django/docs/misc/api-stability.txt

.. _misc-api-stability:

=============
API stability
=============

:ref:`The release of Django 1.0 <releases-1.0>` comes with a promise of API
stability and forwards-compatibility. In a nutshell, this means that code you
develop against Django 1.0 will continue to work against 1.1 unchanged, and you
should need to make only minor changes for any 1.X release.

What "stable" means
===================

In this context, stable means:

   - All the public APIs -- everything documented in the linked documents below,
     and all methods that don't begin with an underscore -- will not be moved or
     renamed without providing backwards-compatible aliases.
     
   - If new features are added to these APIs -- which is quite possible --
     they will not break or change the meaning of existing methods. In other
     words, "stable" does not (necessarily) mean "complete."
          
   - If, for some reason, an API declared stable must be removed or replaced, it
     will be declared deprecated but will remain in the API for at least two
     minor version releases. Warnings will be issued when the deprecated method
     is called.
     
     See :ref:`official-releases` for more details on how Django's version
     numbering scheme works, and how features will be deprecated.
     
   - We'll only break backwards compatibility of these APIs if a bug or
     security hole makes it completely unavoidable.

Stable APIs
===========

In general, everything covered in the documentation -- with the exception of
anything in the :ref:`internals area <internals-index>` is considered stable as
of 1.0. This includes these APIs:

    - :ref:`Authorization <topics-auth>`

    - :ref:`Caching <topics-cache>`.
    
    - :ref:`Model definition, managers, querying and transactions
      <topics-db-index>`
    
    - :ref:`Sending e-mail <topics-email>`.
    
    - :ref:`File handling and storage <topics-files>`
    
    - :ref:`Forms <topics-forms-index>`
    
    - :ref:`HTTP request/response handling <topics-http-index>`, including file
      uploads, middleware, sessions, URL resolution, view, and shortcut APIs.
    
    - :ref:`Generic views <topics-http-generic-views>`.

    - :ref:`Internationalization <topics-i18n>`.
    
    - :ref:`Pagination <topics-pagination>`
    
    - :ref:`Serialization <topics-serialization>`
    
    - :ref:`Signals <topics-signals>`
    
    - :ref:`Templates <topics-templates>`, including the language, Python-level
      :ref:`template APIs <ref-templates-index>`, and :ref:`custom template tags
      and libraries <howto-custom-template-tags>`. We may add new template
      tags in the future and the names may inadvertently clash with
      external template tags. Before adding any such tags, we'll ensure that
      Django raises an error if it tries to load tags with duplicate names.
      
    - :ref:`Testing <topics-testing>`

    - :ref:`django-admin utility <ref-django-admin>`.
    
    - :ref:`Built-in middleware <ref-middleware>`
    
    - :ref:`Request/response objects <ref-request-response>`.
    
    - :ref:`Settings <ref-settings>`. Note, though that while the :ref:`list of
      built-in settings <ref-settings>` can be considered complete we may -- and
      probably will -- add new settings in future versions. This is one of those
      places where "'stable' does not mean 'complete.'"
      
    - :ref:`Built-in signals <ref-signals>`. Like settings, we'll probably add
      new signals in the future, but the existing ones won't break.
      
    - :ref:`Unicode handling <ref-unicode>`.
        
    - Everything covered by the :ref:`HOWTO guides <howto-index>`.
    
``django.utils``
----------------

Most of the modules in ``django.utils`` are designed for internal use. Only the following parts of ``django.utils`` can be considered stable:

    - ``django.utils.cache``
    - ``django.utils.datastructures.SortedDict`` -- only this single class; the
      rest of the module is for internal use.
    - ``django.utils.encoding``
    - ``django.utils.feedgenerator``
    - ``django.utils.http``
    - ``django.utils.safestring``
    - ``django.utils.translation``
    - ``django.utils.tzinfo``
    
Exceptions
==========

There are a few exceptions to this stability and backwards-compatibility
promise.

Security fixes
--------------

If we become aware of a security problem -- hopefully by someone following our
:ref:`security reporting policy <reporting-security-issues>` -- we'll do
everything necessary to fix it. This might mean breaking backwards compatibility; security trumps the compatibility guarantee.

Contributed applications (``django.contrib``)
---------------------------------------------

While we'll make every effort to keep these APIs stable -- and have no plans to
break any contrib apps -- this is an area that will have more flux between
releases. As the web evolves, Django must evolve with it.

However, any changes to contrib apps will come with an important guarantee:
we'll make sure it's always possible to use an older version of a contrib app if
we need to make changes. Thus, if Django 1.5 ships with a backwards-incompatible
``django.contrib.flatpages``, we'll make sure you can still use the Django 1.4
version alongside Django 1.5. This will continue to allow for easy upgrades.

Historically, apps in ``django.contrib`` have been more stable than the core, so
in practice we probably won't have to ever make this exception. However, it's
worth noting if you're building apps that depend on ``django.contrib``.

APIs marked as internal
-----------------------

Certain APIs are explicitly marked as "internal" in a couple of ways:

    - Some documentation refers to internals and mentions them as such. If the
      documentation says that something is internal, we reserve the right to
      change it.
      
    - Functions, methods, and other objects prefixed by a leading underscore
      (``_``). This is the standard Python way of indicating that something is
      private; if any method starts with a single ``_``, it's an internal API.