.. _i18n: ===================================== Internationalization and Localization ===================================== Introduction ============ Internationalization and localization are means of adapting software for non-native environments, especially for other nations and cultures. Parts of an application which might need to be localized might include: * Language * Date/time format * Formatting of numbers e.g. decimal points, positioning of separators, character used as separator * Time zones (UTC in internationalized environments) * Currency * Weights and measures The distinction between internationalization and localization is subtle but important. Internationalization is the adaptation of products for potential use virtually everywhere, while localization is the addition of special features for use in a specific locale. For example, in terms of language used in software, internationalization is the process of marking up all strings that might need to be translated whilst localization is the process of producing translations for a particular locale. Pylons provides built-in support to enable you to internationalize language but leaves you to handle any other aspects of internationalization which might be appropriate to your application. .. note:: Internationalization is often abbreviated as I18N (or i18n or I18n) where the number 18 refers to the number of letters omitted. Localization is often abbreviated L10n or l10n in the same manner. These abbreviations also avoid picking one spelling (internationalisation vs. internationalization, etc.) over the other. In order to represent characters from multiple languages, you will need to utilize Unicode. This document assumes you have read the :ref:`unicode`. By now you should have a good idea of what Unicode is, how to use it in Python and which areas of you application need to pay specific attention to decoding and encoding Unicode data. This final section will look at the issue of making your application work with multiple languages. Pylons uses the `Python gettext module `_ for internationalization. It is based off the `GNU gettext API `_. Getting Started =============== Everywhere in your code where you want strings to be available in different languages you wrap them in the ``_()`` function. There are also a number of other translation functions which are documented in the API reference at http://pylonshq.com/docs/module-pylons.i18n.translation.html .. note:: The ``_()`` function is a reference to the ``ugettext()`` function. ``_()`` is a convention for marking text to be translated and saves on keystrokes. ``ugettext()`` is the Unicode version of ``gettext()``; it returns unicode strings. In our example we want the string ``'Hello'`` to appear in three different languages: English, French and Spanish. We also want to display the word ``'Hello'`` in the default language. We'll then go on to use some plural words too. Lets call our project ``translate_demo``: .. code-block:: bash $ paster create -t pylons translate_demo Now lets add a friendly controller that says hello: .. code-block:: bash $ cd translate_demo $ paster controller hello Edit ``controllers/hello.py`` to make use of the ``_()`` function everywhere where the string ``Hello`` appears: .. code-block:: python import logging from pylons.i18n import get_lang, set_lang from translate_demo.lib.base import * log = logging.getLogger(__name__) class HelloController(BaseController): def index(self): response.write('Default: %s
' % _('Hello')) for lang in ['fr','en','es']: set_lang(lang) response.write("%s: %s
" % (get_lang(), _('Hello'))) When writing wrapping strings in the gettext functions, it is important not to piece sentences together manually; certain languages might need to invert the grammars. Don't do this: .. code-block:: python # BAD! msg = _("He told her ") msg += _("not to go outside.") but this is perfectly acceptable: .. code-block:: python # GOOD msg = _("He told her not to go outside") The controller has now been internationalized, but it will raise a ``LanguageError`` until we have setup the alternative language catalogs. GNU gettext use three types of files in the translation framework. POT (Portable Object Template) files ------------------------------------ The first step in the localization process. A program is used to search through your project's source code and pick out every string passed to one of the translation functions, such as ``_()``. This list is put together in a specially-formatted template file that will form the basis of all translations. This is the ``.pot`` file. PO (Portable Object) files -------------------------- The second step in the localization process. Using the POT file as a template, the list of messages are translated and saved as a ``.po`` file. MO (Machine Object) files ------------------------- The final step in the localization process. The PO file is run through a program that turns it into an optimized machine-readable binary file, which is the ``.mo`` file. Compiling the translations to machine code makes the localized program much faster in retrieving the translations while it is running. GNU gettext provides a suite of command line programs for extracting messages from source code and working with the associated gettext catalogs. The `Babel `_ project provides pure Python alternative versions of these tools. Unlike the GNU gettext tool `xgettext`, Babel supports extracting translatable strings from Python templating languages (currently Mako and Genshi). Using Babel =========== .. image:: _static/babel_logo.png To use Babel, you must first install it via easy_install. Run the command: .. code-block:: bash $ easy_install Babel Pylons (as of 0.9.6) includes some sane defaults for Babel's distutils commands in the setup.cfg file. It also includes an extraction method mapping in the setup.py file. It is commented out by default, to avoid distutils warning about it being an unrecognized option when Babel is not installed. These lines should be uncommented before proceeding with the rest of this walk through: .. code-block :: python message_extractors = {'translate_demo': [ ('**.py', 'python', None), ('templates/**.mako', 'mako', None), ('public/**', 'ignore', None)]}, We'll use Babel to extract messages to a ``.pot`` file in your project's ``i18n`` directory. First, the directory needs to be created. Don't forget to add it to your revision control system if one is in use: .. code-block:: bash $ cd translate_demo $ mkdir translate_demo/i18n $ svn add translate_demo/i18n Next we can extract all messages from the project with the following command: .. code-block:: bash $ python setup.py extract_messages running extract_messages extracting messages from translate_demo/__init__.py extracting messages from translate_demo/websetup.py ... extracting messages from translate_demo/tests/functional/test_hello.py writing PO template file to translate_demo/i18n/translate_demo.pot This will create a ``.pot`` file in the ``i18n`` directory that looks something like this: .. code-block:: pot # Translations template for translate_demo. # Copyright (C) 2007 ORGANIZATION # This file is distributed under the same license as the translate_demo project. # FIRST AUTHOR , 2007. # #, fuzzy msgid "" msgstr "" "Project-Id-Version: translate_demo 0.0.0\n" "Report-Msgid-Bugs-To: EMAIL@ADDRESS\n" "POT-Creation-Date: 2007-08-02 18:01-0700\n" "PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n" "Last-Translator: FULL NAME \n" "Language-Team: LANGUAGE \n" "MIME-Version: 1.0\n" "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8\n" "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n" "Generated-By: Babel 0.9dev-r215\n" #: translate_demo/controllers/hello.py:10 translate_demo/controllers/hello.py:13 msgid "Hello" msgstr "" The ``.pot`` details that appear here can be customized via the ``extract_messages`` configuration in your project's ``setup.cfg`` (See the `Babel Command-Line Interface Documentation `_ for all configuration options). Next, we'll initialize a catalog (``.po`` file) for the Spanish language: .. code-block:: bash $ python setup.py init_catalog -l es running init_catalog creating catalog 'translate_demo/i18n/es/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.po' based on 'translate_demo/i18n/translate_demo.pot' Then we can edit the last line of the new Spanish ``.po`` file to add a translation of ``"Hello"``: .. code-block:: bash msgid "Hello" msgstr "¡Hola!" Finally, to utilize these translations in our application, we need to compile the ``.po`` file to a ``.mo`` file: .. code-block:: bash $ python setup.py compile_catalog running compile_catalog 1 of 1 messages (100%) translated in 'translate_demo/i18n/es/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.po' compiling catalog 'translate_demo/i18n/es/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.po' to 'translate_demo/i18n/es/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.mo' We can also use the ``update_catalog`` command to merge new messages from the ``.pot`` to the ``.po`` files. For example, if we later added the following line of code to the end of HelloController's index method: .. code-block :: python response.write('Goodbye: %s' % _('Goodbye')) We'd then need to re-extract the messages from the project, then run the ``update_catalog`` command: .. code-block:: bash $ python setup.py extract_messages running extract_messages extracting messages from translate_demo/__init__.py extracting messages from translate_demo/websetup.py ... extracting messages from translate_demo/tests/functional/test_hello.py writing PO template file to translate_demo/i18n/translate_demo.pot $ python setup.py update_catalog running update_catalog updating catalog 'translate_demo/i18n/es/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.po' based on 'translate_demo/i18n/translate_demo.pot' We'd then edit our catalog to add a translation for "Goodbye", and recompile the ``.po`` file as we did above. For more information, see the `Babel documentation `_ and the `GNU Gettext Manual `_. Back To Work ============ Next we'll need to repeat the process of creating a ``.mo`` file for the ``en`` and ``fr`` locales: .. code-block:: bash $ python setup.py init_catalog -l en running init_catalog creating catalog 'translate_demo/i18n/en/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.po' based on 'translate_demo/i18n/translate_demo.pot' $ python setup.py init_catalog -l fr running init_catalog creating catalog 'translate_demo/i18n/fr/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.po' based on 'translate_demo/i18n/translate_demo.pot' Modify the last line of the ``fr`` catalog to look like this: .. code-block:: po #: translate_demo/controllers/hello.py:10 translate_demo/controllers/hello.py:13 msgid "Hello" msgstr "Bonjour" Since our original messages are already in English, the ``en`` catalog can stay blank; gettext will fallback to the original. Once you've edited these new ``.po`` files and compiled them to ``.mo`` files, you'll end up with an ``i18n`` directory containing: .. code-block:: text i18n/translate_demo.pot i18n/en/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.po i18n/en/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.mo i18n/es/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.po i18n/es/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.mo i18n/fr/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.po i18n/fr/LC_MESSAGES/translate_demo.mo Testing the Application ======================= Start the server with the following command: .. code-block:: bash $ paster serve --reload development.ini Test your controller by visiting http://localhost:5000/hello. You should see the following output: .. code-block:: text Default: Hello fr: Bonjour en: Hello es: ¡Hola! You can now set the language used in a controller on the fly. For example this could be used to allow a user to set which language they wanted your application to work in. You could save the value to the session object: .. code-block:: python session['lang'] = 'en' session.save() then on each controller call the language to be used could be read from the session and set in your controller's ``__before__()`` method so that the pages remained in the same language that was previously set: .. code-block:: python def __before__(self): if 'lang' in session: set_lang(session['lang']) Pylons also supports defining the default language to be used in the configuration file. Set a ``lang`` variable to the desired default language in your ``development.ini`` file, and Pylons will automatically call ``set_lang`` with that language at the beginning of every request. E.g. to set the default language to Spanish, you would add ``lang = es`` to your ``development.ini``: .. code-block:: ini [app:main] use = egg:translate_demo lang = es If you are running the server with the ``--reload`` option the server will automatically restart if you change the ``development.ini`` file. Otherwise restart the server manually and the output would this time be as follows: .. code-block:: text Default: ¡Hola! fr: Bonjour en: Hello es: ¡Hola! Fallback Languages ================== If your code calls ``_()`` with a string that doesn't exist at all in your language catalog, the string passed to ``_()`` is returned instead. Modify the last line of the hello controller to look like this: .. code-block:: python response.write("%s %s, %s" % (_('Hello'), _('World'), _('Hi!'))) .. warning :: Of course, in real life breaking up sentences in this way is very dangerous because some grammars might require the order of the words to be different. If you run the example again the output will be: .. code-block:: text Default: ¡Hola! fr: Bonjour World! en: Hello World! es: ¡Hola! World! This is because we never provided a translation for the string ``'World!'`` so the string itself is used. Pylons also provides a mechanism for fallback languages, so that you can specify other languages to be used if the word is omitted from the main language's catalog. In this example we choose ``fr`` as the main language but ``es`` as a fallback: .. code-block:: python import logging from pylons.i18n import set_lang from translate_demo.lib.base import * log = logging.getLogger(__name__) class HelloController(BaseController): def index(self): set_lang(['fr', 'es']) return "%s %s, %s" % (_('Hello'), _('World'), _('Hi!')) If ``Hello`` is in the ``fr`` ``.mo`` file as ``Bonjour``, ``World`` is only in ``es`` as ``Mundo`` and none of the catalogs contain ``Hi!``, you'll get the multilingual message: ``Bonjour Mundo, Hi!``. This is a combination of the French, Spanish and original (English in this case, as defined in our source code) words. You can also add fallback languages after calling ``set_lang`` via the ``pylons.i18n.add_fallback`` function. Translations will be tested in the order you add them. .. note:: Fallbacks are reset after calling ``set_lang(lang)`` -- that is, fallbacks are associated with the currently selected language. One case where using fallbacks in this way is particularly useful is when you wish to display content based on the languages requested by the browser in the ``HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE`` header. Typically the browser may submit a number of languages so it is useful to be add fallbacks in the order specified by the browser so that you always try to display words in the language of preference and search the other languages in order if a translation cannot be found. The languages defined in the ``HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE`` header are available in Pylons as ``request.languages`` and can be used like this: .. code-block:: python for lang in request.languages: add_fallback(lang) Translations Within Templates ============================= You can also use the ``_()`` function within templates in exactly the same way you do in code. For example, in a Mako template: .. code-block:: mako ${_('Hello')} would produce the string ``'Hello'`` in the language you had set. Babel currently supports extracting gettext messages from Mako and Genshi templates. The Mako extractor also provides support for translator comments. Babel can be extended to extract messages from other sources via a `custom extraction method plugin `_. Pylons (as of 0.9.6) automatically configures a Babel extraction mapping for your Python source code and Mako templates. This is defined in your project's setup.py file: .. code-block:: python message_extractors = {'translate_demo': [ ('**.py', 'python', None), ('templates/**.mako', 'mako', None), ('public/**', 'ignore', None)]}, For a project using Genshi instead of Mako, the Mako line might be replaced with: .. code-block:: python ('templates/**.html, 'genshi', None), See `Babel's documentation on Message Extraction `_ for more information. Lazy Translations ================= Occasionally you might come across a situation when you need to translate a string when it is accessed, not when the ``_()`` or other functions are called. Consider this example: .. code-block:: python import logging from pylons.i18n import get_lang, set_lang from translate_demo.lib.base import * log = logging.getLogger(__name__) text = _('Hello') class HelloController(BaseController): def index(self): response.write('Default: %s
' % _('Hello')) for lang in ['fr','en','es']: set_lang(lang) response.write("%s: %s
" % (get_lang(), _('Hello'))) response.write('Text: %s
' % text) If we run this we get the following output: .. code-block:: text Default: Hello ['fr']: Bonjour ['en']: Good morning ['es']: Hola Text: Hello This is because the function ``_('Hello')`` just after the imports is called when the default language is ``en`` so the variable ``text`` gets the value of the English translation even though when the string was used the default language was Spanish. The rule of thumb in these situations is to try to avoid using the translation functions in situations where they are not executed on each request. For situations where this isn't possible, perhaps because you are working with legacy code or with a library which doesn't support internationalization, you need to use lazy translations. If we modify the above example so that the import statements and assignment to ``text`` look like this: .. code-block:: python from pylons.i18n import get_lang, lazy_gettext, set_lang from helloworld.lib.base import * log = logging.getLogger(__name__) text = lazy_gettext('Hello') then we get the output we expected: .. code-block:: text Default: Hello ['fr']: Bonjour ['en']: Good morning ['es']: Hola Text: Hola There are lazy versions of all the standard Pylons `translation functions `_. There is one drawback to be aware of when using the lazy translation functions: they are not actually strings. This means that if our example had used the following code it would have failed with an error ``cannot concatenate 'str' and 'LazyString' objects``: .. code-block:: python response.write('Text: ' + text + '
') For this reason you should only use the lazy translations where absolutely necessary and should always ensure they are converted to strings by calling ``str()`` or ``repr()`` before they are used in operations with real strings. Producing a Python Egg ====================== Finally you can produce an egg of your project which includes the translation files like this: .. code-block:: bash $ python setup.py bdist_egg The ``setup.py`` automatically includes the ``.mo`` language catalogs your application needs so that your application can be distributed as an egg. This is done with the following line in your ``setup.py`` file: .. code-block:: python package_data={'translate_demo': ['i18n/*/LC_MESSAGES/*.mo']}, Plural Forms ============ Pylons also provides the ``ungettext()`` function. It's designed for internationalizing plural words, and can be used as follows: .. code-block:: python ungettext('There is %(num)d file here', 'There are %(num)d files here', n) % {'num': n} Plural forms have a different type of entry in ``.pot``/``.po`` files, as described in `The Format of PO Files `_ in `GNU Gettext's Manual `_: .. code-block:: pot #: translate_demo/controllers/hello.py:12 #, python-format msgid "There is %(num)d file here" msgid_plural "There are %(num)d files here" msgstr[0] "" msgstr[1] "" One thing to keep in mind is that other languages don't have the same plural forms as English. While English only has 2 plural forms, singular and plural, Slovenian has 4! That means that you *must* use ugettext for proper pluralization. Specifically, the following will not work: .. code-block:: python # BAD! if n == 1: msg = _("There was no dog.") else: msg = _("There were no dogs.") Summary ======= This document only covers the basics of internationalizing and localizing a web application. GNU Gettext is an extensive library, and the GNU Gettext Manual is highly recommended for more information. Babel also provides support for interfacing to the CLDR (Common Locale Data Repository), providing access to various locale display names, localized number and date formatting, etc. You should also be able to internationalize and then localize your application using Pylons' support for GNU gettext. Further Reading =============== http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internationalization Please feel free to report any mistakes to the Pylons mailing list or to the author. Any corrections or clarifications would be gratefully received. .. note:: This is a work in progress. We hope the internationalization, localization and Unicode support in Pylons is now robust and flexible but we would appreciate hearing about any issues we have. Just drop a line to the pylons-discuss mailing list on Google Groups. :mod:`babel.core` -- Babel core classes =================================================== .. module:: babel.core .. automodule:: babel Module Contents --------------- .. autoclass:: Locale :members: .. autofunction:: default_locale .. autofunction:: negotiate_locale .. autofunction:: parse_locale :mod:`babel.localedata` --- Babel locale data ==================================================== .. automodule:: babel.localedata .. autofunction:: exists .. autofunction:: exists :mod:`babel.dates` -- Babel date classes =================================================== .. automodule:: babel.dates Module Contents --------------- .. autoclass:: DateTimeFormat :members: .. autoclass:: DateTimePattern :members: :mod:`babel.numbers` -- Babel number classes =================================================== .. automodule:: babel.numbers Module Contents --------------- .. autoclass:: NumberFormatError :members: .. autoclass:: NumberPattern :members: __init__, apply .. autofunction:: format_number .. autofunction:: format_decimal .. autofunction:: format_percent .. autofunction:: format_scientific .. autofunction:: parse_number .. autofunction:: parse_decimal .. autofunction: format_currency