Error launching custom tasks (cannot read property 'cwd' of undefined)

[tsmaeder]

Bug Description:

When launching tasks with custom executions (for example from the gradle VS Code extensions), we get errors saying

TypeError: Cannot read property 'cwd' of undefined

I was able to trace the problem to this PR:

https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia/pull/9695/files#diff-6268a7212c6dfa3764fd2c66d3acfd23d8920a9264a28c1ec4a72210121bf96cR199

The problem is that taskConfig.options is not mandatory.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Install vscode-java 0.80.0
2. Open a Java project
3. Observe: vscode-java shows a rotating progress indicator at the right bottom corner of the window
4. Click on the progress indicator
5. A popup appears saying "Error launching task 'Java Build Status': Cannot read property 'cwd' of undefined"

Additional Information

• Operating System: Window
• Theia Version: master

[tsmaeder]

I guess one of the reasons this problem appeared is that we don't have proper typing of the options field in TaskDto, TaskConfiguration, etc. The problem is that those types have a "catch-all" field like

TaskDto {
...
 [key: string]: any;

We really should add all known fields with proper typing in any types where they apply. Generally, I would refactor those types to have a fixed set of properties like so:

TaskDto {
   label: string,
   ...
   extraProperties: {
       [key: string]: any;
   }
} 

This way, we would notice if we're adding a property somewhere but leave it out in related types.

[tsmaeder]

@kenneth-marut-work do you have time to fix this in the short term? You're probably most familiar with that particular code.

[kenneth-marut-work]

@kenneth-marut-work do you have time to fix this in the short term? You're probably most familiar with that particular code.

Sure I'll try to get to it today 👍

[colin-grant-work]

I guess one of the reasons this problem appeared is that we don't have proper typing of the options field in TaskDto, TaskConfiguration, etc. The problem is that those types have a "catch-all" field like

TaskDto {
...
 [key: string]: any;

@tsmaeder, I agree with your suggestion. We have the no-explicit-any lint rule, but we're a bit cavalier about disabling it. We really ought to use unknown more often, so that Typescript forces (or at least encourages) us to actually check the type before using it.

[alvsan09]

This can also be reproduced using the vscode sample:
task-provider-sample

Run the task: Command Palette -> Tasks: run Task -> custombuildscript: 32 watch incremental