django-modeltranslation/docs/modeltranslation/usage.rst
2012-10-17 15:02:22 +02:00

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Accessing translated and translation fields
===========================================
The ``modeltranslation`` app changes the behaviour of the translated fields. To
explain this consider the News example again. The original ``News`` model
looked like this:
.. code-block:: python
class News(models.Model):
title = models.CharField(max_length=255)
text = models.TextField()
Now that it is registered with the modeltranslation app the model looks
like this - note the additional fields automatically added by the app:
.. code-block:: python
class News(models.Model):
title = models.CharField(max_length=255) # original/translated field
title_de = models.CharField(null=True, blank=True, max_length=255) # default translation field
title_en = models.CharField(null=True, blank=True, max_length=255) # translation field
text = models.TextField() # original/translated field
text_de = models.TextField(null=True, blank=True) # default translation field
text_en = models.TextField(null=True, blank=True) # translation field
The example above assumes that the default language is ``de``, therefore the
``title_de`` and ``text_de`` fields are marked as the *default translation
fields*. If the default language is ``en``, the ``title_en`` and ``text_en``
fields would be the *default translation fields*.
Rules for translated field access
---------------------------------
So now when it comes to setting and getting the value of the original and the
translation fields the following rules apply:
**Rule 1**
Reading the value from the original field returns the value translated to the
*current language*.
**Rule 2**
Assigning a value to the original field also updates the value in the
associated default translation field.
**Rule 3**
Assigning a value to the default translation field also updates the original
field - note that the value of the original field will not be updated until the
model instance is saved.
**Rule 4**
If both fields - the original and the default translation field - are updated
at the same time, the default translation field wins.
Examples for translated field access
------------------------------------
Because the whole point of using the modeltranslation app is translating
dynamic content, the fields marked for translation are somehow special when it
comes to accessing them. The value returned by a translated field is depending
on the current language setting. "Language setting" is referring to the Django
`set_language`_ view and the corresponding ``get_lang`` function.
Assuming the current language is ``de`` in the News example from above, the
translated ``title`` field will return the value from the ``title_de`` field:
.. code-block:: python
# Assuming the current language is "de"
n = News.objects.all()[0]
t = n.title # returns german translation
# Assuming the current language is "en"
t = n.title # returns english translation
This feature is implemented using Python descriptors making it happen without
the need to touch the original model classes in any way. The descriptor uses
the ``django.utils.i18n.get_language`` function to determine the current
language.