I've been using a web IDE in Gitlab for months... what changed?
We released a beta version of our new Web IDE which is built using VS Code. The new Web IDE will provide users access to more features, improved performance, and the ability to securely connect to a remote development environment directly from the Web IDE.
1. Inability to switch branches in the editor [0]
2. Full project search "to be enabled at a later date"
So I can't switch branches off of the default branch and I can't search the entire project. To me, this undermines your claim that the new web IDE "will provide users access to more features" and in fact I don't find it useful for hardly anything in its current state.
I get that it's a beta, but it seems a very incomplete one, at best.
[0]: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-web-ide/-/issues/72
A link to the Epic for full project search[0] was shared in an earlier comment[1] by Eric, the Product Manager who is leading this effort. You can follow along there to track our progress.
In the meantime, you can disable the beta and continue to use the old Web IDE until all of the features you require are available[2].
[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34080388
[1] - https://gitlab.com/groups/gitlab-org/-/epics/9466
[2] - https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/user/project/web_ide_beta/index.h...
As a work-around, if you know the name of the existing branch you want to switch to, you can change the URL in your browser's location bar for the IDE. Here's the URL format:
https://gitlab.com/-/ide/project/<namespace>/[<subgroup>/...]<project>/edit/<branch>/-/
You can also switch branches in the GitLab UI's Files view, before launching the Web IDE with the "Web IDE" button (or the `.` shortcut).
Also pressing "Web IDE" from an MR in GitLab will open that MR's branch in the Web IDE.
So it depends upon your workflow currently, but I agree it will be nice to be able to swap within the IDE itself later (also when the GitLab Flow extension is added).
The built-in git support in Code is already an improvement over the old Web IDE's Stage/Commit workflow, IMHO, and after the first load, the new Web IDE also loads faster than the old one, for me at least.
Huh, that's surprising but probably good. My initial reaction on reading that you were replacing your own thing with VSC was something like "aw, now it'll be too slow to use". Hope you're right:)