feat: notification to update workspace to latest template version should warn user of restart

[sreya]

Users may not be aware that updating the workspace will restart their workspace, resulting in them losing their current working session. We should re-prompt them if they hit Update and warn them that doing so will restart their workspace, interrupting their session.

[EhabY]

Would it not make more sense to show this warning in the same dialog? Would re-prompting be more explicit so users don't skip it 🤔?

[sreya]

Yeah I think it's better to reprompt, people tend to skim and not read the whole thing

[EhabY]

Yeah I think it's better to reprompt, people tend to skim and not read the whole thing

I'm not so sure about the UX here, current we have 3 places that can trigger the Update modal:

• Through a notification after clicking Update on the button there
• Clicking Update workspace in the status bar
• Executing the command Coder: Update Workspace

So currently, they are 2 steps (trigger as mentioned above -> click "Update" in the modal), do we want to make this a 3 step in all of these scenarios? I can see enhancing the message perhaps, currently it's:

Update ${createWorkspaceIdentifier(this.workspace)} to the latest version?

Updating will restart your workspace which stops any running processes and may result in the loss of unsaved work.

Which mentions the restart though it could be made more loud

[matifali]

@EhabY, what do you think about changing it to?

Use a two-step flow:

1. Keep the existing notification to inform the user of the available update
2. When the user clicks "Update," show a modal confirmation (showWarningMessage with { modal: true }) before proceeding

Suggested modal copy:

"Updating to the latest template version will restart your workspace. Any unsaved work or running processes will be interrupted."
[Update and Restart]

[EhabY]

@matifali
The two step flow is essentially identical to what we have now (I'll double check all the code paths), but yes having Update and Restart is smart 👀

The one small nit I have is that this restarts the workspace NOT the connection

[matifali]

The one small nit I have is that this restarts the workspace NOT the connection

I guess it's safe to assume that when a workspace restarts, the connection also drops and VS Code needs to re-establish it.

The two step flow is essentially identical to what we have now

If you can show how it will look before and after, that would really help.

[EhabY]

I've merged an improvement that explicitly says "Update and Restart" on the button in the modal, we considered re-prompting but it might be excessive and we are not sure if this address the pain point. See the discussion here: #792 (comment)

[EhabY]

No need to add more than #792