String Encoding In Django

Introduction

Django accepts and sends data to and from a number of external entities: databases, web browsers (form input, HTML output), XML syndication feeds, PDF documents... the list is quite long. Since we would like Django to be able to offer all these features to people in all locations, we need to pay particular attention to our internationalization support.

An important part of internationalization is how we handle strings inside Django and at the interfaces between Django and other applications.

This page tries to capture both what we are aiming to do internally and what we are currently doing (which might be different from the eventual goal). It is partly an attempt to get my (Malcolm Tredinnick's) thoughts down in a logical form. This stuff is very tricky and it's easy to become confused when working on the code. That happens to me regularly, so I need notes like this.

The Big Picture

HTTP Input Handling

Form Input Handing

Passing Strings Between Django and the Developer's Code

Database Interaction

Talking To External Processes

HTTP Output

Template Output

Current Problems and Solution Outline