Django Localized Names

A reusable Django app to allow localization of person names similar to the way Django localizes dates and numbers. You will have this need when you deal with projects that have Chinese and English language, because in Chinese, names are written in the following format:

{last name}{first name}{title}

Whereas in English, of course, they are written like so:

{title}. {first name} {last name}

This app will make sure, that when a user switches the language for the site, even person names will get "translated" properly.

Installation

You need to install the following prerequisites in order to use this app:

pip install Django

If you want to install the latest stable release from PyPi:

$ pip install django-localized-names

If you feel adventurous and want to install the latest commit from GitHub:

$ pip install -e git://github.com/bitmazk/django-localized-names.git#egg=localized_names

Add localized_names to your INSTALLED_APPS:

INSTALLED_APPS = (
    ...,
    'localized_names',
)

Usage

Model interface

Since this app does not know about your specific model (let's call it Person in our example), that holds the values for names and title, it expects that you implement the following methods. Example:

class Person(models.Model):
    """Holds the information about a person in your system."""

    # your fields go here

    def get_gender(self):
        """Returns either 'Mr.' or 'Mrs.' depending on the gender."""
        if self.gender == 'male':
            return 'Mr'
        else:
            return 'Mrs'
    def get_title(self):
        """Returns the academic title of the person"""
        return self.title
    def get_romanized_first_name(self):
        """Returns the first name in roman letters."""
        return self.first_name  # e.g. Zhang
    def get_romanized_last_name(self):
        """Returns the first name in roman letters."""
        return self.last_name  # e.g. Mingshun
    def get_non_romanized_first_name(self):
        """Returns the non roman version of the first name."""
        return self.chinese_first_name  # e.g. 张
    def get_non_romanized_last_name(self):
        """Returns the non roman version of the first name."""
        return self.chinese_last_name  # e.g. 明顺
    def get_nickname(self):
        """Returns the nickname of a person in roman letters."""
        return self.nickname  # e.g. Jack

Templatetag

To get the name of a person you simply use the templatetag in the template like so {{ person|get_name "SHORT_NAME_FORMAT" }}.

Alternatively you can provide "LONG_NAME_FORMAT", which is the default.

Settings

The app provides standard settings for German, English and Chinese.

If you want to override our standards, you can set the CUSTOM_FORMAT_MODULE_PATHS setting (it defaults to [localized_names.formats, ]). If you provide additional formats, you simply extend the setting.

CUSTOM_FORMAT_MODULE_PATHS = [
    'my_app.formats',
    'localized_names.formats',
]

Add or override formats

This app makes use of Django's existing locale formats framework. So you will want to use the following folder structure for adding new formats:

my_app/
    formats/
        __init__.py
        en/
            __init__.py
            formats.py

This is further described here:

https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/topics/i18n/formatting/#creating-custom-format-files

The formats.py will then need a setting for SHORT_NAME_FORMAT and LONG_NAME_FORMAT.

Possible options are

g = gender (i.e. Mr, Mrs)
G = gender capitalized
t = title (i.e. Dr, Prof)
t = title capitalized
f = romanized first name
F = romanized first name capitalized
l = romanized last name
L = romanized last name capitalized
a  = non romanized first name
A = non romanized name capitalized
x  = non romanized last name
X = non romanized last name capitalized
n = nickname
N = nickname capitalized

For example

LONG_NAME_FORMAT = '{a}{x}{g} ({L}, "{n}", {f})'

would yield in the following formatted name:

张明顺先生 (ZHANG, "Jack", Mingshun)

Contribute

If you want to contribute to this project, please perform the following steps:

# Fork this repository
# Clone your fork
$ mkvirtualenv -p python2.7 django-localized-names
$ pip install -r requirements.txt
$ ./localized_names/tests/runtests.sh
# You should get no failing tests

$ git co -b feature_branch master
# Implement your feature and tests
# Describe your change in the CHANGELOG.txt
$ git add . && git commit
$ git push origin feature_branch
# Send us a pull request for your feature branch

Whenever you run the tests a coverage output will be generated in tests/coverage/index.html. When adding new features, please make sure that you keep the coverage at 100%.

Roadmap

Check the issue tracker on github for milestones and features to come.