Strings won't be translated in Django using format function available in Python 2.7

Question

Does the new and recommended way to format strings available in Python 2.7 using format result in a non translated string in Django?

The strings are in the .po file, translated, but it won't be translated on the website. For example:

from django.utils.translation import ugettext as _

website_name = "Stackoverflow"
title = _(u"{sitename} is a good website".format(sitename=website_name))

The .po file after translating the string looks like this:

#: path/to/file.py:4
msgid "{sitename} is a good website"
msgstr "{sitename} ist eine gute Website"

After running django-admin.py compilemessages and restarting the webserver, on the processed HTML page it is still in english, while all the other strings are being translated. Furthermore, while all strings using format are not translated, strings formatted using the % operator are translated as expected. It is also not a gettext/ugettext issue, as the problem is the same with both functions.

Answer 1

compilemessages sees the string as "{sitename} is a good website", but when the app is running the string is actually e.g. "MySite is a good website", which of course doesn't have a translation. You must translate the bare string first, and then you can perform template operations on it.