evennia/docs/source/Concepts/Internationalization.md

# Internationalization

*Internationalization* (often abbreviated *i18n* since there are 18 characters
between the first "i" and the last "n" in that word) allows Evennia's core
server to return texts in other languages than English - without anyone having
to edit the source code. Take a look at the `locale` directory of the Evennia
installation, there you will find which languages are currently supported.

## Changing server language

Change language by adding the following to your `mygame/server/conf/settings.py`
file:

```python

    USE_I18N = True
    LANGUAGE_CODE = 'en'

```

Here `'en'` should be changed to the abbreviation for one of the supported
languages found in `locale/`. Restart the server to activate i18n. The
two-character international language codes are found
[here](http://www.science.co.il/Language/Codes.asp).

> Windows Note: If you get errors concerning `gettext` or `xgettext` on Windows,
> see the
> [Django documentation](https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/3.2/topics/i18n/translation/#gettext-on-windows).
> A self-installing and up-to-date version of gettext for Windows (32/64-bit) is
> available on [Github](https://github.com/mlocati/gettext-iconv-windows).

## Translating Evennia

```important::

    Evennia offers translations of hard-coded strings in the server, things like
    "Connection closed" or "Server restarted", strings that end users will see and
    which game devs are not supposed to change on their own. Text you see in the log
    file or on the command line (like error messages) are generally *not* translated
    (this is a part of Python).

    In addition, text in default Commands and in default Typeclasses will *not* be
    translated by switching *i18n* language. To translate Commands and Typeclass
    hooks you must overload them in your game directory and translate their returns
    to the language you want. This is because from Evennia's perspective, adding
    *i18n* code to commands tend to add complexity to code that is *meant* to be
    changed anyway.  One of the goals of Evennia is to keep the user-changeable code
    as clean and easy- to-read as possible.
```

Translations are found in the core `evennia/` library, under
`evennia/evennia/locale/`. You must make sure to have cloned this repository
from [Evennia's github](github:evennia) before you can proceed.

If you cannot find your language in `evennia/evennia/locale/` it's because noone has
translated it yet.  Alternatively you might have the language but find the
translation bad ... You are welcome to help improve the situation!

To start a new translation you need to first have cloned the Evennia repositry
with GIT and activated a python virtualenv as described on the [Setup
Quickstart](../Setup/Setup-Quickstart) page.

Go to `evennia/evennia/` - that is, not your game dir, but inside the `evennia/`
repo itself. If you see the `locale/` folder you are in the right place.  Make
sure your `virtualenv` is active so the `evennia` command is available. Then run

     evennia makemessages --locale <language-code>

where `<language-code>` is the [two-letter locale code](http://www.science.co.il/Language/Codes.asp)
for the language you want to translate, like 'sv' for Swedish or 'es' for
Spanish. After a moment it will tell you the language has been processed.  For
instance:

     evennia makemessages --locale sv

If you started a new language, a new folder for that language will have emerged
in the `locale/` folder. Otherwise the system will just have updated the
existing translation with eventual new strings found in the server. Running this
command will not overwrite any existing strings so you can run it as much as you
want.

Next head to `locale/<language-code>/LC_MESSAGES` and edit the `**.po` file you
find there.  You can edit this with a normal text editor but it is easiest if
you use a special po-file editor from the web (search the web for "po editor"
for many free alternatives).

The concept of translating is simple, it's just a matter of taking the english
strings you find in the `**.po` file and add your language's translation best
you can. The `**.po` format (and many supporting editors) allow you to mark
translations as "fuzzy". This tells the system (and future translators) that you
are unsure about the translation, or that you couldn't find a translation that
exactly matched the intention of the original text. Other translators will see
this and might be able to improve it later.  Finally, you need to compile your
translation into a more efficient form. Do so from the `evennia` folder again:

    evennia compilemessages

This will go through all languages and create/update compiled files (`**.mo`)
for them. This needs to be done whenever a `**.po` file is updated.

When you are done, make sure that everyone can benefit from your translation!
Make a PR against Evennia with the updated `**.po` and `*.mo` files. Less
ideally (if git is not your thing) you can also attach them to a new post in our
forums.