Developers cannot add any file after creating new project
Summary
With #2534 (closed), GitLab has new feature for developers to create empty project in a group. However, after creating a project developer is not able to Merge any file into the new empty project since the master branch is automatically protected and the repository is empty.
Attempts/Reproduce
Tried couple of things as developer which resulted in discovering more bugs:
-
Create new Issue, from the issue create new branch. This error out saying
Failed to create a branch for this issue. Please try again.This is because since the project is empty there is no source branch. -
Add new new file from GitLab Project UI but error out
You are not allowed to push into this branch. Also, Creating new file did not give option/checkbox toStart a new merge request with these changeswhich is usually available if developer tries to add/update a file from GitLab UI. -
Create a project from Template thinking it will populate the files and the repository will not be empty. However, creating new project from Template as a developer just hung.
Import in progressmessage stuck indefinitely in the new project page. Not able to cancel or undo.
-
As developer, Import project from other gitlab repo with only readme file. But the import failed too with below message although the project has been created.
So, developer seems to be stuck after creating a new project and cannot Merge any files into the project since the project is empty.
Suggestion
If developer is creating new project, give an option/checkbox to auto create atleast a README file. So that developer can create an issue, from the issue create a branch and push code feature branch for a Merge Request into master.
OR
Give option to Start a new merge request (or branch) with these change when developer tries to add new file into empty repository.
For now, this feature is not providing any benefit which we expected. I may be missing something.