Private marketplace support

[isidorn]

VS Code customers have a need for a private marketplace. Motives:

• They have extensions which they do not want to share publicly (they only make sense for their setup)
• Strict security requirements: want more control over what is available
• Still want all the benefits of a marketplace (nice integration with VS Code, auto update)

[ttutko]

Just wanted to add something maybe not completely captured in the motives:

• Development performed on a 100% air-gapped (no internet access) system

[GitMensch]

I'm confused to see this in this repo - because the point is to NOT connect to the vsmarketplace.
This leaves it open to either host an instance of the vsmarketplace somewhere or use one of the (2?) existing vsix providers.

So, is this an issue to track "give people the option to host an own instance (with the need to do so also when disconnected from the internet) somewhere"? If not: How does it apply to the vsmarketplace?

In both cases vscode needs an option to setup a different URL/Path to the marketplace (which is a closed PR at microsoft/vscode#129764).

[ttutko]

@GitMensch I think you have a very valid point but I think it can be seen as an issue that exists for both repos. On the marketplace side, I'd like to see either a tool or some sort of api specs documented that allows for the creation of an offline mirror of the marketplace without having to reverse engineer api calls as well as self-hosting a mirror.

One specific thing to keep in mind with this offline mirror is that some extensions download additional items from the web when first activated and that makes things even more painful for those of us who have to work completely offline. For example, the remote ssh extension and the c# extension, both from MIcrosoft. In the former's case, they provide no single download for offline use that I'm aware of and it's a bit tricky to get working. For the latter, they actually display a log message saying "Go here and download the offline package and follow the instructions" which certainly helps.

On the VSCode side of things, yes, I think it should allow you to point it at a different url for the marketplace or perhaps multiple urls. However, if you are on a closed network that you control, it's easy to make the existing marketplace url point to your own server.

[GitMensch]

@ttutko The current options that I know to work for this is applying microsoft/vscode#129764 and point it to a self-hosting instance of Eclipse Open VSX, already done in "closed" environments. Note: Doing so prevents searching for extensions using file type associations, but other than that I haven't seen any issues.

[ttutko]

@GitMensch Thanks! I wasn't aware of Eclipse Open VSX but have used https://github.com/LOLINTERNETZ/vscodeoffline so far which also seems to work well except in cases of extensions that download additional stuff upon activation as I mentioned above.

[GitMensch]

Interesting, I wasn't aware of that, so were on 3 possible vsix providers already.

[Kingwl]

Looking forward on this one.
And happy to working on this If I may.
AFAIK, many company has already implemented their own private marketplace without any standard.
This is not good for the eco system.