Translations without using __dict__ :)

translation_utils.py

import logging, re

logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)

from django.utils.translation import get_language

LANGUAGE_CODE_RE = re.compile(r'_(?P<code>[a-z_]{2,5})$')


class TranslatableMixin(object):
    """ Stolen from django-multilingual-model.
        http://github.com/dokterbob/django-multilingual-model
    """
    
    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        super(TranslatableMixin, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
        logger.debug('Init called.')
        self._language = get_language()


    def __getattr__(self, attr):
        superclass = super(TranslatableMixin, self)
        
        # If an attribute is simply available, don't look any further.
        try:
            return getattr(superclass, attr)
        except AttributeError:
            pass

        assert self._language, \
            '__init__ has not been called or something else went wrong. Make \
             sure TranslatableMixin is the first base class.'
        
        # Prevent recursion when a translation cannot be found
        language_suffix = '_%s' % self._language
        if attr.endswith(language_suffix):
            raise AttributeError('Translation cannot be found for language %s' % self._language)
        
        translated_field_name = attr + language_suffix
        
        logger.debug('Normal field name %s not found, looking for %s.', \
            attr, translated_field_name)
        
        return getattr(self, translated_field_name)


    def for_language(self, code):
        """Sets the language for the translation fields of this object"""
        if code is not None and len(code) >= 2 and len(code) <= 5:
            self._language = code