First of all, we need to make sure that our Mac has the right library to generate translation files.

Installing gettext

If you run the following command in Terminal:

You will probably get the following error

/bin/sh: xgettext: command not found

The reason for this is that the gettext library is not installed.

Installation from source (#fail)

I have tried to download the gettext source (if not available, check the gettext site: www.gnu.org/software/gettext/)

Uncompress the package in finder, then in Terminal cd to it:

But then I got the following error:

stpncpy.c:34: error: expected declaration specifiers or ‘…’ before numeric constantstpncpy.c:34: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘!=’ token
stpncpy.c:34: error: expected ‘)’ before ‘?’ token
make[3]: *** [stpncpy.lo] Error 1
make[2]: *** [install] Error 2
make[1]: *** [install-recursive] Error 1
make: *** [install-recursive] Error 1

It seems like it won’t compile on Lion. So here’s the other way.

Installation with Homebrew

So instead I’m installing it using Homebrew (a package installer for Mac OS), follow those instructions to install it.

Once brew is installed, run the following command:

Then you MUST add that package to your path:

* Make sure that your path is correct as well!

Or you will get the following error:
/bin/sh: msguniq: command not found

We should be good to go to the next step now.

Generating language files

One thing the Django admin command won’t do, is creating the locale folders. So in your project directory (or app directory) add the following folder structure (one for each language):

Those folder will indicate in which language your project needs to be localised. Then run the following command to generate the language files

This command will compile all the languages at once (for more specific command check the Django docs).

So you will get something like that:

The PO file contains the original translation string followed byt the translated one (French example):

#: map/forms.py:9
msgid “Hello”
msgstr “Bonjour”

Once you (or the translator) have completed all the translations in that PO file, you can run the compile command:

It will generate the compiled MO files, which will be used by Django for translating all the texts.

You will have run the makemessages command everytime you had or modify transalted string in your app, then compile everytime you change the translations.

Translation helper

I’ve been using a great Django app to handle translation easily, called Rosetta. It will make form fields in your admin for each translation, which ease the process rather than going through a really long text file.

Happy translating!

So here we go, I’ve put down the stepped I have followed to get my setup back to business.

First of all, Mac OS X Lion now ships with Python 2.7 already installed which is the version we will use.

Also, you will need some development libraries to be installed, for that download XCode from the App Store. Then browse to your Applications folder and install XCode. Yes it’s a bit silly that it doesn’t install itself automatically, I got caught the first time!

Update: When installing Xcode, you may have to install the command line tools as well

Install MySQL

Download the MySQL installation package:

Mac OS X ver. 10.6 (x86, 64-bit), DMG Archive

Install the app as you normally would, double-click the DMG file and follow the instructions.

I recommend to install the 3 items: the main package, the startup item and the preference panel widget (for added control in  your System Preferences).

Once it’s all installed, go to your System Preferences, go to MySQL, and start the server.

Setup MySQL users:

First, we want to reset the root password.

Then, I like to create a personal user for connecting locally (rather than connecting with root).

Start MySQL:

(Then enter your root password)

Create a new user and assign it all privileges on all databases, or on a specific database (up to you!).

Tips: I like to use Sequel Pro to manage my database and users, rather than using the command line. If you are re-intalling Sequel Pro, you may want to copy and move you favourites from that path, from one machine to another: ~/Library/Preferences/com.google.code.sequel-pro.plist

Install the Python libraries

Install Setup Tools:

First, we’ll need Setup Tools to help us installing the next packages. Download Setup Tools.

Un-compress, cd /to folder, and run:

Install Django:

Verify that python is installed properly:

Install MySQLdb:

Download the package here: MySQL-Python

Untar the package, then we’ll need to edit the config file to add the right path to MySQL bin. Edit site.cfg and change the following:

Then, cd /to folder, and run:

Once it’s installed, try to load it:

It’s likely you will come with the following error:

Here’s how I fixed it, add the following to your ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile:

Insert the following line:

That should be fixed!

What next?

Well that’s it for the basic, you can now run a simple Django App (like my Django Poll App for example!)

If you need more packages installed, then proceed as usual.

Good luck!

1. First of all, we need to create a username file: .hgrc

Include the following text:

Save it under you home folder eg:

This command should return the content of the file.

2. Go to your project folder

cd /my/folder

Start the repo:

hg init

* You can create a .hgignore file inside the .hg folder (make sure your hidden files are showing). This file will ignore a list of extension for example:

This will ignore Python compiled files and txt files.

3. Add project files to the repo:

or

hg addremove (if you set up your ignore file after the init)

4. Commit your work:

This will create a new commit, the message explained what has been added or modified.

5. Push you work to the repository:

I advice to create a file with default settings for convenience, which will stop you from entering the repo URL each time.

In the .hg folder, create a file called hgrc and put the following:

Then push:

It should be all set now.

This is a very basic startup guide, there’s many things you can do an option but that I recommend you check the Mercurial website: http://mercurial.selenic.com/