Rethink where we store the "last used" and "favourite" state

[krassowski]

Currently this is stored in StateDB; this is persisted with workspace data and works when user changes browser, but sometimes persistence fails and it has an undesirable interaction with switching workspaces. We should consider storing these metadata separately using a different instance of StateDB which is independent of workspaces.

[krassowski]

I can reproduce that after restart of a pod in nebari the "last used" and "favourite" column status gets cleaned.

[krassowski]

There is something very broken with the workspaces on nebari/JupyterHub. A new auto-workspace gets created each time I try to switch to an existing workspace.

[krassowski]

Ah, it seems that JupyterLab prevents opening given workspace if it is already open in any other tab in the browser.

[krassowski]

It seems like storing a JSON file on the server would work well.

[ericdatakelly]

Ah, it seems that JupyterLab prevents opening given workspace if it is already open in any other tab in the browser.

Does this include cases in which a user restarts a server and there is an old jlab in another tab? For example, I click the nebari icon in the upper left of the jlab workspace and it opens the nebari launcher in another tab. Then I stop my server. Later, or the next day, I want to continue my work, so from the nebari tab I start the jlab server and it opens jlab in the current tab. I now have an old jlab tab and a new jlab tab.

[krassowski]

Does this include cases in which a user restarts a server and there is an old jlab in another tab

Yes.