django/docs/release_notes_0.96.txt

=================================
Django version 0.96 release notes
=================================

Welcome to Django 0.96!

The primary goal for 0.96 is a cleanup and stabilization of the features
introduced in 0.95. There have been a few small `backwards-incompatible
changes`_ since 0.95, but nearly all changes shouldn't require any major
updates.

However, we're also releasing 0.96 now because we have a set of
backwards-incompatible changes scheduled for the near future. These changes are
will require code changes for developers tracking the Django development
version, so if you're looking for a rock-solid, stable, version of Django we
recommend you stick with Django until the next official release and upgrade all
at once.

What's new in 0.96?
===================

This revision represents over a thousand source commits and over four hundred
bug fixes, so we can't possibly catalog all the changes. Here, we describe the
most notable changes in this release.

New forms library
-----------------

``django.newforms`` is Django's fantastic new form-handling library. It's a
replacement for ``django.forms``, the old form/manipulator/validation framework.
Both APIs are available in 0.96, but over the next two releases we plan to
completely replace the old forms framework with this new one.

Our transition plan is:

    * We've copied the current ``django.forms`` to ``django.oldforms``. This
      allows you to upgrade your code *now* rather than waiting for the
      backwards-incompatible change and rushing to fix your code after the fact.
      Just change your import statements like this::

          from django import forms             # 0.95-style
          from django import oldforms as forms # 0.96-style

    * Before the next release, we will move the current ``django.newforms`` to
      ``django.forms``. This will be a backwards-incompatible change, and
      anybody who is still using the old version of ``django.forms`` at that
      time will need to change their import statements, as described in the
      previous bullet.

    * We will remove ``django.oldforms`` in the release *after* the next Django
      release -- the release that comes after the release in which we're
      creating the new ``django.forms``.

Although the ``newforms`` library will continue to evolve, it's ready for use
for most common cases. We recommend that anyone new to form handling skip the
old forms and start with the new.

For more information about ``django.newforms``, read the `newforms
documentation`_.

.. _newforms documentation: ../newforms/

URLconf improvements
--------------------

You can now use any callable as the callback in URLconfs (previously, only
strings that referred to callables were allowed). This allows a much more
natural use of URLconfs. For example, this URLconf::

    from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
    
    urlpatterns = patterns('', 
        ('^myview/$', 'mysite.myapp.views.myview')
    )
    
can now be rewritten as::

    from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
    from mysite.myapp.views import myview
    
    urlpatterns = patterns('', 
        ('^myview/$', myview)
    )
        
A very useful application of this can be seen when using decorators: this change
allows you to apply decorators to views *in your URLconf*. Thus, you can make a
generic view require login very easily::

    from django.conf.urls.defaults import *
    from django.contrib.auth.decorators import login_required
    from django.views.generic.list_detail import object_list
    from mysite.myapp.models import MyModel
    
    info = {
        "queryset" : MyModel.objects.all(),
    }
    
    urlpatterns = patterns('', 
        ('^myview/$', login_required(object_list), info)
    )

Note that both syntaxes (strings and callables) are valid, and will continue to
be valid for the foreseeable future.  

The test framework
------------------

Django now includes a test framework so you can start transmuting fear into
boredom (with apologies to Kent Beck). You can write tests based on doctest_
or unittest_ and test your views with a simple test client.

There is also new support for "fixtures" -- initial data stored in any of the
supported `serialization formats`_ that will be loaded into your database at the
start of your tests. This makes testing with real data much easier.

See `the testing documentation`_ for the full details.

.. _doctest: http://docs.python.org/lib/module-doctest.html
.. _unittest: http://docs.python.org/lib/module-unittest.html
.. _the testing documentation: ../testing/
.. _serialization formats: ../serialization/


Improvements to the user admin interface
----------------------------------------

A small change, but a very nice one: you no longer need to edit MD5 hashes when
creating and/or updating users from the admin interface.

Django is now hash-free for over a thousand revisions!

Backwards-incompatible changes
==============================

The following changes may require you to update your code when you switch from
0.95 to 0.96:

Database constraint names changed
---------------------------------

The format of the constraint names Django generates for foreign key references
changed slightly. These names are only used sometimes, when it is not possible
to put the reference directly on the affected column, so this is not always
visible.

The effect of this change is that ``manage.py reset`` and similar commands may
generate SQL with new constraint names and thus generate an error when run
against the database (the database server will complain about the constraint not
existing). To fix this, you will need to tweak the output of ``manage.py``
to match the correct constraint names and pass the results to the
database server manually. 

You can also fix this by examining the output of ``manage.py sqlall`` and
renaming database constraints to match the new naming scheme.

Names changes in ``manage.py``
------------------------------

A few of the options to ``manage.py`` have changed with the addition of fixture
support:

    * There are new ``dumpdata`` and ``loaddata`` commands, which, as you might
      expect, will dump and load data to/from the database. These targets
      operate against one of the serialization formats.

    * The ``sqlinitialdata`` target has been renamed to ``sqlcustom`` to
      emphasize that ``loaddata`` should be used for data (and ``sqlcustom`` for
      other custom SQL -- views, stored procedures, etc.).
      
    * The vestigal ``install`` target is gone. Use ``syncdb``.

Backslash escaping changed
--------------------------

The Django database API now escapes backslashes given as query parameters. If
you have any database API code that match backslashes, and it was working before
(despite the broken escaping), you'll have to change your code to "unescape" the
slashes one level.

For example, this used to work::

    # Find text containing a single backslash
    MyModel.objects.filter(text__contains='\\\\')

The above is now incorrect, and should be rewritten as::

    # Find text containing a single backslash
    MyModel.objects.filter(text__contains='\\')

Removed ENABLE_PSYCO setting
----------------------------

The ``ENABLE_PSYCO`` setting no longer exists. If your settings file includes
``ENABLE_PSYCO``, nothing will break per se, but it just won't do anything.

If you want to use Psyco_ with Django, you'll need to write some custom
middleware that activates Psyco.

.. _psyco: http://psyco.sourceforge.net/

Thanks
======

Since 0.95, a number of people have stepped forward and taken a major new role in Django's development. We'd like to thank these
people for all their hard work:

    * Russell Keith-Magee and Malcolm Tredinnick for their major code
      contributions. This release wouldn't have been possible without them.
      
    * Our new release manager, James Bennett, for his work in getting out
      0.95.1, 0.96, and (hopefully) future release.
      
    * Our ticket managers Chris Beaven (aka SmileyChris), Simon Greenhill,
      Michael Radziej, and Gary Wilson. They agreed to take on the monumental
      task of wrangling our tickets into nicely cataloged submission. Figuring
      out what to work on is now about a million times easier; thanks again,
      guys.
            
    * Everyone who submitted a bug report, patch or ticket comment. We can't
      possibly thank everyone by name -- over 200 developers submitted patches
      that went into 0.96 -- but everyone who's contributed to Django is listed
      in AUTHORS_.
      
.. _AUTHORS: http://code.djangoproject.com/browser/django/trunk/AUTHORS