Django messages framework - lack of i18n by default

Question

By default django messages framework does not localize it's messages correctly. For example in admin interface

As you can see all other things in admin panel are localized. The translation file exists. Here is my settings.

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    'django.contrib.admin',
    'django.contrib.auth',
    'django.contrib.contenttypes',
    'django.contrib.sessions',
    'django.contrib.messages',
    'django.contrib.staticfiles',
    ...
]

MIDDLEWARE = [
    'debug_toolbar.middleware.DebugToolbarMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.security.SecurityMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.sessions.middleware.SessionMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.common.CommonMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.csrf.CsrfViewMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.auth.middleware.AuthenticationMiddleware',
    'django.contrib.messages.middleware.MessageMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.clickjacking.XFrameOptionsMiddleware',
    'django.middleware.locale.LocaleMiddleware',
]

LANGUAGE_CODE = 'ru' # I've tried 'ru-RU'

TIME_ZONE = 'Europe/Moscow'

USE_I18N = True

USE_L10N = True

USE_TZ = True

How to fix this? Thanks in advance. I have django version 3.0.6. This error also is absent in django 1.8

Answer 1

It was a breaking change from django/django@42b9a23 (Django 3.0+) that only updated the French translations.

You can patch DjangoTranslation.gettext to handle the smart quotes.

def _patch_gettext():
    from django.utils.translation.trans_real import DjangoTranslation
    _gettext = DjangoTranslation.gettext

    def gettext(self, message):
        text = _gettext(self, message)
        if text is message and '“' in message:
            new_message = message.replace('“', '"').replace('”', '"')
            new_text = _gettext(self, new_message)
            if new_text is not new_message:
                return new_text
        return text

    DjangoTranslation.gettext = gettext

About patching

Subclass AppConfig in mysite/apps.py:

from django.apps import AppConfig


class MySiteAppConfig(AppConfig):
    name = 'mysite'

    def ready(self):
        _patch_gettext()

Put the dotted path to that subclass in INSTALLED_APPS in mysite/settings.py:

INSTALLED_APPS = [
    ...
    'mysite.apps.MySiteAppConfig',
]

Reference: https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.0/ref/applications/#configuring-applications