Intent to prototype & ship: submitting element directionality via the dirname attribute

[Vincent Hilla]

Summary: A new attribute that enables submitting the directionality of an element within an HTML form. Languages are written left to right or right to left and this attribute enables certain form control elements, such as text input, to include this directionality information in the form submission. This is relevant, e.g. when wanting to display submitted content correctly.

For a detailed explanation, see https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-html-dir#reportingdirection 

Bug: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=675943

Specification: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#submitting-element-directionality:-the-dirname-attribute

Standards Body: WHATWG

Platform coverage: all

Preference: n/a

DevTools Bug: n/a

Link to standards-positions discussion: https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/782 

Other browsers:

• Blink: shipped, since 2011

• WebKit: shipped, since 2020

• See https://caniuse.com/?search=dirname 

Web-platform-tests:

• https://wpt.fyi/results/html/semantics/forms/attributes-common-to-form-controls

• https://wpt.fyi/results/html/dom/reflection-forms.html

• https://github.com/web-platform-tests/wpt/pull/39664 

• Tests for dirname on textarea are being written

Example: see https://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-html-dir#reportingdirection 

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Intent to ship:

As of Firefox 114 I intend to turn the dirname attribute on by default. Status in other browsers is Blink: shipped, WebKit: shipped.

Bug to turn on by default: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=675943 

Standard: https://html.spec.whatwg.org/#submitting-element-directionality:-the-dirname-attribute