Adjust entity naming scheme to make it easier to make use of translated names

[emontnemery]

Background

Translations of entity components were recently added to core. In many cases entities could make use of those translations, this is in particular true for sensors and binary sensors.

Furthermore, the concept of unnamed entities which share the name of its containing device was added some time ago. This is done by setting the entity's name attribute to None (the default).

Problem

• Referencing translations for entity components is is fairly cumbersome; each integration needs to:

  • Set the translation_key property of entities
  • Add the translation key to its strings.json with a link to the corresponding translations in the entity component.

• While the concept of unnamed entities which share the name of its containing device is useful the way it's implemented is error prone and confusing.

Suggestion

• Entity names default to a sentinel value indicating the entity is unnamed instead of to None
• Unnamed binary_sensor, sensor and possibly others with a device class should automatically fall back to the translations provided by the entity component
• Device name should be opt-in, by setting the entity's name attribute to None
  • During a deprecation period, if no device class and no name is set, warn, but keep current behavior (device name)

[balloob]

I think that specifically sensor and binary sensor benefit from being named after device class. I think that things like media players/garage doors, although there are device class names, generally the device itself has a name.

I think it's a good change overall but it should always do the same. So if name is omitted, HA will figure out a name based on device class or the current very bad default of unnamed device (for an entity). If a user wants to use the device name, explicitly pass name=None to entity description.

[frenck]

This is accepted and is currently being implemented.

../Frenck