django/docs/misc/api-stability.txt

.. _misc-api-stability:

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

Although Django has not reached a 1.0 release, the bulk of Django's public APIs are
stable as of the 0.95 release. This document explains which APIs will and will not
change before the 1.0 release.

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

In this context, stable means:

   - All the public APIs -- everything documented in the linked documents, 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 until at least
     version 1.1. Warnings will be issued when the deprecated method is
     called.
     
   - We'll only break backwards compatibility of these APIs if a bug or
     security hole makes it completely unavoidable.

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

These APIs are stable:

   - :ref:`Caching <topics-cache>`.
   
   - :ref:`Custom template tags and libraries <howto-custom-template-tags>`.
     
   - :ref:`Database lookup <topics-db-queries>` (with the exception of validation; see below).
    
   - :ref:`django-admin utility <ref-django-admin>`.
   
   - :ref:`FastCGI and mod_python integration <howto-deployment-index>`.
   
   - :ref:`Flatpages <ref-contrib-flatpages>`.
   
   - :ref:`Generic views <topics-http-generic-views>`.
   
   - :ref:`Internationalization <topics-i18n>`.
   
   - :ref:`Legacy database integration <howto-legacy-databases>`.
   
   - :ref:`Model definition <topics-db-models>` (with the exception of generic relations; see below).
      
   - :ref:`Redirects <ref-contrib-redirects>`.
   
   - :ref:`Request/response objects <ref-request-response>`.
   
   - :ref:`Sending e-mail <topics-email>`.
   
   - :ref:`Sessions <topics-http-sessions>`.
   
   - :ref:`Settings <topics-settings>`.
   
   - :ref:`Syndication <ref-contrib-syndication>`.
   
   - :ref:`Template language <topics-templates>` (with the exception of some
     possible disambiguation of how tag arguments are passed to tags and
     filters).
   
   - :ref:`Transactions <topics-db-transactions>`.
   
   - :ref:`URL dispatch <topics-http-urls>`.
   
You'll notice that this list comprises the bulk of Django's APIs. That's right
-- most of the changes planned between now and Django 1.0 are either under the
hood, feature additions, or changes to a few select bits. A good estimate is
that 90% of Django can be considered forwards-compatible at this point.

That said, these APIs should *not* be considered stable, and are likely to
change:

   - :ref:`Serialization <topics-serialization>` is under development; changes
     are possible.

   - Generic relations will most likely be moved out of core and into the
     content-types contrib package to avoid core dependencies on optional
     components.
     
     **New in development version**: this has now been done.

   - The comments framework, which is yet undocumented, will get a complete
     rewrite before Django 1.0.