209 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
209 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
===============================
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Django 1.1 beta 1 release notes
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===============================
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March 23, 2009
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Welcome to Django 1.1 beta 1!
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This is the second in a series of preview/development releases leading up to
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the eventual release of Django 1.1, currently scheduled to take place in April
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2009. This release is primarily targeted at developers who are interested in
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trying out new features and testing the Django codebase to help identify and
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resolve bugs prior to the final 1.1 release.
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As such, this release is *not* intended for production use, and any such use
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is discouraged.
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What's new in Django 1.1 beta 1
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===============================
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.. seealso::
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The :doc:`1.1 alpha release notes </releases/1.1-alpha-1>`, which has a
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list of everything new between Django 1.0 and Django 1.1 alpha.
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Model improvements
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------------------
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.. currentmodule:: django.db.models
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A number of features have been added to Django's model layer:
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"Unmanaged" models
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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You can now control whether or not Django creates database tables for a model
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using the :attr:`~Options.managed` model option. This defaults to ``True``,
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meaning that Django will create the appropriate database tables in
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:djadmin:`syncdb` and remove them as part of :djadmin:`reset` command. That
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is, Django *manages* the database table's lifecycle.
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If you set this to ``False``, however, no database table creating or deletion
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will be automatically performed for this model. This is useful if the model
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represents an existing table or a database view that has been created by some
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other means.
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For more details, see the documentation for the :attr:`~Options.managed`
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option.
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Proxy models
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~~~~~~~~~~~~
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You can now create :ref:`proxy models <proxy-models>`: subclasses of existing
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models that only add Python behavior and aren't represented by a new table.
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That is, the new model is a *proxy* for some underlying model, which stores
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all the real data.
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All the details can be found in the :ref:`proxy models documentation
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<proxy-models>`. This feature is similar on the surface to unmanaged models,
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so the documentation has an explanation of :ref:`how proxy models differ from
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unmanaged models <proxy-vs-unmanaged-models>`.
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Deferred fields
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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In some complex situations, your models might contain fields which could
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contain a lot of data (for example, large text fields), or require expensive
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processing to convert them to Python objects. If you know you don't need those
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particular fields, you can now tell Django not to retrieve them from the
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database.
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You'll do this with the new queryset methods
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:meth:`~django.db.models.query.QuerySet.defer` and
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:meth:`~django.db.models.query.QuerySet.only`.
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New admin features
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------------------
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Since 1.1 alpha, a couple of new features have been added to Django's admin
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application:
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Editable fields on the change list
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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You can now make fields editable on the admin list views via the new
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:ref:`list_editable <admin-list-editable>` admin option. These fields will show
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up as form widgets on the list pages, and can be edited and saved in bulk.
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Admin "actions"
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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You can now define :doc:`admin actions </ref/contrib/admin/actions>` that can perform
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some action to a group of models in bulk. Users will be able to select objects on
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the change list page and then apply these bulk actions to all selected objects.
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Django ships with one pre-defined admin action to delete a group of objects in
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one fell swoop.
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Testing improvements
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--------------------
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.. currentmodule:: django.test.client
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A couple of small but very useful improvements have been made to the
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:doc:`testing framework </topics/testing>`:
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* The test :class:`Client` now can automatically follow redirects with the
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``follow`` argument to :meth:`Client.get` and :meth:`Client.post`. This
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makes testing views that issue redirects simpler.
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* It's now easier to get at the template context in the response returned
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the test client: you'll simply access the context as
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``request.context[key]``. The old way, which treats ``request.context``
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as a list of contexts, one for each rendered template, is still
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available if you need it.
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Conditional view processing
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---------------------------
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Django now has much better support for :doc:`conditional view processing
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</topics/conditional-view-processing>` using the standard ``ETag`` and
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``Last-Modified`` HTTP headers. This means you can now easily short-circuit
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view processing by testing less-expensive conditions. For many views this can
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lead to a serious improvement in speed and reduction in bandwidth.
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Other improvements
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------------------
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Finally, a grab-bag of other neat features made their way into this beta
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release, including:
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* The :djadmin:`dumpdata` management command now accepts individual
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model names as arguments, allowing you to export the data just from
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particular models.
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* There's a new :tfilter:`safeseq` template filter which works just like
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:tfilter:`safe` for lists, marking each item in the list as safe.
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* :doc:`Cache backends </topics/cache>` now support ``incr()`` and
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``decr()`` commands to increment and decrement the value of a cache key.
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On cache backends that support atomic increment/decrement -- most
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notably, the memcached backend -- these operations will be atomic, and
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quite fast.
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* Django now can :doc:`easily delegate authentication to the Web server
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</howto/auth-remote-user>` via a new authentication backend that supports
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the standard ``REMOTE_USER`` environment variable used for this purpose.
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* There's a new :func:`django.shortcuts.redirect` function that makes it
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easier to issue redirects given an object, a view name, or a URL.
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* The ``postgresql_psycopg2`` backend now supports :ref:`native PostgreSQL
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autocommit <postgresql-notes>`. This is an advanced, PostgreSQL-specific
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feature, that can make certain read-heavy applications a good deal
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faster.
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The Django 1.1 roadmap
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======================
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Before Django 1.1 goes final, at least one other preview/development release
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will be made available. The current schedule consists of at least the
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following:
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* Week of *April 2, 2009:* Django 1.1 release candidate. At this point all
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strings marked for translation must freeze to allow translations to
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be submitted in advance of the final release.
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* Week of *April 13, 2009:* Django 1.1 final.
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If deemed necessary, additional beta or release candidate packages will be
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issued prior to the final 1.1 release.
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What you can do to help
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=======================
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In order to provide a high-quality 1.1 release, we need your help. Although this
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beta release is, again, *not* intended for production use, you can help the
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Django team by trying out the beta codebase in a safe test environment and
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reporting any bugs or issues you encounter. The Django ticket tracker is the
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central place to search for open issues:
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* http://code.djangoproject.com/timeline
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Please open new tickets if no existing ticket corresponds to a problem you're
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running into.
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Additionally, discussion of Django development, including progress toward the
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1.1 release, takes place daily on the django-developers mailing list:
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* http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers
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... and in the ``#django-dev`` IRC channel on ``irc.freenode.net``. If you're
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interested in helping out with Django's development, feel free to join the
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discussions there.
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Django's online documentation also includes pointers on how to contribute to
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Django:
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* :doc:`How to contribute to Django </internals/contributing/index>`
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Contributions on any level -- developing code, writing documentation or simply
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triaging tickets and helping to test proposed bugfixes -- are always welcome and
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appreciated.
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Development sprints for Django 1.1 will also be taking place at PyCon US 2009,
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on the dedicated sprint days (March 30 through April 2), and anyone who wants to
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help out is welcome to join in, either in person at PyCon or virtually in the
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IRC channel or on the mailing list.
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