Translation

The boilerplate comes with pre-configured internationalization settings, providing a solid foundation for multilingual applications. It leverages Django's built-in translation capabilities, with HTML templates pre-configured for translation.

Additionally, it integrates third-party libraries: Rosetta for easier translation management through the admin panel, and Django-Parler for handling model translations. This setup allows you to start with a fully functional translation system out of the box, which you can easily customize to suit your project's needs.

Built-in Internationalization

Configure settings.py

Django provides built-in support for internationalization and localization. Configure languages available in settings.py.

# settings.py
...
# Add more languages as needed
LANGUAGES = [
    ('en', 'English'),
    ('fr', 'French'),
    ('es', 'Spanish'),
    ...
]
...

Generate translation files

Translation files (.po and .mo) are essential components that store the translated strings of your application's text content. These files enable Django to display your website in multiple languages by mapping original text to its translations:

# Extract translatable strings for a specific language
django-admin makemessages -l <language_code>

# Extract translatable strings for English
django-admin makemessages -l en

# Extract strings for English but ignore the 'env' directory
django-admin makemessages -l en -i env

# Extract translatable strings for all available languages
django-admin makemessages --all

# Extract strings for all languages but ignore the 'env' directory
django-admin makemessages --all -i env

Translation files (.po) files are stored in locale/<language_code>/LC_MESSAGES/ directory. 

locale/
└── <language_code>/
    └── LC_MESSAGES/
        └── django.po

• Via Rosetta Interface (Recommended): Access translations through Django's admin panel at /back/rosetta. This provides a user-friendly interface for translators to edit strings directly in the browser.
• Manual Editing: Open the .po files with a text editor or a dedicated PO editor (like Poedit) to add translations for each message string.

python manage.py compilemessages

This creates binary .mo files that Django uses at runtime.

Marking text for translation

To make text available for translation, you need to mark it in your code:

from django.utils.translation import gettext_lazy as _

# For simple strings
title = _("Welcome to our site")

# For strings with variables
message = _("Hello, %(name)s") % {'name': user.name}

{% load i18n %}

{# For simple text #}
{% translate "Welcome to our site" %}

{# For blocks of text #}
{% blocktranslate %}
    <p>This is a longer text block
    that spans multiple lines</p>
{% endblocktranslate %}

{# With variables #}
{% blocktranslate with name=user.name %}
    <p>Hello, {{ name }}</p>
{% endblocktranslate %}

Rosetta

Rosetta is a Django library that provides a web-based interface for easily editing .po translation files.

Access Rosetta

By default, Rosetta is accessible at /back/rosetta.  For production environments, it's crucial to modify this path for security.

# saas > urls.py

urlpatterns += [
    # /!\ Change the default Rosetta path to a custom one for security
    path('back/rosetta/', include('rosetta.urls'))
]

Rosetta Interface Preview

Django-Parler

Django-parler is a library for managing multilingual content in Django. It provides a simple way to translate dynamic model content in your Django application.

Key files

In PyBoilerplate, Django-parler is primarily used to handle FAQ translations, as FAQs are managed through Django models rather than being hardcoded in templates.

saas/
├── app_main/
│   ├── models.py      # FAQ model definition and database structure
│   ├── admin.py       # Admin panel configuration for FAQ management
│   └── views.py       # FAQ display logic and language handling

FAQ Implementation

# app_main > models.py

from django.db import models
from parler.models import TranslatableModel, TranslatedFields

class Faq(TranslatableModel):
    translations = TranslatedFields(
        question=models.CharField(max_length=200),
        answer=models.TextField(),
        category=models.CharField(max_length=50),
    )

This allows FAQ content to be managed and translated directly through the admin interface.

Language Configuration

To add new languages, configure them in settings.py:

# saas > settings.py

PARLER_LANGUAGES = {
    1: (
        {'code': 'en'},  # Default language
        {'code': 'fr'},
        # Add more languages as needed
    ),
}

Access Django-Parler

Django-parler is activated for the FAQ model, which means you can manage translations for FAQ entries through Django's admin panel. Each model using django-parler will display language tabs in the admin interface for adding and editing translations.

Django-Parler interface