Build your own IDE/Tool
This guide will teach you how to build your own Theia-based application. The guide will demonstrate how to configure your own application composed of existing or new Theia extensions, and any VS Code extensions you want bundled in your application by default. Please get familiar with the extension mechanisms of Theia in case you are not already. This guide describes the manual steps to build a Theia-based product, there are two ways to avoid this manual set-up:
- Theia Extension Yeoman generator: Generates Theia-based products along with example extensions.
- Theia IDE: A tool based on the Theia Platform that can be used as a template for creating installable desktop applications based on Theia. Learn how to extend and adapt the Theia IDE.
We still recommend reading the manual guide first, it allows you to understand the structure of a Theia-based project.
Requirements
The detailed list of prerequisites is located at the main Theia repository:
Setup
Start with creating a new empty directory and moving into it:
mkdir my-app
cd my-app
Create package.json
in this directory:
{
"private": true,
"dependencies": {
"@theia/callhierarchy": "latest",
"@theia/file-search": "latest",
"@theia/git": "latest",
"@theia/markers": "latest",
"@theia/messages": "latest",
"@theia/mini-browser": "latest",
"@theia/navigator": "latest",
"@theia/outline-view": "latest",
"@theia/plugin-ext-vscode": "latest",
"@theia/preferences": "latest",
"@theia/preview": "latest",
"@theia/search-in-workspace": "latest",
"@theia/terminal": "latest"
},
"devDependencies": {
"@theia/cli": "latest"
}
}
In a nutshell, Theia applications and extensions are Node.js packages. Each package has a package.json
file that manifests package metadata,
like name
, version
, its runtime and build time dependencies and so on.
Let's have a look at the created package:
- Its
name
andversion
are omitted since we are not going to use it as a dependency, and it's marked asprivate
since it is not going to be published as a Node.js package on its own. -
We've listed required extensions as runtime dependencies, e.g.
@theia/navigator
.- Some extensions require additional tooling installed, in such cases, please consult the corresponding extension documentation.
- Use this link to see all published extensions.
- We've listed @theia/cli as a build-time dependency. It provides scripts to build and run the application.
Consuming VS Code Extensions
As part of your application, it is also possible to consume (and package) VS Code extensions.
The Theia repository contains a guide on how to
include such extensions as part of the application's package.json
.
An example package.json
may look like the following (please replace ${downloadURL}, see explaination below the example):
{
"private": true,
"dependencies": {
"@theia/callhierarchy": "latest",
"@theia/file-search": "latest",
"@theia/git": "latest",
"@theia/markers": "latest",
"@theia/messages": "latest",
"@theia/navigator": "latest",
"@theia/outline-view": "latest",
"@theia/plugin-ext-vscode": "latest",
"@theia/preferences": "latest",
"@theia/preview": "latest",
"@theia/search-in-workspace": "latest",
"@theia/terminal": "latest",
"@theia/vsx-registry": "latest"
},
"devDependencies": {
"@theia/cli": "latest"
},
"scripts": {
"prepare": "yarn run clean && yarn build && yarn run download:plugins",
"clean": "theia clean",
"build": "theia build --mode development",
"start": "theia start --plugins=local-dir:plugins",
"download:plugins": "theia download:plugins"
},
"theiaPluginsDir": "plugins",
"theiaPlugins": {
"vscode-builtin-extensions-pack": "${downloadURL}"
},
"theiaPluginsExcludeIds": [
"ms-vscode.js-debug-companion",
"vscode.extension-editing",
"vscode.github",
"vscode.github-authentication",
"vscode.microsoft-authentication"
]
}
The following properties are used to consume built-in plugins (bundled extensions):
theiaPluginsDir
: the relative path to deploy plugins intotheiaPlugins
: the collection of plugins to download (individual plugins or extension-packs) - can point to any valid download URL (ex: Open VSX, GitHub Releases, etc.). In the example above, replace ${downloadURL} with a link to the latest builtins pack that can be found on openVSX (copy the link on the download button). See also the respective section in this file for an exampletheiaPluginsExcludeIds
: the list of pluginids
to exclude when resolving extension-packs
Building
First, install all dependencies.
yarn
Second, use Theia CLI to build the application.
yarn theia build
yarn
looks up theia
executable provided by @theia/cli
in the context of our application
and then executes the build
command with theia
.
This can take a while since the application is built in production mode by default,
i.e. obfuscated and minified.
Running
After the build is finished, we can start the application:
yarn theia start --plugins=local-dir:plugins
or rely on the start
script from package.json
:
yarn start
You can provide a workspace path to open as a first argument
and --hostname
, --port
options to deploy the application on specific network interfaces and ports,
e.g. to open /workspace
on all interfaces and port 8080
:
yarn start /my-workspace --hostname 0.0.0.0 --port 8080
In the terminal, you should see that Theia application is up and listening:
Open the application by entering the printed address in a new browser page.
Troubleshooting
Plugins not appearing
If no plugins are available in the running Theia instance, it may be that you need to tell Theia where to find the downloaded plugins.
The example above sets the --plugins
switch in the start
command which should be sufficient.
However, if running theia start
directly, you can alternatively set an environment variable to achieve the same thing:
export THEIA_DEFAULT_PLUGINS=local-dir:plugins
Building native dependencies behind a proxy
If you run the yarn
command behind a proxy you may encounter issues in building native dependencies (like oniguruma
), in the last part of the build, with the following error stack:
[4/4] Building fresh packages...
[1/9] XXXXX
[2/9] XXXXX
[3/9] XXXXX
[4/9] XXXXX
error /theiaide/node_modules/XXXXX: Command failed.
Exit code: 1
Command: node-gyp rebuild
Arguments:
Directory: /theiaide/node_modules/XXXXX
Output:
gyp info it worked if it ends with ok
gyp info using node-gyp@3.8.0
gyp info using node@8.15.0 | linux | x64
gyp http GET https://nodejs.org/download/release/v8.15.0/node-v8.15.0-headers.tar.gz
gyp WARN install got an error, rolling back install
gyp ERR! configure error
gyp ERR! stack Error: read ECONNRESET
gyp ERR! stack at TLSWrap.onread (net.js:622:25)
gyp ERR! System Linux 3.10.0-862.11.6.el7.x86_64
gyp ERR! command "/usr/bin/node" "/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /theiaide/node_modules/XXXXX
gyp ERR! node -v v8.15.0
This happens because node-gyp does not rely on system/NPM proxy settings. In that case, download the node-headers
file using the link provided in the error stack
(in the example above https://nodejs.org/download/release/v8.15.0/node-v8.15.0-headers.tar.gz
) and run the build with the following command:
npm_config_tarball=/path/to/node-v8.15.0-headers.tar.gz yarn install