Eclipse Che provides developer workspaces with everything needed to a code, build, test, run, and debug applications. To allow that, the developer workspaces provide four main components:
- Project source code
-
the source code of a project
- Browser-based IDE
-
a web-based IDE that is packaged by default in a workspace
- Tool dependencies
-
dependencies needed by developers to work on a project
- Application runtime
-
a replica of the environment where the application runs in production
Eclipse Che workspaces are managed by Kubernetes pods. Everything running in a Che developer workspace is running inside containers and is accessible from the embedded browser-based IDE. Because developer workspaces are containerized, they are highly portable. And because they only need a browser to be accessed, they are easily shareable.
Features and benefits
| Features | Traditional IDE workspaces | Eclipse Che workspaces |
|---|---|---|
Configuration and installation required |
Yes. |
No. |
Embedded tools |
Partial. IDE plug-ins need configuration. Dependencies need installation and configuration. Example: JDK, Maven, Node. |
Yes. Plug-ins provide their dependencies. |
Application runtime provided |
No. Developers have to manage that separately. |
Yes. Application runtime is replicated in the workspace. |
Shareable |
No.Or not easily |
Yes. Developer workspaces are shareable with a URL. |
Versionable |
No |
Yes. Devfiles live with project source code. |
Accessible from anywhere |
No. Installation is needed. |
Yes. Only requires a browser. |