"Search for Repositories" usability issues

"Search for Repositories" usability issues

I want to bring all the repos on a given drive into the Repositories list, grouped by parent folder, using the "Search for Repositories" function. This is proving to be very difficult.

Here are the issues I have found:

• The list of repos in the "Search for Repositories" dialog is initially pre-populated with some, but not all, repos on the filesystem. It is unknown which paths have been searched to produce this initial list. There is no way to clear these initial results.
• Choosing a search location and performing a search leaves this initial set of repos polluting the search results. The found repos are mixed in with the initial selection, which is unhelpful and confusing.
• The search results cannot be sorted.
• There is no way to specify which group - if any - the selections will be added to. In fact, it seems completely arbitrary where the added repos will end up. I found that even though I might create a new group and select it before running the search, sometimes the repos will be added to a different group, or no group at all. If they end up in the wrong group, the result is a complete mess, and we may as well delete everything and try to start again.

Here are some ideas that might improve the experience:

• Clear the list of found repos when a manual search is performed, so that the results only include the requested search results.
• Either do not pre-populate the list of found repos, or indicate which paths have been searched to produce it.
• Provide a way to specify which group the repos will be added to. This could be achieved by providing the option to choose a target location at the end of the Search for repositories dialog.
  • This could also be achieved if a "Find and add repositories" context command were provided on the Repositories list, i.e. when right-clicking on an existing group, or right-clicking on no item.
• Allow the list of found repos to be sorted by path and/or selection status.