Backends

django-live-translations uses a backend system to abstract translation storage. Two backends are included out of the box, and you can implement your own by subclassing the abstract base class.

PO file backend (default)

LIVE_TRANSLATIONS = {
    "BACKEND": "live_translations.backends.po.POFileBackend",
}

The POFileBackend reads and writes .po/.mo files directly on disk. This is the default backend and requires no additional setup beyond having a locale directory with .po files.

File structure

locale/
  en/
    LC_MESSAGES/
      django.po    # read/written by POFileBackend
      django.mo    # recompiled on every save
  cs/
    LC_MESSAGES/
      django.po
      django.mo

Trade-offs

Pros:

• No database or cache infrastructure required
• Zero setup - works out of the box
• Changes are written to .po files, which you can commit to version control

Cons:

• Edits are lost on redeployment - the next deploy overwrites .po files with what's in the repo
• Writes to the filesystem (won't work on read-only deployments like containers)
• No built-in cross-process synchronization
• Requires .po files to exist for each language

Database backend

LIVE_TRANSLATIONS = {
    "BACKEND": "live_translations.backends.db.DatabaseBackend",
    "CACHE": "default",
}

The DatabaseBackend stores translation overrides in the database and falls back to .po files for defaults. It uses Django's cache framework for cross-process synchronization.

Setup

1. Set the backend in your settings:

   LIVE_TRANSLATIONS = {
       "BACKEND": "live_translations.backends.db.DatabaseBackend",
       "CACHE": "translations",  # must match a CACHES entry
   }
   

2. Ensure you have a proper cache backend configured:

   CACHES = {
       "translations": {
           "BACKEND": "django.core.cache.backends.redis.RedisCache",
           "LOCATION": "redis://127.0.0.1:6379/1",
       }
   }
   

3. Run migrations:

   python manage.py migrate
   

Trade-offs

Pros:

• Works on read-only filesystems (containers, serverless)
• Built-in cross-process synchronization via cache
• Overrides are independent of .po files
• Full edit history with the TranslationHistory model

Cons:

• Requires database and cache infrastructure
• Overrides are not version-controlled (unless you export them)

Comparison

Custom backends

To implement a custom backend, subclass TranslationBackend and implement the two required abstract methods:

from live_translations.backends.base import TranslationBackend, TranslationEntry
from live_translations.types import LanguageCode, MsgKey


class MyCustomBackend(TranslationBackend):
    def get_translations(
        self,
        key: MsgKey,
        languages: list[LanguageCode],
    ) -> dict[LanguageCode, TranslationEntry]:
        """Fetch translations for a msgid across multiple languages."""
        ...

    def save_translations(
        self,
        key: MsgKey,
        translations: dict[LanguageCode, str],
        active_flags: dict[LanguageCode, bool] | None = None,
    ) -> None:
        """Save translations for a msgid."""
        ...

Optional methods to override

Register your backend in settings:

LIVE_TRANSLATIONS = {
    "BACKEND": "myapp.backends.MyCustomBackend",
}