Add support for recent documents

[jtpio]

References

Fixes #1294

Code changes

• Add a new tab with recent documents
• Documentation
• UI tests

User-facing changes

notebook-recents.mp4

Backwards-incompatible changes

None

[github-actions]

👈 Launch a Binder on branch jtpio/notebook/recents

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Adds persistent recent-document history to Notebook, exposed through the tree view and File menu.

Changes:

• Implements local-storage-backed recent document tracking.
• Adds the Recents tab, Open Recent menu integration, styling, and documentation.
• Adds end-to-end tests for listing, reopening, refreshing, clearing, and forgetting entries.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 11 out of 17 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
app/package.json	Enables the recent-documents menu plugin.
CHANGELOG.md	Updates a historical CVE link.
docs/source/_static/images/recents.png	Adds the Recents UI screenshot.
docs/source/recents.md	Documents recent-document behavior and configuration.
docs/source/user-documentation.md	Adds the new documentation page to navigation.
notebook/app.py	Exposes the server root to frontend configuration.
packages/docmanager-extension/package.json	Adds settings and translation dependencies.
packages/docmanager-extension/src/index.ts	Implements persistence and recent-document commands.
packages/tree-extension/package.json	Adds dependencies for the Recents panel.
packages/tree-extension/src/index.ts	Adds the Recents tree tab and item actions.
packages/tree-extension/style/base.css	Styles recent-document timestamps.
ui-tests/test/recents.spec.ts	Tests recent-document workflows.
yarn.lock	Updates dependency resolutions.

Suppressed comments (2)

packages/docmanager-extension/src/index.ts:245

• Parent directories consume the same bounded list even though this PR filters them out of every user-facing Recents view. Since the document manager records the document and then its parent, maxNumberRecents: 1 leaves only the hidden directory and shows zero recent documents; larger limits similarly retain fewer documents than configured. Exclude directory records before applying the document quota.

    recents[event] = list.slice(0, this._maxRecentsLength);

packages/docmanager-extension/src/index.ts:449

• Checking only that these values are arrays lets malformed entries such as null or objects without root/path into the cache. The getters and addRecent then dereference those entries, so one valid-JSON but invalid local-storage value can break recent tracking on every page until storage is manually cleared. Validate each persisted item before accepting it.

        const data = JSON.parse(raw);
        recents = {
          opened: Array.isArray(data.opened) ? data.opened : [],
          closed: Array.isArray(data.closed) ? data.closed : [],
        };

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