Sending localized messages to Django users

Question

I'm having trouble with sending localized messages to Django users using the

user.message_set.create(message="Message")

mechanism. First of all,

user.message_set.create(message=_("Message"))

flat out doesn't work, SQLite says it won't accept the non-ascii parameter (localized message contains special characters).

user.message_set.create(message=unicode(_("Message")))

sends the original English message regardless of the preferred language (other translated parts of the app do work correctly).

Using a hardcoded localized message like this

user.message_set.create(message=u"Localized message áýčš")

is the only thing that works but that implies that I'd be able to only use one language.

How can I send users localized messages loaded from LC_MESSAGES?

Answer 1

Have you tried localizing the message right before you display it?

In your view:

user.message_set.create(message="Message")

In your template

{% if messages %}
<ul>
    {% for message in messages %}
    <li>{% trans message %}</li>
    {% endfor %}
</ul>
{% endif %}

This way, you don't have to store any odd characters in your database.

Answer 2

user.message_set.create(message=_("Message"))

... should work. Are you using the latest version of SQLite, does UTF-8 support have to be enabled somehow? Are you storing non-ascii characters in SQLite elsewhere?