How to use gettext to make QML files translatable

Question

I'd like to write a QtQuick app based on Python (PySide) and QML.

I know Qt apps have got their own translation technology, but I would like to stick to gettext for this one. I'd like to know if it's possible to:

• Mark strings for translation in QML files in a way gettext tools can extract them into a .pot file
• Have gettext translate QML files at runtime.

I know this is done in the Unity 2D code, in C++, so I'm wondering how it can be done with Python.

Note: I'm talking about using exclusively gettext at runtime, not about converting between gettext and Qt Linguist formats.

Answer 1

Generally speaking there is no way to use gettext translation in QT because the library uses an internal translation mechanism (Qtranslate and .ts files) as stated here QTBUG-2404.

However, there is a viable alternative.

Shipping with QT there is a toolkit called lconvert that can be used to convert .ts files to .po and vice versa.

So you can extract all of your translation with:

lupdate

Then use lconvert to obtain a po file:

lconvert -of po -o file.po file.ts

After translation you can convert back the po file to ts:

lconvert -of ts -o file.ts file.po

Then you can use it in your software.

lupdate can bu used both for QT an QtQuick.