Feature request: making gettext more robust
Hello all,
It seems that gettext is currently quite permissive – it falls back to the
default language whenever a translation file is missing or if the requested
message ID is missing from the translation file. This can lead to errors
slipping through easily.
Consider this example from the documentation:
from django.http import HttpResponse
from django.utils.translation import gettext as _
def my_view(request):
output = _("Welcome to my site.")
return HttpResponse(output)
Let's also assume there's two languages used in the application: LANGUAGES
= [('en', 'English'), ('de', 'German')])
Note that even if you display the view with the German language, you will
see "Welcome to my site." and will not receive any error or warning about
the fact that the German translation file doesn't even exist yet.
Then create a translation catalog file and translate the sentence. Notice
that the translated sentence appears now properly. Now change the output
line to output = _("Welcome to my updated site."). Notice how the
translated sentence turns back into English even when using German as a
language and you don't get any warning or error again.
I think it would be great if there was a way to make gettext raise an error
when the translation file is missing or when the msgid is missing. In order
to add this feature in a backwards-compatible manner we could consider
controlling this behavior through a new settings option. Alternatively, a
warning could be also emitted, I could convert those into errors at least
during testing. Silently falling back to a different language upon changes
is just not great, I think.
Thanks,
Gergely
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Re: Feature request: making gettext more robust
On 23-06-15 04:29:59, Gergely Kalmár wrote: >It seems that gettext is currently quite permissive – it falls back to the >default language whenever a translation file is missing or if the requested >message ID is missing from the translation file. This can lead to errors >slipping through easily. > >I think it would be great if there was a way to make gettext raise an error >when the translation file is missing or when the msgid is missing. Agreed that this is annoying behaviour, but as far as I can tell, there's not much that Django can do. IIRC we only wrap Python's gettext module¹. The relevant method, GNUTranslations.gettext, returns the original message if no translation has been found, and it does so without indicating that this is a fallback response². AIUI this behaviour is rooted in GNU's gettext, which (just like the Python version) allows you to set a priority list of languages to fall back to³. Tobias ¹ https://docs.python.org/3/library/gettext.html ² https://docs.python.org/3/library/gettext.html#gettext.GNUTranslations ³ https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html#The-LANGUAGE-variable -- Tobias Kunze / rixx (er/he) rixx.de software development Mühlenbecker Weg 1, 16515 Oranienburg https://rixx.de | https://pretalx.com Tel.: +49 176 64636590 -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django developers (Contributions to Django itself)" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/django-developers/hwrmdsns7qerh2q5w34uthcb7pplbj2koc4aqogbabpcnmh2qd%40abkbnhls66bu.
Re: Feature request: making gettext more robust
The behaviour is the same on Android. iOS makes it more straight-forward because you HAVE TO have all translations in all languages you support. LP, Jure On 15. 06. 23 16:15, Tobias Kunze wrote: On 23-06-15 04:29:59, Gergely Kalmár wrote: It seems that gettext is currently quite permissive – it falls back to the default language whenever a translation file is missing or if the requested message ID is missing from the translation file. This can lead to errors slipping through easily. I think it would be great if there was a way to make gettext raise an error when the translation file is missing or when the msgid is missing. Agreed that this is annoying behaviour, but as far as I can tell, there's not much that Django can do. IIRC we only wrap Python's gettext module¹. The relevant method, GNUTranslations.gettext, returns the original message if no translation has been found, and it does so without indicating that this is a fallback response². AIUI this behaviour is rooted in GNU's gettext, which (just like the Python version) allows you to set a priority list of languages to fall back to³. Tobias ¹ https://docs.python.org/3/library/gettext.html ² https://docs.python.org/3/library/gettext.html#gettext.GNUTranslations ³ https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/manual/gettext.html#The-LANGUAGE-variable -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django developers (Contributions to Django itself)" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/django-developers/273f1b3f-f953-e204-a0e9-95a7b3cd51e7%40gmail.com.
Re: Feature request: making gettext more robust
> On 15 Jun 2023, at 16:15, Tobias Kunze wrote: > > On 23-06-15 04:29:59, Gergely Kalmár wrote: >> It seems that gettext is currently quite permissive – it falls back to the >> default language whenever a translation file is missing or if the requested >> message ID is missing from the translation file. This can lead to errors >> slipping through easily. >> >> I think it would be great if there was a way to make gettext raise an error >> when the translation file is missing or when the msgid is missing. > > Agreed that this is annoying behaviour, but as far as I can tell, there's not > much that Django can do. IIRC we only wrap Python's gettext module¹. > > The relevant method, GNUTranslations.gettext, returns the original message if > no translation has been found, and it does so without indicating that this is > a fallback response². > > AIUI this behaviour is rooted in GNU's gettext, which (just like the Python > version) allows you to set a priority list of languages to fall back to³. In ‘runtime’ indeed it is difficult to get a warning for an untranslated string; the best way to go about it is to generate the translation file and check for untranslated string in your translation file via some automated check such as a Github Action. The added benefit this has is that if there is a translation string hiding in a lesser used part of your app such as the password reset form or so, it will still be spotted by the translation file generation, whereas you might otherwise miss this if you’re just clicking around in the app. — Michiel -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Django developers (Contributions to Django itself)" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to django-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/django-developers/4FE0664B-5E88-460C-826F-F0A85FC09D5B%40x14.nl.
