Feature request: Load new labels if label set changes

[FWDekker]

After having loaded a predefined label set into a repo, I would like to be able to "sync" changes with this or other label sets if the predefined label set changes.

Motivation

I have a few use cases in mind that I have encountered multiple times myself.

1. If I discover that my predefined label set is missing a useful label, then all repositories that used this predefined label set will be missing this label as well. I want to be able to add this label to the predefined label set, and then press a few buttons in each affected repository to import the new label from the updated predefined label set.
   • A related scenario is if I create a whole new predefined label set. Imagine that I currently have labels such as "bug", "feature", "on-hold", and so on, and now I create a new label set with labels such as "QA/Windows", "QA/Ubuntu", "QA/macOS" and so on. It would be great if I could import all labels from this new label set with the press of a button.
2. If I discover that a label description is too vague, I will have to copy-paste an updated description to all repos that used this label set. This is bothersome. Instead, I want to be able to update the description in my predefined label set and then press a few buttons in the affected repositories to automatically update the description of this label.

Implementation

While it might be possible to implement a full-fledged synchronisation system that detects label renaming and allows label set merging and so on, I think this is overkill for most use cases. I would imagine the system to work something like this:

1. On the "labels" page of a repository, I can click a button "Import Labels", located next to the "New Label" button.
2. I get a dropdown box with a list of all predefined label sets, similar to what a user would see if they go to the "labels" page of a repository that does not have labels yet.
3. After selecting a label set, a list of all labels in the predefined label set appears. The user can select any number of labels from this list and can then press the "Import" button at the bottom.
4. Selected labels that do not yet exist in the repo are added to the repository. Selected labels that already exist in the repo have their colour and description updated to the version in the predefined label set.

For a good UX I can imagine that the following would also be useful:

1. In the list of labels from step 3:
   • labels that are the same in the repo and the label set are greyed out and a message is displayed saying "this label already exists in the repo",
   • labels that already exist but have a different colour or description have extra information that shows what the current description and colour are and what they would become if this label were added,
   • and labels that do not exist yet have a message saying "this label does not exist in the repo".
2. A confirmation message appears in between step 3 and 4 detailing exactly what will change if the user confirms their decision: Which labels will be added and which labels will be updated?

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Thank you for reading! Critique and questions are much appreciated.

[stale]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs during the next 2 weeks. Thank you for your contributions.

[genti]

any update on this feature?