Django snippets

from django.utils.translation import check_for_language, activate, deactivate, to_locale, get_language, ugettext as _
from django.http import HttpRequest
from django.template.loader import render_to_string
from django.template import RequestContext
from django.contrib.sessions.middleware import SessionMiddleware

# 1. Getting the current language: (if any)
cur_locale = to_locale(get_language())
# 2. create a request (& optionally add session middleware)
request = HttpRequest()
SessionMiddleware().process_request(request)
# 3. activate the temporary language: this loads the translation files
target_language = "nl" # this could be a function call, loaded from a UserProfile, ...
if check_for_language(target_language):
	activate(target_language)
locale = to_locale(get_language())
# 4. set the language code in the request (& optionally session)
request.LANGUAGE_CODE = locale
request.session['django_language'] = locale
# 5. example rendering of content:
msg_dict = { 'title': _('This is the title and will be translated'), 'body': _('Message body') }
rendered = render_to_string("some_template.html",  msg_dict, RequestContext(request));
# 6. reset back to the old locale:
deactivate()