P2 equivalent in Theia - New Software Packages

[amaliagruia24]

Hi,

I'm trying to understand what the equivalent mechanism is in Theia for what Eclipse RCP uses as P2 repositories—specifically for installing new software packages (in Eclipse they would be .jar files packaged as p2 repositories). What is the way to achieve this in Theia?

[msujew]

Hey @amaliagruia24,

Theia features support for the VS Code plugin protocol, and therefore supports all plugins for VS Code. See also open-vsx which is a marketplace for VS Code plugins hosted by the Eclipse Foundation. These can be dynamically installed or removed during the runtime of the Theia app.

A second way to extend Theia (during compile-time only) is to build a Theia app. See our documentation on that topic.

[amaliagruia24]

Thank you for your response @msujew,
To clarify my use case: I am reffering to a custom plugin system that uses plugins developed by me. Example of use case: bring a custom debugger in my Theia based IDE.
In classical Eclipse, to install and manage such plugins, one would use the Provisioning Platform (P2).
I’m looking for a way to:

Host and index my own plugin artifacts (e.g., such artifacts are the OSGi bundles used in Eclipse)
Allow users to browse and install them dynamically from within the IDE
Integrate them into the running Theia based-IDE.

[msujew]

Alright, then you probably need to take a look at the VS Code plugin support in Theia. VS Code plugins provide language support, debuggers, custom views, etc. They can be dynamically installed and removed during the runtime of the IDE.

For hosting, you can run your own instance of open-vsx. You need to configure that instance URL in your custom Theia based IDE. Anyone using your IDE can then install and run the extensions offered on that open-vsx instance. See also:

theia/packages/vsx-registry/src/node/vsx-environment-impl.ts

Line 27 in cba1eab

protected _registryUri = new URI(process.env['VSX_REGISTRY_URL']?.trim() || 'https://open-vsx.org');