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Using the flufl.i18n library¶

Set up¶

There are two basic ways that your application can set up translations using this library. The simple initialization will work for most applications, where there is only one language context for the entire run of the application. The more complex initialization works well for applications like servers that may want to use multiple language contexts during their execution.

Single language contexts¶

If your application only needs one language context for its entire execution, you can use the simple API to set things up.

>>> from flufl.i18n import initialize

The library by default uses the $LANG and $LOCPATH environment variables to set things up:

>>> # The testing 'xx' language rot13's the source string.  The
>>> # gettext catalogs are in this package directory.
>>> import os
>>> import flufl.i18n.testing.messages

>>> os.environ['LANG'] = 'xx'
>>> os.environ['LOCPATH'] = os.path.dirname(
...     flufl.i18n.testing.messages.__file__)

Now you just need to call the initialize() function with the application’s name and you’ll get an object back that you can assign to the _() function for run-time translations.

>>> _ = initialize('flufl')
>>> print(_('A test message'))
N grfg zrffntr

It’s probably best to just share this function through imports, but it does no harm to call initialize() again.

>>> _ = initialize('flufl')
>>> print(_('A test message'))
N grfg zrffntr

Multiple language contexts¶

Some applications, such as servers, are more complex; they need multiple language contexts during their execution. To support this, there is a global registry of catalog look up strategies. When a particular language code is specified, the strategy is used to find the catalog that provides that language’s translations.

flufl.i18n comes with a couple of fairly simple strategies, but you can of course write your own. A convenient built-in strategy looks up catalogs from within the package directory using GNU gettext‘s convention, where the base directory for the catalogs is rooted in a subpackage.

>>> from flufl.i18n import registry
>>> from flufl.i18n import PackageStrategy
>>> strategy = PackageStrategy('flufl', flufl.i18n.testing.messages)

The first argument is the application name, which must be unique among all registered strategies. The second argument is the package where the translations can be found.

Once you have the desired strategy, register this with the global registry. The registration process returns an application object which can be used to look up language codes.

>>> application = registry.register(strategy)

The application object keeps track of a current translation catalog, and exports a method which you can bind to the underscore function in your module globals for convenient gettext usage. By doing so, at run time, _() will always translate the string argument to the current catalog’s language.

>>> _ = application._

By default the application just translates the source string back into the source string. I.e. it is a null translator.

>>> print(_('A test message'))
A test message

And it has no language code.

>>> print(_.code)
None

You can temporarily push a new language context to the top of the stack, which automatically rebinds the underscore function to the language’s catalog.

>>> _.push('xx')
>>> print(_.code)
xx
>>> print(_('A test message'))
N grfg zrffntr

Pop the current language to return to the default. Once you’re at the bottom of the stack, more pops will just give you the default translation.

>>> _.pop()
>>> print(_.code)
None
>>> print(_('A test message'))
A test message
>>> _.pop()
>>> print(_.code)
None
>>> print(_('A test message'))
A test message

The underscore method has a context manager called using which can be used to temporarily set a new language inside a with statement:

>>> with _.using('xx'):
...     print(_('A test message'))
N grfg zrffntr

>>> print(_('A test message'))
A test message

These with statements are nestable:

>>> with _.using('xx'):
...     print(_('A test message'))
...     with _.using('yy'):
...         print(_('A test message'))
...     print(_('A test message'))
N grfg zrffntr
egassem tset A
N grfg zrffntr

>>> print(_('A test message'))
A test message

You can set the bottom language context, which replaces the default null translation:

>>> _.default = 'xx'
>>> print(_('A test message'))
N grfg zrffntr

>>> _.pop()
>>> print(_.code)
xx

>>> print(_('A test message'))
N grfg zrffntr

>>> with _.using('yy'):
...     print(_('A test message'))
egassem tset A

>>> print(_('A test message'))
N grfg zrffntr

Substitutions and placeholders¶

As you can see from the example above, using the library is very simple. You just put the string to translate inside the underscore function. What if your source strings need placeholders for other runtime information?

In that case, you use PEP 292 style substitution strings as arguments to the underscore function. Substitutions are taken from the locals and globals of the function doing the translation, so that you don’t have to repeat yourself.

>>> ordinal = 'first'
>>> def print_it(name):
...     print(_('The $ordinal test message $name'))

In this example, when print_it() is called, the $ordinal placeholder is taken from globals, while the $name placeholder is taken from the function locals (i.e. the arguments).

With no language context in place, the source string is printed unchanged, except that the substitutions are made.

>>> print_it('Anne')
The first test message Anne

When a substitution is missing, rather than raise an exception, the $variable is used unchanged.

>>> del ordinal
>>> print_it('Bart')
The $ordinal test message Bart

When there is a language context in effect, the substitutions happen after translation.

>>> ordinal = 'second'
>>> with _.using('xx'):
...     print_it('Cris')
second si n grfg zrffntr Cris

Some languages change the order of the substitution variables, but of course there is no problem with that.

>>> ordinal = 'third'
>>> with _.using('yy'):
...     print_it('Dave')
Dave egassem tset third eht

Locals always take precedence over globals:

>>> def print_it(name, ordinal):
...     print(_('The $ordinal test message $name'))

>>> with _.using('yy'):
...     print_it('Elle', 'fourth')
Elle egassem tset fourth eht

Table Of Contents

  • Using the flufl.i18n library
    • Set up
      • Single language contexts
      • Multiple language contexts
    • Substitutions and placeholders

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