[Dashboard] Ide Switch

[batleforc]

Is your enhancement related to a problem? Please describe

In some cases of a long-running job (Claude code review, batch of data processing), I would like to run those steps in chemuxer or herdr and switch to VsCode to review what was done without having to commit a possibly wrong code to git.

Another use-case i have is when i'm out of office i use only the web vscode, and when i'm at office i use the vscode desktop (and i would like to stop having two workspace)

Describe the solution you'd like

In the advanced panel, I would like to switch IDE

Describe alternatives you've considered

No response

Additional context

No response

[svor]

@ibuziuk could you take a look, as I recall, we've already discussed this

[batleforc]

Hi,
I may be one of or the ones who asked for this feature. Through another mean, has the need for this change has changed or become more present I come back to it. I'm even willing to do it with your help/review of it but I wanted your feedback on how you view it before starting the work.

[ibuziuk]

@batleforc hello, I do believe this is a great user story.

I'm even willing to do it with your help/review of it but I wanted your feedback on how you view it before starting the work.

That's awesome! contributions are most welcome \o/
Do you happen to have some UX the mockups available? Based on the issue description, my understanding is that you expect the IDE switch to happen from the User Dashboard.

[batleforc]

@ibuziuk For the UX Mockups not yet, and yes the User Dashboard was for me the best place to put. The mean i had in mind was adding a new block aside from the Refresh Kubeconfig at least explaining what it imply and a a select mostly like the one in the log part that would display the available IDE the logo in a smaller form factor and the short name on the same line.

For the technical part i wanted to create a new DevWorkspaceTemplate and link the DevWorkspace to it, i don't know if we need to remove the previous DevWorkspaceTemplate or if there is no need to ? The downside of keeping it may be the increase in size of the Namespace.
On the other side i was thinking of the fact that we may need to provide some annotations to know the default ide used or if we want to clean up some artefact from the ide (for example Jetbrain's ide store some data inside of the user home folder that can grow pretty easily in size).
But it's linked to a cursor on how far do we need to help the user and the need sometime to extend the size of the PVC.

[ibuziuk]

The mean i had in mind was adding a new block aside from the Refresh Kubeconfig at least explaining what it imply and a a select mostly like the one in the log part that would display the available IDE the logo in a smaller form factor and the short name on the same line.

That might be a good start, but it feels too hidden from the UX perspective. Wondering if we can potentially expose the editor switch right on the workspaces list ? cc: @olexii4 wdyt?

For the technical part i wanted to create a new DevWorkspaceTemplate and link the DevWorkspace to it, i don't know if we need to remove the previous DevWorkspaceTemplate or if there is no need to ? The downside of keeping it may be the increase in size of the Namespace.

right, I believe we need to experiment with both options.

On the other side i was thinking of the fact that we may need to provide some annotations to know the default ide used or if we want to clean up some artefact from the ide (for example Jetbrain's ide store some data inside of the user home folder that can grow pretty easily in size).

that's a good concern, as of now I do not have a strong opinion on tracking the default (it might be potentially useful , but at the same time feels more like a 'nice to have' for the initial implementation)

[olexii4]

That might be a good start, but it feels too hidden from the UX perspective. Wondering if we can potentially expose the editor switch right on the workspaces list ? cc: @olexii4 wdyt?

@ibuziuk thanks for the mockup — I think it clarifies what you had in mind.

Not convinced putting the switch directly on the workspaces list is the right place, though. A few concerns:

• The list column shows only the current editor name. There is no room to display the default tag vs a pinned version, so the user has no idea what they are actually switching to.
• An inline switch implies a single-click action. Changing an editor is significant enough to warrant a confirmation step — especially since it involves replacing a DevWorkspaceTemplate.
• We need to let the user pick a specific version (latest vs next vs insiders), and a flat dropdown column can't express that cleanly.

My suggestion: put this behind a Change Editor action on the Workspace Details → Overview tab. Something like:

Workspace Details → Overview tab

  Editor   VS Code - Open Source · latest   [Change Editor]

Clicking Change Editor opens a modal in the same style as "Change AI Tools":

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Change Editor                                       │
│                                                      │
│  Select editor                                       │
│                                                      │
│  ●  VS Code - Open Source         [latest     ▾]     │
│  ○  Visual Studio Code (desktop)  [latest     ▾]     │
│  ○  Visual Studio Code (SSH)      [latest     ▾]     │
│  ○  JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA       [latest     ▾]     │
│  ○  JetBrains GoLand              [latest     ▾]     │
│  ○  JetBrains CLion               [latest     ▾]     │
│  ○  JetBrains WebStorm            [latest     ▾]     │
│  ○  Kiro (SSH)                    [latest     ▾]     │
│  ○  Chemuxer                                         │
│  ○  Web Terminal                                     │
│  …                                                   │
│                                                      │
│                          [Cancel]  [Apply]           │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Each entry that has multiple versions gets a version dropdown (▾) right on the same row — so the user can pick the editor and the exact tag in one step, with the currently active selection pre-filled and highlighted.

This way:

• The user sees the currently active editor and its version tag on the Overview tab.
• The modal makes the change deliberate — one extra click, but no accidental switches.
• Version selection is visible upfront, not hidden behind a nested interaction.
• The workspaces list stays clean and focused on status.

Happy to open a spec PR with the full flow if this direction makes sense.

[olexii4]

@batleforc I have prepared eclipse-che/che-dashboard#1663
Could you test it?