Fix frontend use of Uri.joinPath with path-browserify

[thegecko]

Signed-off-by: robmor01 [email protected]

What it does

Using vscode.Uri.joinPath() or theia.Uri.joinPath() in frontend modules (Theia frontend plugins or VS Code Web Extensions) was failing because path was not found:

TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading 'join')

This PR adds the path-browserify polyfill to fix the issue.

Note, a new dependency has been added which uses the MIT license, does this need to be tracked or signed off?

path-browserify

How to test

Create a frontend module which calls Uri.joinPath()

Review checklist

• As an author, I have thoroughly tested my changes and carefully followed the review guidelines

Reminder for reviewers

• As a reviewer, I agree to behave in accordance with the review guidelines

[vince-fugnitto]

This PR adds the path-browserify polyfill to fix the issue.
Note, a new dependency has been added which uses the MIT license, does this need to be tracked or signed off?

@thegecko the automated IP Due Diligence check passed with the new dependency, it should be good to use 👍

• https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia/runs/5174618930?check_suite_focus=true

[vince-fugnitto]

@thegecko from the browsersify/path-browser documentation it states that:

You usually do not have to install path-browserify yourself! If your code runs in Node.js, path is built in. If your code runs in the browser, bundlers like browserify or webpack include the path-browserify module by default.

Is the change still necessary, is it not handled by webpack?

[vince-fugnitto]

Infact it looks like it might be necessary based on the webpack documentation.
I confirmed that the joinPath works in web extensions:

[paul-marechal]

@thegecko I remembered that we had a small implementation of path in the plugin code: https://github.com/eclipse-theia/theia/blob/443130396f7b1118eaf02e9309be555c938409ae/packages/plugin-ext/src/plugin/path.ts

Would that suffice or is it better to use the full npm polyfill? Just trying to figure out if we have redundancy here.

[thegecko]

Is the change still necessary, is it not handled by webpack?

Yeah, webpack 5 no longer bundles the polyfills

I remembered that we had a small implementation of path in the plugin code

Hmm, this may work for the 2 functions defined, but there may be other path functions/cases in future. Personally I'd rather rely on the recommended polyfill.

Will merge for now, but happy to revisit using the leaner path implementation in a future PR.