Enhance the mock data to include mock extensions

[chrisguindon]

Pushing code to our staging server and waiting 10 minutes to see the result is not efficient so we need to run the application in dev mode with mock data.

We are open to suggestions if there is a better way for us to work on this! I've asked for some additional details here: https://github.com/EclipseFdn/open-vsx.org/issues/343#issuecomment-786187489

[spoenemann]

Feel free to modify and enhance the MockRegistryService as you need. The JSON data formats are defined here: https://github.com/eclipse/openvsx/blob/master/webui/src/extension-registry-types.ts

[chrisguindon]

Thanks, MIro, please note that I am not expecting you to do all the work. However, we need to find ways to get more people involved with this project.

I am trying to raise issues in the hope that we can make it easier for people to get involved.

[kineticsquid]

@chrisguindon Is this still an issue?

[chrisguindon]

@kineticsquid I would say yes.

Step to reproduce:

1. Follow the instructions from the getting started: https://github.com/EclipseFdn/open-vsx.org#getting-started
2. Visit the app in the browser: http://localhost:3000/
3. No extensions.

Because of this, a front-end developer that wishes to provide a patch to the CSS can't really see his work in action since running the app in dev mode does not include any extensions. However, what we have now does allow us to test simple changes such as adding a menu link in the template.

The feedback loop takes more than 10-15 minutes (assuming you're a developer that can push to staging). This makes it really hard for a front-end developer to do work on this project.

In most of our projects, the feedback loop is measured in seconds not minutes.

[kineticsquid]

@chrisguindon There is work going on now to capability to have an instance act as a cache for another instance. Either a complete copy or a curated set of extensions, the ability for one instance to be populated from another. Seems this might be a solution for this test data.

[chrisguindon]

@kineticsquid Maybe...

It would be nice if we could query the API of a running instance in order to view content when running the App in dev mode.

For our use case, we don't have a back-end service running on our local machines.

I think we can also achieve what we need with the solution suggested by @spoenemann via https://github.com/EclipseFdn/open-vsx.org/issues/389#issuecomment-786606806

At the end of the day, we simply need a solution where we can easily start an instance of the front-end application which includes extensions so that we can modify and view our changes before pushing to staging.