Fixed #19728 - Updated API stability doc to reflect current meaning of "stable".

This commit is contained in:
Tim Graham 2013-02-19 18:19:50 -05:00
parent bd006e00e4
commit 132d5822b0
1 changed files with 8 additions and 93 deletions

View File

@ -4,17 +4,19 @@ API stability
:doc:`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.
develop against a 1.X version of Django will continue to work with future
1.X releases. You may need to make minor changes when upgrading the version of
Django your project uses: see the "Backwards incompatible changes" section of
the :doc:`release note </releases/index>` for the version or versions to which
you are upgrading.
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.
- All the public APIs (everything in this documentation) 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
@ -35,77 +37,7 @@ Stable APIs
===========
In general, everything covered in the documentation -- with the exception of
anything in the :doc:`internals area </internals/index>` is considered stable as
of 1.0. This includes these APIs:
- :doc:`Authorization </topics/auth/index>`
- :doc:`Caching </topics/cache>`.
- :doc:`Model definition, managers, querying and transactions
</topics/db/index>`
- :doc:`Sending email </topics/email>`.
- :doc:`File handling and storage </topics/files>`
- :doc:`Forms </topics/forms/index>`
- :doc:`HTTP request/response handling </topics/http/index>`, including file
uploads, middleware, sessions, URL resolution, view, and shortcut APIs.
- :doc:`Generic views </topics/class-based-views/index>`.
- :doc:`Internationalization </topics/i18n/index>`.
- :doc:`Pagination </topics/pagination>`
- :doc:`Serialization </topics/serialization>`
- :doc:`Signals </topics/signals>`
- :doc:`Templates </topics/templates>`, including the language, Python-level
:doc:`template APIs </ref/templates/index>`, and :doc:`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.
- :doc:`Testing </topics/testing/index>`
- :doc:`django-admin utility </ref/django-admin>`.
- :doc:`Built-in middleware </ref/middleware>`
- :doc:`Request/response objects </ref/request-response>`.
- :doc:`Settings </ref/settings>`. Note, though that while the :doc:`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.'"
- :doc:`Built-in signals </ref/signals>`. Like settings, we'll probably add
new signals in the future, but the existing ones won't break.
- :doc:`Unicode handling </ref/unicode>`.
- Everything covered by the :doc:`HOWTO guides </howto/index>`.
``django.utils``
----------------
Most of the modules in ``django.utils`` are designed for internal use. Only
the following parts of :doc:`django.utils </ref/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``
anything in the :doc:`internals area </internals/index>` is considered stable.
Exceptions
==========
@ -121,23 +53,6 @@ If we become aware of a security problem -- hopefully by someone following our
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
-----------------------