Description of problem:

Seems that when adding a repository to a product, there is no validation in the web ui as far as what the URL format/level should be. Adding http://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/16/Fedora/x86_64 and then trying to sync fails with a very generic "Error syncing!" message. As the end user, this doesn't really tell me what is wrong. Looking at pulp.log, I get a better error message:  RepoError: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: . Please verify its path and try again

Would it be possible to at least bubble this up and display it maybe as a tooltip of "expanded" error message in the web ui? Also, maybe some documentation in the ui explaining what the url should look like?

Additional info:

Log in /var/log/pulp/pulp.log shows:

2011-12-07 14:19:56,890 4065:139725367125760: pulp.server.api.synchronizers:INFO: synchronizers:617 Fetching repo to </var/lib/pulp//repos/ACME_Corporation/Locker/Software/Fedora_16> with verify_options <{'checksum': True, 'size': True}>
2011-12-07 14:19:57,411 4065:139725367125760: pulp.server.tasking.task:ERROR: task:455 Task failed: Task 72e027ba-2108-11e1-8ab9-52540089523b: _sync(ACME_Corporation-Software-Fedora_16, synchronizer=<pulp.server.api.synchronizers.YumSynchronizer object at 0x7f146c041950>, skip_dict={}, max_speed=None, threads=4, progress_callback=<bound method RepoSyncTask.progress_callback of <pulp.server.api.repo_sync_task.RepoSyncTask object at 0x7f146c041790>>)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pulp/server/tasking/task.py", line 404, in run
    result = self.callable(*self.args, **self.kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pulp/server/api/repo_sync.py", line 260, in _sync
    progress_callback, synchronizer, max_speed, threads)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pulp/server/api/repo_sync.py", line 338, in fetch_content
    progress_callback, max_speed, threads)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pulp/server/api/synchronizers.py", line 153, in sync
    max_speed=max_speed, threads=threads)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/pulp/server/api/synchronizers.py", line 620, in remote
    verify_options=verify_options)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/grinder/RepoFetch.py", line 137, in fetchYumRepo
    self.setupYumInfo()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/grinder/RepoFetch.py", line 108, in setupYumInfo
    info.setUp()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/grinder/YumInfo.py", line 340, in setUp
    skip=self.skip)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/grinder/activeobject.py", line 82, in __call__
    return self.object(self, *args, **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/grinder/activeobject.py", line 262, in __call__
    return self.__call(method, args, kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/grinder/activeobject.py", line 238, in __call
    return self.__rmi(method.name, args, kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/grinder/activeobject.py", line 136, in __rmi
    raise Exception(ex)
Exception: Traceback (most recent call last):

  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/grinder/activeobject.py", line 424, in process
    retval = method(*args, **kwargs)

  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/grinder/YumInfo.py", line 94, in getDownloadItems
    self.__getRepoData()

  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/grinder/YumInfo.py", line 167, in __getRepoData
    for ftype in self.__getRepoXmlFileTypes():

  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/grinder/YumInfo.py", line 154, in __getRepoXmlFileTypes
    return self.repo.repoXML.fileTypes()

  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 1454, in <lambda>
    repoXML = property(fget=lambda self: self._getRepoXML(),

  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 1450, in _getRepoXML
    raise Errors.RepoError, msg

RepoError: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: . Please verify its path and try again