Workspaces created via browser opened from Gateway go to VS Code, not the splash page.

[AnnaPrints]

Bug description

There are some scenarios of using Gateway+GitPod which can confuse users.
When user create the first workspace via Dashboard in a browser, default preferences are:
Browser Editor: VS Code, Desktop Editor: None

Steps to reproduce

Steps:

1. Launch Gateway, connect GitPod plugin
2. Click on “Connect to GitPod” option
3. Click on “Connect in Browser”
4. Connect GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket
5. Go to Dashboard and create a new workspace
6. Try to connect it

See the result: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wOFuhtiBLMfs930iNl7SMka3W-ZuA5kv/view?usp=sharing
What helps in this situation: to change Desktop Editor from None to a JetBrains IDE and create a new workspace with these settings.
But I don’t really think that users would guess what to do.
I think we should handle such situations and add some tips or change the flow.

Workspace affected

No response

Expected behavior

No response

Example repository

No response

Anything else?

No response

[loujaybee]

Hey @AnnaPrints! Thanks a lot for the feedback!

Yeah, the complication here is that workspaces are created based on preferences and the IDE / backend is baked into the workspace on start (at least, currently). JetBrains gateway is (currently) just a list of those workspaces, and so it will respect your user preferences... however you are right, if you're coming from gateway you quite likely want a JetBrains IDE, and not VS Code in the browser. A couple of solutions on our side:

1. Provide IDE settings that allow a user to open their workspace with an ad-hoc IDE from within the JetBrains Gateway, something similar to: (Open workspace in ad-hoc (per-workspace) editor or IDE #8573)
2. Add an "indicator" into the Gateway about what IDE the current workspace preference is set to, and allow the user to directly override / update their preferences from within JetBrains (figure 1).
3. Not a fix, but an additional nice-to-have, would be a prominent link to your Gitpod preferences to update the preferred / default IDE directly, possibly from within the existing cogs menu (figure 2).

Figure 1	Figure 2

Relates to: #6874

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.