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The Wagtail Bakery Demo showcases full internationalization (i18n) support, allowing content to be created and managed in multiple languages.

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Configuration

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Enabling i18n

Multilingual support is enabled in the settings through WAGTAIL_I18N_ENABLED:
settings/base.py
WAGTAIL_I18N_ENABLED = True

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Supported Languages

The demo supports three languages configured via WAGTAIL_CONTENT_LANGUAGES:
settings/base.py
WAGTAIL_CONTENT_LANGUAGES = LANGUAGES = [
    ("en", "English"),
    ("de", "Deutsch"),
    ("ar", "العربيّة"),
]
The WAGTAIL_CONTENT_LANGUAGES setting defines which languages are available for content creation in the Wagtail admin interface.

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Translation Features

1

Enable Simple Translation

The demo uses wagtail.contrib.simple_translation for streamlined translation workflows:
settings/base.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ... other apps
    "wagtail.contrib.simple_translation",
    # ...
]
2

Locale Support

Wagtail’s locale management is enabled through:
settings/base.py
INSTALLED_APPS = [
    # ... other apps
    "wagtail.locales",
    # ...
]
3

TranslatableMixin for Models

Models like FooterText inherit from TranslatableMixin to support translations:
base/models.py
class FooterText(
    DraftStateMixin,
    RevisionMixin,
    PreviewableMixin,
    TranslatableMixin,
    models.Model,
):
    body = RichTextField()
    
    class Meta(TranslatableMixin.Meta):
        verbose_name = "footer text"
        verbose_name_plural = "footer text"

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How It Works

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Page Translation

All Wagtail pages automatically support translation when WAGTAIL_I18N_ENABLED is set to True. Editors can:
  • Create translated versions of pages through the admin interface
  • Switch between language versions
  • Manage locale-specific content independently

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Snippet Translation

Snippets that inherit from TranslatableMixin can be translated: 
from wagtail.models import TranslatableMixin

class FooterText(TranslatableMixin, models.Model):
    body = RichTextField()
    
    class Meta(TranslatableMixin.Meta):
        verbose_name = "footer text"

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Admin Interface

With i18n enabled, the Wagtail admin provides:
  • Language switcher in the page editor
  • Locale management interface at /admin/locales/
  • Translation workflows using the Simple Translation contrib module
  • Locale-specific page trees for organizing content
When a page is translated, Wagtail creates a new page instance for each locale. This means:
  • Each language version can have different content, including different StreamField blocks
  • Page slugs can be customized per locale
  • Publication status is managed independently per locale
  • Translations are linked together through Wagtail’s locale system

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Best Practices

Use TranslatableMixin

Apply TranslatableMixin to snippets and models that need translation support.

Test All Locales

Ensure your content and templates work correctly in all configured languages, especially right-to-left languages like Arabic.

Locale-Specific URLs

Pages automatically get locale-specific URLs (e.g., /en/about/, /de/about/).

Simple Translation

Use the Simple Translation contrib module for streamlined translation workflows in the admin.
settings/base.py
LANGUAGE_CODE = "en-us"
USE_I18N = True
Django’s USE_I18N setting must be True for Wagtail’s i18n features to work properly.

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