unable to parse URL from normalized contextURL: 'snapshot/1234-abcd' TypeError: URL constructor: snapshot/1234-abcd is not a valid URL.

[jankeromnes]

Bug description

There is a new error being logged in workspaces list when you've opened a snapshot before. This also causes the displayed workspace context URL to be undefined:

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a snapshot in Gitpod
2. Open your Workspaces list

Workspace affected

No response

Expected behavior

Instead of trying to parse the snapshot/1234-abcd context as a URL, and showing undefined as the context, the workspaces list should just show snapshot/1234-abcd as plain text (not a link) for snapshots here:

gitpod/components/dashboard/src/workspaces/WorkspaceEntry.tsx

Line 132 in 5ff578e

const normalizedContextUrl = ContextURL.getNormalizedURL(ws)?.toString() || "undefined";

gitpod/components/dashboard/src/workspaces/WorkspaceEntry.tsx

Lines 145 to 147 in 5ff578e

	<a href={normalizedContextUrl}>
	<div className="text-sm text-gray-400 dark:text-gray-500 overflow-ellipsis truncate hover:text-blue-600 dark:hover:text-blue-400">{normalizedContextUrl}</div>
	</a>

Example repository

No response

Anything else?

No response

[jankeromnes]

Looks like ContextURL.getNormalizedURL doesn't actually support snapshot URLs: it will remove the snapshot/ prefix, then try to parse the rest as a URL, which fails:

gitpod/components/gitpod-protocol/src/context-url.ts

Lines 91 to 98 in 5ff578e

	const firstSegment = segments[0];
	if (firstSegment === PREBUILD_PREFIX ||
	firstSegment === INCREMENTAL_PREBUILD_PREFIX ||
	firstSegment === IMAGEBUILD_PREFIX ||
	firstSegment === SNAPSHOT_PREFIX ||
	firstSegment.startsWith(REFERRER_PREFIX)) {
	return segmentsToURL(1);
	}

[jankeromnes]

@geropl In #8099, you made the dashboard show "undefined" (hard-coded) instead of ws.contextURL in places where ContextURL.getNormalizedURL fails:

gitpod/components/dashboard/src/start/CreateWorkspace.tsx

Line 167 in 5ff578e

const normalizedContextUrl = ContextURL.getNormalizedURL(w.workspace)?.toString() || "undefined";

gitpod/components/dashboard/src/workspaces/WorkspaceEntry.tsx

Line 132 in 5ff578e

const normalizedContextUrl = ContextURL.getNormalizedURL(ws)?.toString() || "undefined";

However, I think it would be more helpful to show the actual value of ws.contextURL instead of "undefined", right?

[geropl]

However, I think it would be more helpful to show the actual value of ws.contextURL instead of "undefined", right?

@jankeromnes As it turns out: yes. But most importantly, we should review the usage og getNormalizedContextURL in server: I recall we used it there, and assumed it to always be an URL.

In general this issues shows our problems with our data model and how we treat contextURL. 😕

[geropl]

To expand a bit: The motivation with "undefined" was for us not to feel "safe" again with the current state, but press for a fix of the data model until we don't see something like this again.

[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.