diff --git a/appveyor.yml b/appveyor.yml
index c513c6f83..3f58159ad 100644
--- a/appveyor.yml
+++ b/appveyor.yml
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ install:
   - cmd: conda config --add channels conda-forge
   #- cmd: conda update --yes --quiet conda
   - cmd: conda install -y pyzmq tornado jupyter_client nbformat nbconvert ipykernel pip nodejs nose
+  - cmd: python setup.py build
   - cmd: pip install .[test]
 
 test_script:
diff --git a/package.json b/package.json
index 1cf8a1848..062978e8a 100644
--- a/package.json
+++ b/package.json
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@
   "devDependencies": {
     "bower": "*",
     "less": "~2",
-    "requirejs": "^2.1.17"
+    "requirejs": "^2.1.17",
+    "po2json": "^0.4.5"
   },
   "dependencies": {}
 }
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 6d60391db..b58e847f2 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -40,6 +40,7 @@ from setupbase import (
     check_package_data_first,
     CompileCSS,
     CompileJS,
+    CompileBackendTranslation,
     Bower,
     JavascriptVersion,
     css_js_prerelease,
@@ -131,6 +132,7 @@ setup_args['cmdclass'] = {
     'sdist' : css_js_prerelease(sdist, strict=True),
     'develop': css_js_prerelease(develop),
     'css' : CompileCSS,
+    'backendtranslations': CompileBackendTranslation,
     'js' : CompileJS,
     'jsdeps' : Bower,
     'jsversion' : JavascriptVersion,
diff --git a/setupbase.py b/setupbase.py
index d362eadc0..1b1549c54 100644
--- a/setupbase.py
+++ b/setupbase.py
@@ -337,6 +337,30 @@ def run(cmd, *args, **kwargs):
     kwargs['shell'] = (sys.platform == 'win32')
     return check_call(cmd, *args, **kwargs)
 
+class CompileBackendTranslation(Command):
+    description = "compile the .po files into .mo files, that contain the translations."
+
+    user_options = []
+
+    def initialize_options(self):
+        pass
+
+    def finalize_options(self):
+        pass
+
+
+    def run(self):
+        paths = glob('notebook/i18n/??_??')
+        for p in paths:
+            LANG = p[-5:]
+            for component in ['notebook', 'nbui']:
+                run(['pybabel', 'compile',
+                     '-D', component,
+                     '-f',
+                     '-l', LANG,
+                     '-i', pjoin('notebook', 'i18n', LANG, 'LC_MESSAGES', component+'.po'),
+                     '-o', pjoin('notebook', 'i18n', LANG, 'LC_MESSAGES', component+'.mo')
+                    ])
 
 class Bower(Command):
     description = "fetch static client-side components with bower"
@@ -467,7 +491,7 @@ class CompileCSS(Command):
 
 
 class CompileJS(Command):
-    """Rebuild Notebook Javascript main.min.js files
+    """Rebuild Notebook Javascript main.min.js files and translation files.
     
     Calls require via build-main.js
     """
@@ -515,23 +539,35 @@ class CompileJS(Command):
                 print(source, target)
                 return True
         return False
-        
+
     def build_main(self, name):
         """Build main.min.js"""
         target = pjoin(static, name, 'js', 'main.min.js')
-        
+
         if not self.should_run(name, target):
             log.info("%s up to date" % target)
             return
         log.info("Rebuilding %s" % target)
         run(['node', 'tools/build-main.js', name])
 
+    def build_jstranslation(self, trd):
+        lang = trd[-5:]
+        run([
+            pjoin('node_modules', '.bin', 'po2json'),
+            '-p', '-F',
+            '-f', 'jed1.x',
+            '-d', 'nbjs',
+            pjoin('notebook', 'i18n', lang, 'LC_MESSAGES', 'nbjs.po'),
+            pjoin('notebook', 'i18n', lang, 'LC_MESSAGES', 'nbjs.json'),
+        ])
+
     def run(self):
         self.run_command('jsdeps')
         env = os.environ.copy()
         env['PATH'] = npm_path
         pool = ThreadPool()
         pool.map(self.build_main, self.apps)
+        pool.map(self.build_jstranslation, glob('notebook/i18n/??_??'))
         # update package data in case this created new files
         update_package_data(self.distribution)
 
@@ -586,6 +622,7 @@ def css_js_prerelease(command, strict=False):
             try:
                 self.distribution.run_command('js')
                 self.distribution.run_command('css')
+                self.distribution.run_command('backendtranslations')
             except Exception as e:
                 # refresh missing
                 missing = [ t for t in targets if not os.path.exists(t) ]