django translate variable content in template

Question

I'm using {% trans %} template tag. Django docs say:

The {% trans %} template tag translates either a constant string (enclosed in single or double quotes) or variable content:

{% trans "This is the title." %} {% trans myvar %}

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.3/topics/i18n/internationalization/#trans-template-tag

I found it impossible to do {% trans myvar %} because myvar simply doesn't show up in django.po file after running makemessages command.

Am I using it wrong? Could some help me with this?

Solution 1

You can use the blocktrans template tag in this case:

{% blocktrans %} This is the title: {{ myvar }} {% endblocktrans %}

Solution 2

{% trans myvar %} just works. So check your PO file to make sure that the value of myvar is in PO msgid.

<title>{% trans myvar %}</title>

For example if myvar contains "Some Publisher" you can write the following in the PO file:

msgid "Some Publisher"
msgstr "কিছু প্রকাশক"

Also make sure you have ran:

python manage.py compilemessages

Solution 3

Django can't guess what is in that variable, so you have to translate it yourself by adding both the english (msgid) and the localized (msgstr) strings.

Solution 4

My experience here is that variable translation does not work in templates on its own. However I came to a suitable solution when the content of the variables is known (I mean that they are not free text, but a set of choices you set in the database).

You need to force the translation in the view or in a filter tag.

To sum up:

1. Use blocktrans in your templates
2. Force variables to be translated
   • You either set variables in context that are already marked for transtalion
   • or use a filter to translate them
3. Generate translations in .po file

The story is like this:

views.py

def my_view(request):
    return render(request, 'i18n_test.html', {'salutation':"Hola"})

templates/i18n_test.html

...
{% blocktrans %}{{ salutation }}{% endblocktrans %}
...

And when I render the template it always shows Hola whichever the current language is.

To force the translation, in the view we need to use ugettext.

def my_view(request):
    return render(request, 'i18n_test.html', {'salutation':ugettext("Hola")})

However it is not always possible to access the view. So I prefer to use a filter like this.

templatetags/i18n_extras.py

@register.filter(name='translate')
def translate(text):
  try:    
    return ugettext(text)

And the template becomes

...
{% blocktrans s=salutation|translate %}{{ s }}{% endblocktrans %}
...

And produces Hola, Hello, Ciao, Salut depending on the current language.

The disadvantage (as pointed out in the docs ) is that makemessages does not automatically include these translations, so we need to include them manually. In django.po file:

locales/en/django.po

...
msgid "Hola"
msgstr "Hello"
...

Solution 5

You can translate the variable in the python code like here for settings.SITE_NAME:

from django.conf import settings
from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _

def processor004(request):
 my_dict = {
    'site_id004': settings.SITE_ID,
    'site_name004': _(settings.SITE_NAME),
    'installed_apps004': settings.INSTALLED_APPS,
    'embedded_widget004': settings.EMBEDDED_WIDGET,
    'base_template004': settings.BASE_TEMPLATE,
}

return my_dict

View more solutions

Comments

[thoslin]

Do I need to specify the file and line number like this:#: templates/foo.html:45 msgid "myvar" msgstr "" ?

[Gabi Purcaru]

You don't need too, because those are actually comments, but you might want to.

[thoslin]

I have added msgid and msgstr in django.po and run compilemessages.But it doesn't seem to work. The varibles haven't been translated after changing locale. Am I missing something?

[Patrik Beck]

I have exactly this problem, however, django compilemessages comments out the msgid and msgstr I added. I find this answer very misleading.

[miguelfg]

It doesn't work to me either, i think database values brought to a template as {% blocktrans with aapptype=aapp.type %} {{ aapptype }} {% endblocktrans %} are not translated at all.

[Moisés]

It worked great for me, just avoid running makemessages again, as those strings won't be found and will be commented.

[Moisés]

And if you need to run makemessages again, just uncomment the translations you need afterwards.

[Moisés]

Or create another dummy template file with all the different possible values of your variables, using {% trans "content" %}. In this way, makemessages will add them automatically to your django.po file. Not the most elegant solution but it works.

[Eduard Luca]

Shouldn't noop be used in this case? From the docs, noop creates a translation string in the po file, which is not directly used anywhere on the site. This way, you don't need to avoid running makemessages.

[Mohini]

But when I am using this blocktrans to translate database values, but in that case its not working, will you tell me solution, please ?

[Lalaphoon]

I might be wrong. But you might have to write this way right? : {% bolcktrans myvar=myvar %}