Revised following review comments

Framework/Kernel/src/FacilityInfo.cpp

@@ -42,10 +42,6 @@ FacilityInfo::FacilityInfo(const Poco::XML::Element *elem)
       m_zeroPadding(0), m_delimiter(), m_extensions(), m_archiveSearch(),
       m_instruments(), m_noFilePrefix(), m_multiFileLimit(100),
       m_computeResources() {
-  // if (m_name.empty()) {
-  //   g_log.error("Facility name is not defined");
-  //   throw std::runtime_error("Facility name is not defined");
-  // }
 
   // Fill the various fields from the XML
   fillZeroPadding(elem);

Framework/Kernel/src/InstrumentInfo.cpp

@@ -39,9 +39,6 @@ InstrumentInfo::InstrumentInfo(const FacilityInfo *f,
     : m_facility(f) {
 
   m_name = elem->getAttribute("name");
-  // if (m_name.empty()) {
-  //   throw std::runtime_error("Instrument name is not defined");
-  // }
 
   // The string to separate the instrument name and the run number.
   m_delimiter = elem->getAttribute("delimiter");

Framework/PythonInterface/test/python/plugins/algorithms/WorkflowAlgorithms/ReflectometryILLPreprocessTest.py

@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 #   Institut Laue - Langevin & CSNS, Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS
 # SPDX - License - Identifier: GPL - 3.0 +
 
-from mantid.kernel import ConfigService
+from mantid.kernel import config
 from mantid.api import mtd
 from mantid.simpleapi import ReflectometryILLPreprocess
 import numpy.testing
@@ -16,6 +16,20 @@ import math
 
 
 class ReflectometryILLPreprocessTest(unittest.TestCase):
+    def setUp(self):
+        self._facility = config['default.facility']
+        self._instrument = config['default.instrument']
+
+        config['default.facility'] = 'ILL'
+        config['default.instrument'] = 'D17'
+
+    def tearDown(self):
+        if self._facility:
+            config['default.facility'] = self._facility
+        if self._instrument:
+            config['default.instrument'] = self._instrument
+        mtd.clear()
+
     def tearDown(self):
         mtd.clear()
 
@@ -120,8 +134,6 @@ class ReflectometryILLPreprocessTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertAlmostEqual(numpy.rad2deg(two_theta_fg), 0., delta=0.1)
 
     def testTwoInputFiles(self):
-        ConfigService.Instance().setString("default.facility",   "ILL")
-        ConfigService.Instance().setString("default.instrument", "D17")
         outWSName = 'outWS'
         args = {
             'Run': 'ILL/D17/317369, ILL/D17/317370.nxs',
@@ -134,8 +146,6 @@ class ReflectometryILLPreprocessTest(unittest.TestCase):
         outWS = alg.getProperty('OutputWorkspace').value
         self.assertEqual(outWS.getAxis(0).getUnit().caption(), 'Wavelength')
         self.assertEqual(mtd.getObjectNames(), [])
-        ConfigService.Instance().setString("default.facility",   " ")
-        ConfigService.Instance().setString("default.instrument", " ")
 
 
 if __name__ == "__main__":

Testing/SystemTests/lib/systemtests/systemtesting.py

@@ -1200,7 +1200,7 @@ class MantidFrameworkConfig:
         config.reset()
 
         # With the default facility changed from ISIS to nothing (EMPTY),
-        # the following setting is put in place to avoid failure of tests,
+        # the following setting is put in place to avoid failure of tests
         ConfigService.Instance().setString("default.facility", "ISIS")
 
         # Up the log level so that failures can give useful information

docs/source/conf.py

@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ mantid_init_config_keys = ('datasearch.directories', 'defaultsave.directory', 'd
                            'default.instrument')
 
 # With the default facility changed from ISIS to nothing (EMPTY),
-# the following setting is put in place to avoid failure of tests,
+# the following setting is put in place to avoid failure of tests
 ConfigService.Instance().setString("default.facility", "ISIS")
 
 mantid_config_reset = [

docs/source/release/v6.1.0/mantidworkbench.rst

@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@ New and Improved
 - New plot interactions: Double click a legend to hide it, double click a curve to open it in the plot config dialog.
 - It is now possible to overplot bin data from the matrix workspace view.
 - Improved the performance of the table workspace display for large datasets
-- A new empty facility with empty instrument is made default facility now, and
-  user has to select their choice of facility and instrument for the first time, including ISIS
+- A new empty facility with empty instrument is the default facility now, and
+  user has to select their choice of facility (including ISIS) and instrument for the first time
 
 Bugfixes
 --------
@@ -21,6 +21,8 @@ Bugfixes
 - For the elliptical shell of integrated peaks, the background is correct when plotting with varying background thicknesses
 - Fixed a bug which occurred when switching to a log scale in sliceviewer with negative data.
 - Fixed a bug that use wrong help links in certain interfaces
-- First time dialog box will not appear recurrently
+- If the facility in Mantid.user.properties is empty, it is consistently reflected as empty in the GUI
+- First time dialog box will not appear recurrently, if user selected their choice of facility
+  and instrument at least once and checked "Do not show again until next version"
 
 :ref:`Release 6.1.0 <v6.1.0>`