[keycloak-dev] Locale cookie vs ui_locales priority

[Johannes Knutsen]

I did some quick work on extracting an LocaleSelectorSPI. Please have
a look at https://github.com/keycloak/keycloak/compare/master...knutz3n:feature/locale-spi.
Thoughts?

- Johannes

On Tue, Aug 14, 2018 at 8:32 PM, Stian Thorgersen <sthorger at redhat.com> wrote:
> The most common case is that the same user uses the browser. So if the user
> has actively changed the locale in Keycloak it should stay like that. I
> would actually suggest that if the user has changed the locale in Keycloak,
> you should have the locale added to the token so the application can update
> it's locale. That would result in all applications in the realm using the
> same locale for the user.
>
> Now if we change it to what you are suggesting you can end up with
> situations where the first login page is displayed in one language, then
> once the user has entered username/email it would end up switching to the
> locale associated with the user.
>
> If you really don't like that behaviour I would suggest we either introduce
> a LocaleSelectorSPI where you can change the logic with a custom provider.
> Alternatively, we could potentially add an option on the realm to be able to
> disable the locale selector on Keycloak, which means that the user wouldn't
> be able to change the locale and ui_locales would always take precedence. In
> either case I think it's best to keep the current behaviour as the default,
> with some way of being able to change it.
>
> On Tue, 14 Aug 2018 at 12:56, Johannes Knutsen <johannes at kodet.no> wrote:
>>
>> It currently works the way you describe it. The ui_locales parameter
>> is taking effect as long as the locale cookie isn't set. However, the
>> logic implies that you always expect the same user to authenticate and
>> our preference is that the user should get a login page matching the
>> locale of the client which sends the user to the login page, if the
>> client specified preferred locales as an ui_locales parameter.
>> Using the locale cookie to override the ui_locales parameter makes the
>> user experience inconsistent when moving from a client with a locale
>> different from the last logged in user's preferred locale.
>>
>> A proposed change is to change locale priority as follows:
>> 1. kc_locale query parameter. This updates the user's locale and locale
>> cookie.
>> 2. user profile locale if a user is authenticated. This updates the
>> locale cookie.
>> 3. ui_locales query parameter. If ui_locales contains the locale
>> cookie value, return it. Otherwise, return the first locale available
>> from ui_locales
>> 4. locale cookie
>> 5. accept language http header
>>
>> Is this change something you would consider merging if I create a pull
>> request? Any other adjustments or thoughts regarding such a change?
>>
>> - Johannes
>>
>> On Tue, Aug 14, 2018 at 9:16 AM, Stian Thorgersen <sthorger at redhat.com>
>> wrote:
>> > The way at least it was supposed to work was that the Locale cookie
>> > would
>> > only be set if a user has explicitly changed the locale. That way we can
>> > remember a users preference even when the user is logged out.
>> >
>> > Are you seeing ui_locales not taking affect without a user having used
>> > the
>> > locale drop-down?
>> >
>> > On Mon, 13 Aug 2018 at 23:42, Johannes Knutsen <johannes at kodet.no>
>> > wrote:
>> >>
>> >> Currently the LocaleHelper#getUserLocale chooses locale priority based
>> >> on the following order:
>> >>
>> >> 1. kc_locale query parameter
>> >> 2. Locale cookie
>> >> 3. User profile
>> >> 4. ui_locales query parameter
>> >> 5. Accept-Language http header
>> >>
>> >> We are building clients which uses the ui_locales parameter to select
>> >> localization of the login to match the locale of the client.
>> >> Since the locale cookie has a higher priority than the ui_locales
>> >> query parameter, the ui_locales query parameter is ignored for any
>> >> auth requests with a kc_locale cookie present.
>> >>
>> >> 1. Do you see any implications of prioritizing the ui_locales
>> >> parameter above the locale cookie when resolving locale?
>> >> 2. Are there reasons why the ui_locales does not update the locale
>> >> cookie value the same way kc_locale parameter does it?
>> >>
>> >> Best regards,
>> >> Johannes Knutsen
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