White-label deployments

The platform has no fixed name, look or language. A deployment sets its own through environment variables and a deployment directory, without changing the code. That keeps your deployment easy to upgrade: pull the new version and your files still apply.

1. Name, contact and colour

Set these in your environment (see the configuration reference):

PLATFORM_NAME="Lugha Yetu"
PLATFORM_TAGLINE="Share Swahili, with consent, and help build tools that speak it."
PLATFORM_CONTACT_EMAIL=hello@lugha.example.org
PLATFORM_DOMAIN=lugha.example.org
PLATFORM_BRAND_COLOR="#b45309"

The brand colour applies at once; you do not need to rebuild the stylesheet. The name and domain are copied to the Site record on every migrate, so emails from the sign-in system use them too.

2. Logo and other files

Put files in deployment/static/ and point to them:

# deployment/static/images/lugha-logo.svg
PLATFORM_LOGO_PATH=images/lugha-logo.svg

Files in deployment/static/ take precedence over the defaults with the same path.

3. Pages and wording

Every template can be overridden by a file with the same path under deployment/templates/. You must replace the two placeholder pages before inviting anyone:

• deployment/templates/pages/privacy.html: your privacy notice;
• deployment/templates/pages/terms.html: your terms of use.

Start from the default file in baibu/templates/ and keep its {% extends "base.html" %} line. Other common overrides are pages/home.html and includes/footer.html.

When you change the consent wording or your privacy notice, raise CONSENT_TEXT_VERSION. Each consent decision stores the version the person saw.

4. Languages

The code and templates are written in English. To offer more languages:

1. List them: PLATFORM_LANGUAGES=sw,en and PLATFORM_DEFAULT_LANGUAGE=sw.
2. If Django does not know a language, declare it: PLATFORM_EXTRA_LANGUAGES="jv:Javanese:Basa Jawa;su:Sundanese:Basa Sunda".
3. Translate the interface. There are two ways, and you can use both.

On the site (recommended)

Add your translators to the translators group in the admin. They translate at /translations/, save drafts and publish; published translations reach every page, email and background task within seconds, without a code change or a redeploy. Drafts and published versions are kept in file storage with a record of who published what and when, and an earlier version can be restored. Strings in your own templates under deployment/templates/ are included. See Translations.

As files

Keep .po files in deployment/locale/<code>/LC_MESSAGES/django.po:

docker compose run --rm django python manage.py makemessages -l sw \
  --ignore .venv --ignore node_modules --ignore docs
# translate the .po file in any PO editor, then:
docker compose run --rm django python manage.py compilemessages --ignore .venv

When a language's draft is first created on the site, it starts from this file, so you can move to the site at any time. Where both translate a message, the translation published on the site wins.

The default language has no URL prefix; the others get one (/en/...). When more than one language is enabled, a language switcher appears in the header.

5. Keep your deployment directory separate

deployment/ in this repository holds only empty placeholders. Keep your own deployment directory in your own repository and point DEPLOYMENT_DIR at it (for example by mounting it into the containers), so upgrades never touch it.

Trademarks

The Baibu name and logo are not part of the licence. Use your own name and logo. You may say your platform is "built on Baibu Community Edition". See the project charter.