmp.cfg && yarn --cwd ../browser start"
with
"theia:start": "rimraf .tmp.cfg && cross-env THEIA_CONFIG_DIR=./.tmp.cfg yarn --cwd ../browser start"

Now it gave a different kind of error:

Please guide me on this and when giving solution, its a request if you can please mention the path as well where to make change coz there are alot of files and many have same names so it becomes a bit difficult to figure out the right one.

[planger]

Actually, this was successful. The Playwright tests have indeed executed successfully, there was just one test that failed.
But as I just learned from your message below we were actually chasing the wrong problem, as your goal never was to execute the Playwright tests.

[Ahmed-Bilal-01]

@planger , Let me tell you how I started:

• cloned code from github.
• installed node, npm and yarn.
• using yarn installed all packages (yarn install --force)
• used yarn run all
• Now i am trying to open the example application on browser so running yarn run test:playwright .

let me know is it the right way or i have missed any step?

[Ahmed-Bilal-01]

@planger Yes, thanks it worked.
But as my main target is desktop app, I am concerned why it's not running as a desktop app?

Also, I have gone through the Customized IDE for PICO video. I have few questions regarding that:
1- Compilation of c/c++ is possible on Theia as well so why to use CDT Cloud IDE and not Theia directly?
2- Actually I am working on R&D (replacing Texas Instrument's Code Composer Studio IDE) so my microcontroller is completely different (its RM57 by Texas Instrument). Main things that I have pointed out till now is, that how will I be able to integrate board with the IDE and other stuff related to burning and debugging code on microcontroller like you did for PICO (established complete communication between IDE and PICO).

I need detailed guidance on it, it will be much helpful if you share this process documentations or any helping material etc.

[msujew]

@Ahmed-Bilal-01 The commands you've executed just started the browser app. There is likely a second set of commands that builds & starts the electron app.

I need detailed guidance on it, it will be much helpful if you share this process documentations or any helping material etc.

Given the scope of the framework we provide, it's difficult to provide/write documentation for such specific use cases (you can probably imagine that there are countless use cases for Theia). Unless you want to dig into Theia yourself, you might want to take a look at the support page of Theia were you will find companies that are specialized in helping people/companies build their own Theia IDE.

[planger]

Maybe to add to it:

Are you aware of the Theia generator? This should help to generate a working Theia application for you with both, Electron and Browser support.

If you don't already have a separate node module with a package.json for running your Theia app in Electron, I suggest to generate a new Theia application using the generator above to get an app that can be executed as an Electron app too. Otherwise you'd need to modify or create a separate module with a package.json similar to the one you have with a few modifications. See the example electron package.json as a reference.

Regarding CDT Cloud:
CDT Cloud (and CDT Cloud Blueprint) is essentially plain Theia with additional VS Code extensions (and a few Theia extensions) to make it capable of handling C/C++ development related tasks out of the box, such as vscode-clangd for C/C++ editing, cdt-gdb-adapter for enabling debugging with GDB, CMake, example project generation, etc.
Sure, you are right, you can add all that to a vanilla Theia and land at the same spot. CDT Cloud Blueprint is just meant to help you selecting the typical configuration for a C/C++ IDE based on Theia and get there faster.

Regarding the PICO talk and what's needed to implement those features:
The demo shown in the PICO talk is CDT Cloud Blueprint + some PICO specific extensions as outlined in the talk. You can also have a look at the source code of this demo: https://github.com/eclipsesource/cdt-cloud-blueprint/tree/osweek-pico
The code is not (yet) polished, but should hopefully give you an idea in addition to the talk, how the different features are implemented.

[Ahmed-Bilal-01]

Hello @planger , @msujew , I hope you guys are doing well.

Please let me know how I can integrate my own custom compiler in Cloud CDT for compilation of C++ files? at the moment gcc is being used but I want to integrate my own custom compiler according to my requirements, so I need guidance in that.

[planger]

Hi @Ahmed-Bilal-01, it is probably best to open a new discussion topic in the CDT Cloud forums for this particular question and discuss this in more detail there.

My initial thought to your question is: CDT Cloud (Blueprint) isn't really tied to a specific compiler. One of the example projects happens to be a CMake project that uses GCC in this configuration by default. If you want to force another compiler, you can use the -DCMAKE_C_COMPILER or -CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER command line flags of CMake in the CMake call (e.g. via .theia/tasks.json) or adjust the CMakeLists.txt accordingly (set(CMAKE_C_COMPILER "XYZ")).

With respect to editing support with clangd, all that matters is the generated compile_commands.json. If you use CMAKE this is generated automatically if you set set(CMAKE_EXPORT_COMPILE_COMMANDS ON) and it should correspond to the whatever compiler you've used during the compile step.