django format date on user supplied locale - django

Question

I'm trying to set up the formatting of dates in templates based on a locale supplied by the user. As the rest of the page will remain in the original local ('en'), I only want my users'
supplied data to be formatted.
for example, dates.
users in the uk should be able to use l10n on the dates on their pages, but I don't want to set the whole site to be en_GB.
is there a way to set the locale in a template within a block, eg. something like
{% locale|'en_GB' %}
{{ my_date|localize }}
{% endlocale %}

Answer 1

You don't need to do anything explicit in the template.
Inside your settings.py define the FORMAT_MODULE_PATH setting.
Like:
FORMAT_MODULE_PATH = 'myproject.myapp.formats'
under the formats directory create one python package per supported language(other
than your default) of your project. Inside each of these you should have a formats.py
which should have any localized formatting options.
In my case the default language for my project is en, but I also support el(greek).
So I have this in my settings.py:
FORMAT_MODULE_PATH = 'myproject.websiteapp.formats'
Inside the myproject/websiteapp/formats directory I have a el package with a formats.py file, like:
el/
__init__.py
formats.py
Inside the formats.py I have this:
DATETIME_FORMAT="l j M Y, g:i a"
which is the greek specific representation of a date.
So when I use a datetime field inside my templates:
{{ mymodel.pub_date }}
It prints the default en representation when locale is set to the default:
Published on: Feb. 22, 2013, 1:47 p.m.
and my custom greek one when the locale is set to el.
Δημοσιεύτηκε: Τετάρτη 6 Φεβ 2013, 5:39 μμ.
More info here
Edit
Hmm, I just realized that you asked for specific template blocks or values.
Maybe the localize template filter or the localize template tag
are more relevant to your specific case?