Remove plugins from the Devfile schema

[l0rd]

Is your enhancement related to a problem? Please describe.

Devfile plugins were designed to specify a dev environment feature (java support for example) that would be independent of the particular IDE/editor used in the workspace.

After a couple of years we have observed that most of those plugins are Che Theia plugins and work only if Theia is the editor.

A first time user will probably assume the following devfile, where the Java plugin is specified but the editor is not, will work no matter what's the IDE/editor. In other words that Che will manage to include the right plugin for the editor that's choosed by the user:

apiVersion: 1.0.0
metadata:
  generateName: petclinic
components:
  - id: redhat/java11/latest
    type: chePlugin
    alias: java

But the truth is that will only work if the editor is Che-Theia. That's confusing for users that read the devfile and other projects that want to adopt the devfile spec and would need to support the devfile above somehow.

The devfile API is not adapted to support the specification of Che-Theia plugins yet (plugins of one devfile component).

There are a few plugins that still make sense as Che plugins as: editors, exec, telemetry, async volumes support. But those plugins are usually not included in devfiles, they are implicitly added by Che at workspace startup time.

Draft PR

Related issues

• Che Editors and Che Theia plugins support in Devfile v2
• Provide plugins recommendations
• Plugins and editors inline definitions in devfiles
• Use DevWorkspaceTemplates to specify a Che editor or other sidecar based plugins. The DevWorkspaceTemplate can be for just one workspace of a user or for every workspace of a user.

Describe alternatives you've considered

Using CustomComponents as mentioned in this example.

Additional context

This work should be included in the context of che workspaces that use the DevWorkspace operator, so that's not for v1 devfiles/plugins.

[tsmaeder]

@l0rd since plugins to che-theia will still be needed, what replacement are you proposing?

[benoitf]

@tsmaeder first bullet of the description: " Use extensions.json and che-theia-plugins.yaml to specify recommended vscode extensions and che-theia plugins"

[ericwill]

A devfile plugin is supposed to be a universal (cross-editors) specification of a development environment feature. But today most of the plugins in our registry are Che Theia plugins and won't work without Theia.

Is there somewhere that outlines the devfile 2.0 effort? Which other editors are looking at adopting the format? I found https://redhat-developer.github.io/devfile/ but it's v1, and looks to be Che specific.

[benoitf]

https://docs.devfile.io/devfile/2.0.0/user-guide/index.html

[tsmaeder]

https://docs.devfile.io/devfile/2.0.0/user-guide/adding-plugin-component-to-a-devfile.html talks about devfile plugins, but then uses the java che-theia plugin as an example and even has theia preference values. In the call yesterday I got the impression that editor-specific plugins and content had no more place in the devfile? At least not as part of the specification.