Vinaigrette translates Django model data -- stored in the database -- using GNU gettext and Django's standard internationalization features.

Installing

Add 'vinaigrette' to INSTALLED_APPS in your settings.

Then, tell vinaigrette which fields you want to translate. In the appropriate models.py files:

import vinaigrette
vinaigrette.register(Ingredient, ['name', 'description'])

This tells vinaigrette to translate the name and description fields on Ingredient objects.

Using

After installing vinaigrette, the PO files generated by manage.py makemessages will include strings from the registered fields. If a particular string is translated, the model value will be the string translated into the appropriate language:

>>> from django.utils.translation import activate
>>> i = Ingredient(name=u'Lettuce')
>>> i.name
u'Lettuce'
>>> activate('fr')
>>> i.name
u'Laitue'

Et cetera

There are a couple of options to restrict which objects translation strings will be collected from. See the docstring for vinaigrette.register.

Vinaigrette adds a --keep-obsolete option to manage.py makemessages, which prevents gettext from deactivating translated messages no longer present in code or in registered database fields.

Vinaigrette is designed for database content that is:

• always edited in the default language
• edited by site administrators, not users

Only model instances are translated. Data accessed via the Django QuerySet values method will not be translated.

In general, when a field is accessed, it will always return the translated version, if one exists. However, if a value is set, the exact value entered (and not the translated version) should be saved to the database. For example:

>>> from django.utils.translation import activate
>>> i = Ingredient(name=u'Lettuce')
>>> activate('fr')
>>> i.name
u'Laitue'
>>> i.name = 'Cabbage'
>>> i.name
u'Chou'
>>> i.save()
>>> Ingredient.objects.get(name='Cabbage').name
u'Chou'