New translation ignores pathauto_state

I supposed it was possible to have different pathauto settings for lets say an English node and it's French translation (automatic or not), but as I see this isn't the case as the pathauto setting is unique on the node (not unique per language).

In this light, the patch does the right job.

is reasonable expected behavior , thanks.

I don't think this should be changed.

The current code's comment says:

// If a translation is being created and no path alias exists for its
// language, by default an alias needs to be generated. The standard
// behavior is defaulting to FALSE when an entity already exists, hence we
// need to override it here.

This is UX-related logic, and the problem it's trying to solve it the generation of URLs (path)automatically,
without the user having to go through the vertical tabs in order to locate and check the Generate automatic URL alias checkbox.

As it is now:
a) Entities without a URL alias, will get one from pathauto, only if they don't have one, without the user having to do anything
b) On subsequent loading of the form, during edits, the checkbox is unchecked, since there is a URL alias already there. The user is then free to overwrite the pathauto generated alias.

If we go with the suggested code change, when adding a translation, the user always has to go and enter a URL alias, otherwise the translation will not get one. The UX-overhead of unchecking the checkbox is minimal, in comparison to always having to locate the vertical tabs and check that same checkbox.

I am setting this to works-as-designed and will be happy to get some counter-argumentation in case I missed sth important.

I see your point too; it seems to me that both cases deserve to be backed up by the implementation.

So, instead of removing the existing logic as suggested in the original patch, I think we should look for a way to extend it or parametrize it in order to be able to cover the case you are describing.

For example:

    if (module_exists('pathauto') && 
      $handler->getSourceLanguage() && 
      variable_get('entity_translation_pathauto_auto_url_generation_' . $entity_type . '_' . $bundle, TRUE)) {
      $entity->path['pathauto'] = TRUE;
    }

And that would allow covering both cases via configuration.
Thoughts?

I agree, sounds like a good plan

This can now be handled via configuration, a patch is available over at #3010146: Expose extended ET-specific configuration for pathauto that needs reviewing.
If that goes through, this can be closed as a "Won't fix" since it will then be possible to toggle the pathauto_state default for new translations.

As mentioned before, this is now configurable, for more information, see #3010146: Expose extended ET-specific configuration for pathauto

nice work Stefanos, thanks!