FR: Ask user whether to init a new repo if adding existing repo fails

[real-yfprojects]

The problem

In #1782 a user confused the two options for adding a repo to vorta and tried to initialize a repo by using the add existing repo dialog.

Requested Solution

When adding an existing repo fails because the repo wasn't initialized yet, Vorta should inform the user about that and ask them if they want to initialize the repo instead. Then Vorta could open the init repo dialog and prefill the fields that are also present in the add repo dialog.

Alternatives

• Prevent confusion over the two options.

[SAMAD101]

I've looked into the code, it seems like when a repository fails to be added to Vorta (doesn't matter whether through New Repository... or Existing Repository...), we simply get the same error message, "Unable to add your repository."
In src/vorta/views/repo_add_dialog.py :

def run_result(self, result):
        self.saveButton.setEnabled(True)
        if result['returncode'] == 0:
            self.added_repo.emit(result)
            self.accept()
        else:
            self._set_status(self.tr('Unable to add your repository.'))

I think we can add a differentiating (if there is really not, I might've failed to see it) parameter between new repo and existing repo , we can accomplish this. Suggestions are most welcome :)

[real-yfprojects]

You don't need to addsa parameter because you can use inheritance. RepoWindow will never be instanciated it serves as a super class implementin, common features of the two dialogs for
adding a repo to Vorta.

[SaurabhCodesAI]

Hi @m3nu,

I noticed that #1816 also addresses this issue, but it appears to be inactive. My implementation takes a different approach using signals, which avoids circular imports.

I have been studying the Vorta codebase for over a week to understand how the components work together, and I looked into this issue while testing locally.

When trying to add an existing repository and borg returns "does not exist" or "is not a valid repository", the application currently shows a generic error message. That is not very helpful to the user.

I implemented a fix that catches those specific errors inside ExistingRepoWindow.run_result(). It now shows a confirmation dialog asking whether the user wants to initialize a new repository at that location instead.

If the user selects yes, it opens the AddRepoWindow with the URL and name already filled in. If the user selects no, it continues with the normal error flow.

I will open a PR shortly. The changes have been manually tested by me on Linux with borg 1.2.8 and behave as expected.

[LY871]

Hi @m3nu
my plan is to update the run_result logic in RepoWindow to detect connection failures. If it fails, I'll use a QMessageBox with self.tr() strings to ask the user if they want to initialize a new repo instead. This helps users who point to empty folders.