Git integration when running theia a host other than localhost.

[mcg1103]

I could not get git history and git graph to work when running on a remote URL. Somewhere I found that it had to run on localhost. This of course defeats the purpose of remote development. So to get around this I installed haproxy on my laptop and access the remote system via a localhost URL.

This solved the issue for the most part and I can access git graph and git file history. I do have to access file history by opening the file and using alt-h to bring it up. If i right mouse click on the file and request "file history" it brings up the repository history and not the history for the file. This is an easy enough work around.

It was a while that I did this, so I forget the reason why but I think it has to do with VS code running on a local machine and the way the access to the git server is via a local url. Is this going to be how we will be running theia or is this something that maybe fixable in the future?

[msujew]

Hey @mcg1103,

are you using the @theia/git integration (deprecated) or the vscode.git extension in your Theia app? Generally, I don't see a reason why this shouldn't work outside of your localhost and I'm not aware of anyone else experiencing that issue. Are there any specific errors in the developer tools console or the backend log?

[mcg1103]

This is how I build theia: git clone https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia \ && cd theia \ && sed -i ***@***.***\/api-samples/d' examples/browser/package.json \ && sed -i ***@***.***\/git/d' examples/browser/package.json \ && sed -i '/vscode.git/d' ./package.json \ && sed -i '/vscode.git-base/d' ./package.json \ && yarn \ && yarn download:plugins --ignore-errors \ && yarn browser build The server is mark.orderpt.com (behind a vpn). mark.orderpt.com resolves on our vpn. I get the same error when running on a public accessible host. I have tested in the past and get the same webview error. I don't have any other trouble with Theia when running remotely other than plugins that require the webview access. I am not familiar with this but that is the crux of the problem it appears. When accessing directly on the remote system I get this error: 81ae04c9-bd9f-549c-bc63-8272fb52db95.webview.mark.orderpt.com’s server IP address could not be found. running with haproxy on locahost on my laptop it seems to work. The webview ip does not exist but it appears that 81ae04c9-bd9f-549c-bc63-8272fb52db95.webview.localhost will resolve.

…

-Mark

On Wed, Jan 8, 2025 at 8:58 AM Mark Sujew ***@***.***> wrote: Hey @mcg1103 <https://github.com/mcg1103>, are you using the @theia/git integration (deprecated) or the vscode.git extension in your Theia app? Generally, I don't see a reason why this shouldn't work outside of your localhost. Are there any specific errors in the developer tools console or the backend log? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#14709 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AC66KGYTQLN6FS34YQSPAWD2JVDJJAVCNFSM6AAAAABU2F4PVOVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTCNZXGUZTSNQ> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[msujew]

Ah, I see, thank you for the information. Yep, that is expected/intended behavior. We (just like VS Code) serve all widget that are contributed via VS Code extensions via iframes on subdomains. This is a security feature to prevent different VS Code extensions from accessing each other's browser storage (for example, so that they don't exfiltrate any cookies/login sessions).

There are two ways to resolve this:

1. Use a reverse proxy to resolve the subdomains correctly (this is the intended solution).
2. Set the THEIA_WEBVIEW_EXTERNAL_ENDPOINT env variable to the value {{hostname}}. This will let all webviews access their data via the mark.orderpt.com url, but will lead to the aforementioned security issue.

[mcg1103]

Thanks. I will give the reverse proxy a try. I am using haproxy to supply ssl so should be easy to add the website subdomain.

there seems to be lots of discussion regarding the webviews. and I see a few theia responses mixed in.
https://code.visualstudio.com/api/ux-guidelines/webviews
mhutchie/vscode-git-graph#271

thanks again for the help!

[mcg1103]

Both of these solutions work as expected.
The first solution really comes down to wildcard dns and wildcard certificate for xxx.webview.xxx.tld. I may do this when i have some time. The second solution is less steps to get going. I have several subdomains running theia (each of my developers) so this would take some effort.

I was NOT able to set THEIA_WEBVIEW_EXTERNAL_ENDPOINT to the same host as used by theia. If theia is served at xxx.orderpt.com then i set this variable to yyy.orderpt.com. This is easy to do as i have a wildcard cert for orderpt.com so just need a single cert would need a second cert for *.webview.xxx.orderpt.com ... not a huge deal just requires some work.

in the shell script i use to startup theia i set this prior to starting
export THEIA_WEBVIEW_EXTERNAL_ENDPOINT=yyy.orderpt.com

You do get a warning when the browser loads theia and you can just click ok and all is good. But the user will get it each time they bring theia up in a browser. Again not a big deal.

Thanks for the help getting this going.

[msujew]

You're welcome. Note that you can just set the env variable to literally the value {{hostname}}, it is a placeholder that will be replaced during the runtime. That way you don't need to hardcode your host into your env variables.

You will find documentation on how to disable the security warning here.