summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/doc/development/integrations/codesandbox.md
blob: 62acdda6d0d00e0072a8a38223b7e5c52e2c7140 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
---
stage: none
group: Development
info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
---

# Set up local CodeSandbox development environment

This guide walks through setting up a local [CodeSandbox repository](https://github.com/codesandbox/codesandbox-client) and integrating it with a local GitLab instance. CodeSandbox
is used to power the Web IDE's [Live Preview feature](../../user/project/web_ide/index.md#live-preview). Having a local CodeSandbox setup is useful for debugging upstream issues or
creating upstream contributions like [this one](https://github.com/codesandbox/codesandbox-client/pull/5137).

## Initial setup

Before using CodeSandbox with your local GitLab instance, you must:

1. Enable HTTPS on your GDK. CodeSandbox uses Service Workers that require `https`.
   Follow the GDK [NGINX configuration instructions](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-development-kit/-/blob/master/doc/howto/nginx.md) to enable HTTPS for GDK.
1. Clone the [`codesandbox-client` project](https://github.com/codesandbox/codesandbox-client)
   locally. If you plan on contributing upstream, you might want to fork and clone first.
1. (Optional) Use correct `python` and `nodejs` versions. Otherwise, `yarn` may fail to
   install or build some packages. If you're using `asdf` you can run the following commands:

   ```shell
   asdf local nodejs 10.14.2
   asdf local python 2.7.18
   ```

1. Run the following commands in the `codesandbox-client` project checkout:

   ```shell
   # This might be necessary for the `prepublishOnly` job that is run later
   yarn global add lerna

   # Install packages
   yarn
   ```

   You can run `yarn build:clean` to clean up the build assets.

## Use local GitLab instance with local CodeSandbox

GitLab integrates with two parts of CodeSandbox:

- An npm package called `smooshpack` (called `sandpack` in the `codesandbox-client` project).
  This exposes an entrypoint for us to kick off Codesandbox's bundler.
- A server that houses CodeSandbox assets for bundling and previewing. This is hosted
  on a separate server for security.

Each time you want to run GitLab and CodeSandbox together, you need to perform the
steps in the following sections.

### Use local `smooshpack` for GitLab

GitLab usually satisfies its `smooshpack` dependency with a remote module, but we want
to use a locally-built module. To build and use a local `smooshpack` module:

1. In the `codesandbox-client` project directory, run:

   ```shell
   cd standalone-packages/sandpack
   yarn link

   # (Optional) you might want to start a development build
   yarn run start
   ```

   Now, in the GitLab project, you can run `yarn link "smooshpack"`. `yarn` looks
   for `smooshpack` **on disk** as opposed to the one hosted remotely.

1. In the `gitlab` project directory, run:

   ```shell
   # Remove and reinstall node_modules just to be safe
   rm -rf node_modules
   yarn install

   # Use the "smooshpack" package on disk
   yarn link "smooshpack"
   ```

### Fix possible GDK webpack problem

`webpack` in GDK can fail to find packages inside a linked package. This step can help
you avoid `webpack` breaking with messages saying that it can't resolve packages from
`smooshpack/dist/sandpack.es5.js`.

In the `codesandbox-client` project directory, run:

```shell
cd standalone-packages

mkdir node_modules
ln -s $PATH_TO_LOCAL_GITLAB/node_modules/core-js ./node_modules/core-js
```

### Start building CodeSandbox app assets

In the `codesandbox-client` project directory:

```shell
cd packages/app

yarn start:sandpack-sandbox
```

### Create HTTPS proxy for CodeSandbox `sandpack` assets

Because we need `https`, we need to create a proxy to the webpack server. We can use
[`http-server`](https://www.npmjs.com/package/http-server), which can do this proxying
out of the box:

```shell
npx http-server --proxy http://localhost:3000 -S -C $PATH_TO_CERT_PEM -K $PATH_TO_KEY_PEM -p 8044 -d false
```

### Update `bundler_url` setting in GitLab

We need to update our `application_setting_implementation.rb` to point to the server that hosts the
CodeSandbox `sandpack` assets. For instance, if these assets are hosted by a server at `https://sandpack.local:8044`:

```patch
diff --git a/app/models/application_setting_implementation.rb b/app/models/application_setting_implementation.rb
index 6eed627b502..1824669e881 100644
--- a/app/models/application_setting_implementation.rb
+++ b/app/models/application_setting_implementation.rb
@@ -391,7 +391,7 @@ def static_objects_external_storage_enabled?
   # This will eventually be configurable
   # https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/issues/208161
   def web_ide_clientside_preview_bundler_url
-    'https://sandbox-prod.gitlab-static.net'
+    'https://sandpack.local:8044'
   end

   private

```

NOTE:
You can apply this patch by copying it to your clipboard and running `pbpaste | git apply`.

You may want to restart the GitLab Rails server after making this change:

```shell
gdk restart rails-web
```