# Localization This section provides suggestions for localization, including translation to different languages and display of data in formats specific to a locale. ## If the skin has been internationalized All the skins that come with WeeWX have been *internationalized*, that is, they are capable of being *localized*, although there may or may not be a localization available for your specific language. See the section [Internationalized skins](../custom-reports/#internationalized-skins) for how to tell. ### Internationalized, your language is available This is the easy case: the skin has been internationalized, and your locale is available. In this case, all you need to do is to select your locale in `weewx.conf`. For example, to select German (code `de`) for the *Seasons* skin, just add the highlighted line (or change, if it's already there): ``` ini hl_lines="7" [StdReport] [[SeasonsReport]] # The SeasonsReport uses the 'Seasons' skin, which contains the # images, templates and plots for the report. skin = Seasons enable = true lang = de ``` ### Internationalized, but your language is missing {#missing-language} If the `lang` subdirectory is present in the skin directory, then the skin has been internationalized. However, if your language code is not included in the subdirectory, then you will have to *localize* it to your language. To do so, copy the file `en.conf` and name it according to the language code of your language. Then translate all the strings on the right side of the equal signs to your language. For example, say you want to localize the skin in the French language. Then copy `en.conf` to `fr.conf` ```shell cp en.conf fr.conf ``` Then change things that look like this: ``` ini [Texts] "Language" = "English" "7-day" = "7-day" "24h" = "24h" "About this weather station" = "About this weather station" ``` to something that looks like this: ``` ini [Texts] Language = French "7-day" = "7-jours" "24h" = "24h" "About this weather station" = "A propos de cette station" ``` And so on. When you're done, the skin author may be interested in your localization file to ship it together with the skin for the use of other users. If the skin is one that came with WeeWX, contact the WeeWX team via a post to the [weewx-user group](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/weewx-user) and, with your permission, we may include your localization file in a future WeeWX release. Finally, set the option `lang` in `weewx.conf` to your language code (`fr` in this example) as described in the [User's Guide](../../reference/weewx-options/stdreport/#lang). ## How to internationalize a skin What happens when you come across a skin that you like, but it has not been internationalized? This section explains how to convert the report to local formats and language. Internationalization of WeeWX templates uses a pattern very similar to the well-known GNU "[`gettext`](https://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/)" approach. The only difference is that we have leveraged the `ConfigObj` configuration library used throughout WeeWX. ### Create the localization file Create a subdirectory called `lang` in the skin directory. Then create a file named by the language code with the suffix `.conf` in this subdirectory. For example, if you want to translate to Spanish, name the file `lang/es.conf`. Include the following in the file: ``` ini [Units] [[Labels]] # These are singular, plural meter = " meter", " meters" day = " day", " days" hour = " hour", " hours" minute = " minute", " minutes" second = " second", " seconds" [[Ordinates]] # Ordinal directions. The last one should be for no wind direction directions = N, NNE, NE, ENE, E, ESE, SE, SSE, S, SSW, SW, WSW, W, WNW, NW, NNW, N/A [Labels] # Set to hemisphere abbreviations suitable for your location: hemispheres = N, S, E, W # Generic labels, keyed by an observation type. [[Generic]] altimeter = Altimeter # QNH altimeterRate = Altimeter Change Rate appTemp = Apparent Temperature appTemp1 = Apparent Temperature barometer = Barometer # QFF barometerRate = Barometer Change Rate cloudbase = Cloud Base dateTime = Time dewpoint = Dew Point ET = ET extraTemp1 = Temperature1 extraTemp2 = Temperature2 extraTemp3 = Temperature3 heatindex = Heat Index inDewpoint = Inside Dew Point inHumidity = Inside Humidity inTemp = Inside Temperature interval = Interval lightning_distance = Lightning Distance lightning_strike_count = Lightning Strikes outHumidity = Outside Humidity outTemp = Outside Temperature pressure = Pressure # QFE pressureRate = Pressure Change Rate radiation = Radiation rain = Rain rainRate = Rain Rate THSW = THSW Index UV = UV Index wind = Wind windchill = Wind Chill windDir = Wind Direction windGust = Gust Speed windGustDir = Gust Direction windgustvec = Gust Vector windrun = Wind Run windSpeed = Wind Speed windvec = Wind Vector [Almanac] # The labels to be used for the phases of the moon: moon_phases = New, Waxing crescent, First quarter, Waxing gibbous, Full, Waning gibbous, Last quarter, Waning crescent [Texts] Language = Español # Replace with the language you are targeting ``` Go through the file, translating all phrases on the right-hand side of the equal signs to your target language (Spanish in this example). ### Internationalize the template You will need to internationalize every HTML template (these typically have a file suffix of `.html.tmpl`). This is most easily done by opening the template and the language file in different editor windows. It is much easier if you can change both files simultaneously. #### Change the HTML `lang` attribute At the top of the template, change the HTML `lang` attribute to a configurable value, `$lang`. ``` html ... ``` The value `$lang` will get replaced by the actual language to be used. For reference, here are the ISO language and country codes: * [language codes](https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_language_codes.asp)
* [country codes](https://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_country_codes.asp) #### Change the body text The next step is to go through the templates and change all natural language phrases into lookups using `$gettext`. For example, suppose your skin has a section that looks like this: ``` html
Current Conditions
Outside Temperature $current.outTemp
``` There are two natural language phrases here: *Current Conditions* and *Outside Temperature*. They would be changed to: ``` html
$gettext("Current Conditions")
$obs.label.outTemp $current.outTemp
``` We have done two replacements here. For the phrase *Current Conditions*, we substituted `$gettext("Current Conditions")`. This will cause the Cheetah Generator to look up the localized version of "Current Conditions" in the localization file and substitute it. We could have done something similar for *Outside Temperature*, but in this case, we chose to use the localized name for type `outTemp`, which you should have provided in your localization file, under section `[Labels] / [[Generic]]`. In the localization file, include the translation for *Current Conditions* under the `[Texts]` section: ``` ini ... [Texts] "Language" = "Español" "Current Conditions" = "Condiciones Actuales" ... ``` Repeat this process for all the strings that you find. Make sure not to replace HTML tags and HTML options. ### Think about time Whenever a time is used in a template, it will need a format. WeeWX comes with the following set of defaults: ``` ini [Units] [[TimeFormats]] day = %X week = %X (%A) month = %x %X year = %x %X rainyear = %x %X current = %x %X ephem_day = %X ephem_year = %x %X ``` The times for images are defined with the following defaults: ``` ini [ImageGenerator] [[day_images]] bottom_label_format = %x %X [[week_images]] bottom_label_format = %x %X [[month_images]] bottom_label_format = %x %X [[year_images]] bottom_label_format = %x %X ``` These defaults will give something readable in every locale, but they may not be very pretty. Therefore, you may want to change them to something more suitable for the locale you are targeting, using the Python [`strftime()` specific directives](https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#strftime-and-strptime-behavior). Example: the default time formatting for "Current" conditions is `%x %x`, which will show today's date as "14/05/21 10:00:00" in the Spanish locale. Suppose you would rather see "14-mayo-2021 10:00". You would add the following to your Spanish localization file `es.conf`: ``` ini [Units] [[TimeFormats]] current = %d-%B-%Y %H:%M ``` ### Set the environment variable `LANG` {#environment-variable-LANG} Finally, you will need to set the environment variable `LANG` to reflect your locale. For example, assuming you set ``` shell $ export LANG=es_ES.UTF-8 ``` before running WeeWX, then the local Spanish names for days of the week and months of the year will be used. The decimal point for numbers will also be modified appropriately.