Allow [or document how to] save/load local server configuration

[DiamondJoseph]

I'm trying to move a legacy service running on Tomcat such that the development environment uses local dummy services instead of needing the live service. Therefore, I need a repeatable server configuration with minimal configuration, such that users who are familiar with Tomcat but not devcontainers can make quick use of it with a basic readme.

My devcontainer json contains the following, so I have a local version of Tomcat, Java and have the plugin installed by default:

	// Features to add to the dev container. More info: https://containers.dev/features.
	"features": {
		"ghcr.io/devcontainers/features/java:1": {
			"installMaven": true,
			"version": "21",
			"additionalVersions": "8" // Java 21 required for pre-commit, actually targets Java 8
		},
		"ghcr.io/prulloac/devcontainer-features/pre-commit:1.0.3": {},
    	"ghcr.io/devcontainers-extra/features/tomcat-sdkman:2": {
			"version": "9.0.118",  // Latest version in SDKMan
			"jdkVersion": "8"
		}
	},

	// Configure tool-specific properties.
	"customizations": {
		"vscode": {
			"extensions": [
				"redhat.vscode-community-server-connector"
			]
		}
	}

When I tried putting the json exposed by Edit server in .vscode/servers.json the launch failed due to trying to connect and run the devcontainer on the remote. Can I put this anywhere (or as a launch.json entry?) or have an option for Create new server [from json] so that I can have a simple 1-3 line readme on how to launch the service entirely locally?

[DiamondJoseph]

My /tmp/tmpServerConnector-Tomcat 9.x--356-U3hxV5G4kUZP-.json looks something like this:

{
  "args.override.boolean": "false",
  "args.program.override.string": "start",
  "args.shutdown.program.override.string": "stop",
  "args.shutdown.vm.override.string": "-Djava.util.logging.config.file=\"/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/tomcat/9.0.118/conf/logging.properties\" -Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager -Djdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048 -Djava.protocol.handler.pkgs=org.apache.catalina.webresources -Dorg.apache.catalina.security.SecurityListener.UMASK=0027 -Dcatalina.base=\"/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/tomcat/9.0.118\" -Dcatalina.home=\"/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/tomcat/9.0.118\" -Djava.io.tmpdir=\"/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/tomcat/9.0.118/temp\"",
  "args.vm.override.string": "-Djava.util.logging.config.file=\"/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/tomcat/9.0.118/conf/logging.properties\" -Djava.util.logging.manager=org.apache.juli.ClassLoaderLogManager -Djdk.tls.ephemeralDHKeySize=2048 -Djava.protocol.handler.pkgs=org.apache.catalina.webresources -Dorg.apache.catalina.security.SecurityListener.UMASK=0027 -Dcatalina.base=\"/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/tomcat/9.0.118\" -Dcatalina.home=\"/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/tomcat/9.0.118\" -Djava.io.tmpdir=\"/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/tomcat/9.0.118/temp\"",
  "id": "Tomcat 9.x",
  "id-set": "true",
  "org.jboss.tools.rsp.server.typeId": "org.jboss.ide.eclipse.as.server.tomcat.90",
  "server.base.dir": "/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/tomcat/9.0.118",
  "server.classpath.additions": "",
  "server.deploy.dir": "${server.base.dir}/webapps/",
  "server.home.dir": "/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/tomcat/9.0.118",
  "server.http.host": "localhost",
  "server.http.port": "8080",
  "vm.install.path": "/usr/local/sdkman/candidates/java/8.0.502-tem",
  "deployables": {
    "/workspaces/ras-webapp/ras-jobs-ws/target/ras-jobs-ws.war": {
      "label": "/workspaces/ras-webapp/ras-jobs-ws/target/ras-jobs-ws.war",
      "path": "/workspaces/ras-webapp/ras-jobs-ws/target/ras-jobs-ws.war",
      "options": {}
    }
  }
}

So it's only the Deployment mapping, and the JDK & Tomcat PATH that is required, but I want one step rather than 3-4 steps.

[DiamondJoseph]

Appears to be a duplicate of #237 and redhat-developer/vscode-rsp-ui#233 which offers some more options for how to solve the requirement of:
"I want to be able to create a pre-configured server, from a file in the source of the project, so that I can use it for developing in a containerised environment"