Writing multi-language Documentation using Sphinx Markus Zapke-Gründemann EuroPython 2014 

Markus Zapke-Gründemann Software Developer since 2001 Python, Django, Open Data and Training Owner of transcode Board member of the German Django Association keimlink.de // @keimlink 

Basics 

Sphinx Python Documentation Generator Markup Language: reStructuredText Output Formats: HTML, LaTeX (PDF), ePub, Texinfo, manual pages, plain text sphinx-doc.org 

Internationalization Often referred to as i18n Translating into other languages without changing the code GNU gettext is used frequently 

gettext Example import gettext t = gettext.translation('example', 'locale', fallback=True) _ = t.gettext print(_('Always look on the bright side of life')) 

Why use gettext for translated documentation? Untranslated strings are displayed in the source language Markup is not duplicated Professional translation tools can be used Contributions possible without using a VCS 

Sphinx Internationalization 

Sphinx i18n Workflow Source: http://sphinx-doc.org/intl.html 

Sphinx i18n
Configuration docs/conf.py language = 'en' locale_dirs = ['locale/'] # New in version 1.1 gettext_compact = True 

sphinx-intl $ pip install sphinx-intl https://pypi.python.org/pypi/sphinx-intl 

sphinx-intl $ make gettext $ sphinx-intl update -l de -p _build/locale # Translate documentation $ sphinx-intl build $ make SPHINXOPTS="-Dlanguage=de" html 

Transifex 

www.transifex.com 

Transifex Setup $ pip install transifex-client $ tx init --user= --pass= 

Transifex and sphinx-intl $ sphinx-intl update-txconfig-resources \ --pot-dir _build/locale \ --transifex-project-name $ tx push -s # Translate documentation on Transifex $ tx pull -l de $ sphinx-intl build $ make SPHINXOPTS="-Dlanguage=de" html 

Handy tips for translating Sphinx documentation 

Using code inside the documentation All text inside the code should be English: ! {% extends "marcador/bookmark_list.html" %} ! {% block title %}{{ owner.username }}'s bookmarks{% endblock %} ! {% block heading %}

{{ owner.username }}'s bookmarks
{{ bookmarks.count }} bookmarks in total

{% endblock %} 

How to handle URLs Always use the inline syntax: ! Alternatively, you can get the `Python Sources `_ from the website and compile it yourself. ! Because this way the URL will get lost: ! Alternatively, you can get the `Python Sources`_ from the website and compile it yourself. ! .. _Python Sources: http://python.org/download/ 

How to maintain versoined URLs You can use the extlinks extension to define URLs in the configuration: ! extlinks = { 'djangodocs': ('https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.5/%s', None), 'djangopdf': ('http://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/django/1.5.x/django.pdf%s', None) } ! ! You can find a list of all ``QuerySet`` methods in the :djangodocs:`documentation `. ! Download the :djangopdf:`Django Offline PDF Documentation <>` which has currently more than 1,200 pages. 

How to handle special cases ifconfig can be used to handle special cases: ! .. ifconfig:: language == 'de' ! Nützliche Links für deutschsprachige Django-Nutzer: ! - `Deutschsprachige Django-Community `_ 

Link checking You can check the links for each language separately: ! $ make SPHINXOPTS="-Dlanguage=de" linkcheck 

What is still missing? A translations setting to build all languages with a single command A way to add a „landing page“ Use gettext_compact to create a single catalog Collect all indices into a single .po file A language switch template 

Thanks! ! www.transcode.de @keimlink