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Python locale settings on Heroku


I'm developing a python web application on Heroku and I'm facing a problem with the locale settings.

My aim ist to format a python datetime object as a string like this

import datetime
now = datetime.datetime.now()
print now.strftime('%a %d %B %Y')  # output: Sat 14 July 2012

but in different languages.

On my local machine I use therefore:

import locale
locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, '')

or locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, 'de_DE.UTF-8') for specific languages.

On my local machine this works and I get the date in the right language but on Heroku it fails and all I get is a locale.Error: unsupported locale settings.

Am I doing something wrong or is it permitted to change locale setting in a python app on Heroku?

Thanks.


Solution

  • Only English locales are installed on the Heroku environment by default. So far there seems to be no way to install additional locales. Your best bet will be to implement your own formatting functions for the languages you support.