Django Internationalization Introduction to Internationalization
Example
Setting up
settings.py
from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
USE_I18N = True # Enable Internationalization
LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en' # Language in which original texts are written
LANGUAGES = [ # Available languages
('en', _("English")),
('de', _("German")),
('fr', _("French")),
]
# Make sure the LocaleMiddleware is included, AFTER SessionMiddleware
# and BEFORE middlewares using internationalization (such as CommonMiddleware)
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = [
'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
'django.middleware.locale.LocaleMiddleware',
'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
]
Marking strings as translatable
The first step in translation is is to mark strings as translatable. This is passing them through one of the gettext functions (See the Syntax section). For instance, here is an example model definition:
from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
# It is common to import gettext as the shortcut `_` as it is often used
# several times in the same file.
class Child(models.Model):
class Meta:
verbose_name = _("child")
verbose_name_plural = _("children")
first_name = models.CharField(max_length=30, verbose_name=_("first name"))
last_name = models.CharField(max_length=30, verbose_name=_("last name"))
age = models.PositiveSmallIntegerField(verbose_name=_("age"))
All strings encapsulated in _() are now marked as translatable. When printed, they will always be displayed as the encapsulated string, whatever the chosen language (since no translation is available yet).
Translating strings
This example is sufficient to get started with translation. Most of the time you will only want to mark strings as translatable to anticipate prospective internationalization of your project. Thus, this is covered in another example.
