Implementation notes

Specialties of Django translation

Django's translation machinery uses the standard gettext module that comes with Python. If you know gettext, you might note these specialties in the way Django does translation:

• The string domain is django or djangojs. This string domain is used to differentiate between different programs that store their data in a common message-file library (usually /usr/share/locale/). The django domain is used for python and template translation strings and is loaded into the global translation catalogs. The djangojs domain is only used for JavaScript translation catalogs to make sure that those are as small as possible.

• Django doesn't use xgettext alone. It uses Python wrappers around xgettext and msgfmt. This is mostly for convenience.

How Django discovers language preference

Once you've prepared your translations-or, if you just want to use the translations that come with Django-you'll need to activate translation for your app.

Behind the scenes, Django...