Redirect to IDE from browser

Hi,

I want to provide an update on this as I continue with my investigations on this flow.

I was able to trigger a redirect from Chrome back to Intellij using the following as the redirect URL (I got some ideas from here -  https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-65879), but the endpoint isn't being executed as I'd hoped.

idea://open?url=https://127.0.0.1:63340/api/intellij/pkce/redirect

I can hit my endpoint from postman by issuing a GET request directly to:

https://127.0.0.1:63340/api/intellij/pkce/redirect

However I was hoping that by providing the URL in the following format that Intellij would call my endpoint, but it does not unfortunately.

idea://open?url=https://127.0.0.1:63340/api/intellij/pkce/redirect

Could you help me understand if it is possible to hit the endpoint in this way? My RestService implementation is as follows:

public class BrowserRedirectListener extends RestService {

    @NotNull
    @Override
    protected String getServiceName() {
        return "intellij/pkce/redirect";
    }

    @Override
    protected boolean isMethodSupported(@NotNull HttpMethod httpMethod) {
        return httpMethod == HttpMethod.GET;
    }

    @Nullable
    @Override
    public String execute(@NotNull QueryStringDecoder queryStringDecoder, @NotNull FullHttpRequest fullHttpRequest, @NotNull ChannelHandlerContext channelHandlerContext) {
        notifyEvent("Redirect Successful.");
        sendOk(fullHttpRequest, channelHandlerContext);
        return "Redirect Completed Successfully!";
    }

    @Override
    protected boolean isHostTrusted(@NotNull FullHttpRequest request) {
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    protected boolean isHostTrusted(@NotNull FullHttpRequest request, @NotNull QueryStringDecoder queryStringDecoder) {
        return true;
    }

    private void notifyEvent(String message) {
        Notifications.Bus.notify(new Notification("redirect", "Redirect notification", message, NotificationType.INFORMATION));
    }
}

If this is not possible, would it be possible to focus on the Intellij application from within the RestService implementation? So when we call the endpoint at /api/intellij/pkce/redirect we can focus the correct Intellij window to the user (emulating the redirect behavior I'm trying to achieve using idea:// syntax?

Appreciate your help,

David

I found a way to get this to work using Jetbrains Toolbox and by providing an implementation of JBProtocolCommand and registering it in plugin.xml. Using toolbox, I can call my protocol handler using the following and retrieve the query parameters from the browser redirect:

jetbrains://idea/pkce/redirect

However this is a little clunky because as an Enterprise, we have tight control over what versions of Jetbrains are installed and available to us. Therefore the functionality provided by toolbox are mostly not required, and it would be preferred that we didn't have to install it to use the protocol handler.

Can a protocol handler implementation be registered and invoked without flowing through Toolbox? I would need control over what version of Intellij is opened (Intellij Ultimate vs Intellij CE) as different developers use different versions of Intellij in my company, so ideally there would be different protocol handlers within the same plugin that could handle requests depending on which version of Intellij they have installed.

Thanks, David

Hi, sorry for delay. There is some information here, does it help https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IJSDK-602?

Yann Cebron - currently I have been able to use the protocol handler as detailed in your link successfully (see previous posts above).

My problem is that it mandates that Toolbox is installed, but I was looking for another approach that would achieve the same thing but without the need for Toolbox.

I explored a few options as detailed in this thread (e.g. using a RestService but had issues using the idea:// protocol), but I didn't have any success beyond using Toolbox and a custom protocol handler.

If you would have any suggestions I would appreciate them.

Thanks, David

Hi, wanted to bump this post again to gain insight on any other options that might be available.

Thanks,

David

Hello David, I would recommend you to use the local web servers and a `http://localhost:<port>` redirect approach in your setup. You are right that `jetbrains://` protocol is handled by the toolbox. Moreover, it's quite tricky to get the right IDE instance activated from the. Right now we do not have any specific URL handler inside the IntelliJ Platform on which you could count on. 

Please note, that the IntelliJ HTTP server port is not always fixed. IDE may use neighboring ports if some ports are busy. You may get the port from the API by calling

BuiltInServerManager.getInstance().port

 I would recommend using a more specific URL on the callback that has your plugin name or something in the URL to avoid clashing with other plugins. (The one in the code above is not the best "intellij/pkce/redirect" and may clash)

You'd still need to implement the PCKE processing in the IDE plugin.