IdentityProviderBranding field name should provide lang and direction

[aphillips]

IdentityProviderBranding
https://w3c-fedid.github.io/FedCM/#dictdef-identityproviderbranding
https://w3c-fedid.github.io/FedCM/#dom-identityproviderbranding-name

name, of type USVString
A user-recognizable name for the IDP.

There is no language or direction metadata associated with these natural language string values (see String-Meta and our Best Practices for more info).

[npm1]

+1 to Christian's comment in the other issue that generally names are not localizable. Although it can be argued that company names are, they are not directly translateable so the IDP would have to provide a dictionary of languages to names in that language. Is that what you are suggesting?

[aphillips]

Please note that we are not requesting localizability here, merely that there be a means of associating language and direction metadata with the name so that it can be displayed/pronounced/processed appropriately

[cbiesinger]

That might more or less work for this issue, but for #680 how do you expect the IDP to provide a language/direction? Not a single website has ever asked me what language or direction my name is in, and I don't even think that question makes sense for names.

[aphillips]

Usually it is computed from the user's locale or locale preference. I agree it would be an unusual interface to specifically ask you for the language of your name. The base direction is known (or can be known) from the inputdir of an HTML form (or from other APIs). The language or direction can also be defaulted to some value or set in the case of language to und when completely unknown.

[philsmart]

In SAML Metadata, there is a specification that describes how entities (IdP in the case here) can 'provide information necessary for user agents to present effective user interfaces'. This might be useful here. Essentially, an IdP can do exactly what @npm1 suggests, have more than one displayName, privacy statement etc. in different languages. For example (in XML):

<mdui:DisplayName xml:lang="en">Cardiff University</mdui:DisplayName>
<mdui:DisplayName xml:lang="cy">Prifysgol Caerdydd</mdui:DisplayName>

The Identity Provider discovery service can then use the locale of the browser to determine which to show (with a default).

[philsmart]

If the SAML case is of interest, here are the top 6 IdP languages used in the R&E eduGAIN federation of federations:

9762 en
989 de
801 zh
522 fr
300 pt-br
298 es

[hlflanagan]

Adding language makes sense; adding direction is not harmful but is questionably useful. (Discussed 11 February 2025 call). @cbiesinger to make a spec PR