In order to internationalize you extension you must mark the strings for internationalization. You can find out how to do this by reading :doc: /contributing/frontend/string-i18n.rst
In this tutorial we are assuming that you have read the :doc: /extensions/tutorial
We will create a simple extension that demonstrates the translation of strings inside extensions. After running
paster --plugin=ckan create -t ckanext ckanext-itranslation
Change and simply the plugin.py
file to be
../../ckanext/example_itranslation/plugin_v1.py
Add a template file ckanext-itranslation/templates/home/index.html
containing
../../ckanext/example_itranslation/templates/home/index.html
This template just provides a sample string that we will be internationalizing in this tutorial.
Tip
If you have generated a new extension whilst following this tutorial the default template will have generated these files for you and you can simply run the extract_messages
command immediately.
Check your setup.py
file in your extension for the following lines
setup(
entry_points='''
[ckan.plugins]
itranslation=ckanext.itranslation.plugin:ExampleITranslationPlugin
[babel.extractors]
ckan = ckan.lib.extract:extract_ckan
'''
message_extractors={
'ckanext': [
('**.py', 'python', None),
('**.js', 'javascript', None),
('**/templates/**.html', 'ckan', None),
],
}
These lines will already be present in our example, but if you are adding internationalization to an older extension, you may need to add these them. If you have your templates in a directory differing from the default location, you may need to change the message_extractors
stanza, you can read more about message extractors at the babel documentation
Add an directory to store your translations
mkdir ckanext-itranslations/i18n
Next you will need a babel config file. Add setup.cfg
file containing
../../ckanext/example_itranslation/setup.cfg
This file tells babel where the translation files are stored. You can then run the extract_messages
command to extract the strings from your extension
python setup.py extract_messages
This will create a template PO file named ckanext/itranslations/i18n/ckanext-itranslation.pot
At this point, you can either upload an manage your translations using transifex or manually create your translations.
We will be creating translation files for the fr
locale. Create the translation PO files for the locale that you are translating for by running init_catalog
python setup.py init_catalog -l fr
This will generate a file called i18n/fr/LC_MESSAGES/ckanext-itranslation.po
. Edit this file to contain the following.
../../ckanext/example_itranslation/i18n/fr/LC_MESSAGES/ckanext-example_itranslation.po
Once you have created your translations, you can manage them using Transifex, this is out side of the scope of this tutorial, but the Transifex documentation provides tutorials on how to upload translations and how to manage them using them command line client
Now compile the PO files by running
python setup.py compile_catalog -l fr
This will generate an mo file containing your translations.
Once you have created the translated strings, you will need to inform CKAN that your extension is translated by implementing the ITranslation
interface in your extension. Edit your plugin.py
to contain the following.
../../ckanext/example_itranslation/plugin.py
Your done! To test your translated extension, make sure you add the extension to your and run a paster serve
and browse to http://localhost:5000. You should find that switching to the fr
locale in the web interface should change the home page string to this is an itranslated string
If you are translating a CKAN extension that already exists, or you have structured your extension differently from the default layout. You may have to tell CKAN where to locate your translated files, you can do this by having your plugin not inherit from the DefaultTranslation
class and implement the ITranslation
interface yourself.
~ckan.plugins.interfaces.ITranslation.i18n_directory ~ckan.plugins.interfaces.ITranslation.i18n_locales ~ckan.plugins.interfaces.ITranslation.i18n_domain