This document summarizes the key changes and new features in Django 1.6, which was released in November 2013. Some of the major changes included a simpler project layout with fewer generated files, improved transaction handling with new atomic APIs, and the ability to reuse database connections between requests through the new CONN_MAX_AGE setting. Other additions were custom templates for projects and apps, more timezone awareness in querysets, and several performance improvements. The document provides details on each new feature and change and notes some deprecated functionality as well.

1. What’s New in Django 1.6
Nov 14, 2013
Sivasubramaniam Arunachalam
@sivaa_in
http://www.meetup.com/Bangalore-Django-User-Group/events/149839872/

2. Malcolm
Tredinnick
(We miss you)

3. Version
Released Date
Released After
0.9
Nov 16, 2005
0.91
Jan 11, 2006
2 Months
0.95
Jul 29, 2006
6 Months
0.96
Mar 23, 2007
8 Months
1.0
Sep 03, 2008
17 Months
1.1
Jul 29, 2009
11 Months
1.2
May 17, 2010
9 Months
1.3
Mar 23, 2011
10 Months
1.4
Mar 23, 2012
12 Months
1.5
Feb 26, 2013
11 Months
1.6
Nov 06, 2013
8 Months

4. Django Version
Supported Python
Version (2.x)
Supported Python
Version (3.x)
1.0
2.3+
1.1
2.3+
1.2
2.4+
1.3
2.4+
1.4
2.5+
1.5
2.6+
3.2+*
1.6
2.6+
3.2+
1.7
2.7+
3.2+
* Experimental

5. Python 3
Officially Supported
(Enjoy it in Production)

8. LTS Releases
Django 1.4 till March 2015
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/internals/release-process/#long-term-support-lts-releases

9. New Features
•
•
•
•
Simple Layout
Improved Transactions
Persistent DB Connections
Others

10. New Features
•
•
•
•
Simple Layout
Improved Transactions
Persistent DB Connections
Others

11. Much&Simpler
(Project App Layouts)

12. New Defaults
Application - added admin
- removed sites
Middleware - added clickjacking prevention
Database
- SQLite3

13. Custom Templates
(For Projects & Applications)
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.6/ref/django-admin/#custom-app-and-project-templates

14. startproject
•
•
•
•
manage.py
settings.py
wsgi.py
urls.py

15. startproject
•
•
•
•
manage.py
settings.py
wsgi.py
urls.py

16. Removed Settings
•
•
•
•
•
TEMPLATE_DIRS
TEMPLATE_LOADERS
STATIC_ROOT
STATICFILES_DIRS
STATICFILES_FINDERS
•
•
SITE_ID
LOGGING
•
•
ADMINS
MANAGERS
•
•
MEDIA_ROOT
MEDIA_URL
startproject - settings.py

17. Modified Settings
startproject - settings.py

18. DATABASES
(default to SQLite3)
startproject - settings.py - Modified

19. TIME_ZONE
(default to UTC)
startproject - settings.py - Modified

20. INSTALLED_APPS
(admin enabled & sites removed by default)
startproject - settings.py - Modified

21. MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES
(clickjacking protection is enabled by default)
startproject - settings.py - Modified

22. New Settings
BASE_DIR
startproject - settings.py

23. startproject
•
•
•
•
manage.py
settings.py
wsgi.py
urls.py

24. admin enabled by default
startproject - urls.py

25. startapp
•
•
•
•
admin.py
models.py
views.py
tests.py

26. startapp
•
•
•
•
admin.py
models.py
views.py
tests.py

27. admin.py is generated by default
startapp - admin.py

28. startapp
•
•
•
•
admin.py
models.py
views.py
tests.py

29. Default Example TestCase
is removed
startapp - tests.py

30. File
Django 1.5
Django 1.6
Change
Tar ball
8M
6.6 M
-17.5 %
settings.py
5.3 K
2.0 K
-63.1 %
urls.py
556
297
-46.5 %
wsgi.py
1.4 K
387
-72.2 %
tests.py
383
60
-84.3 %

31. New Features
•
•
•
•
Simple Layout
Improved Transactions
Persistent DB Connections
Others

32. Improved Transactions
(Biggest Change from 0.9x)

33. Old APIs were Deprecated
Transactions

34. New APIs were Introduced
Transactions

35. Improvements
•
•
•
•
Clean & Simple
Improved Performance
Improved Error Handling
Fine grained rollbacks between
savepoints
Transactions – New APIs

36. DB Level Auto Commit
• Enabled by default
• Every single SQL Statement is committed immediately
• django.db.transaction.set_autocommit()
Transactions – New APIs

37. atomic()
• New Single API to control DB transactions
• Commit on Success
• Rollback on Exceptions
• It can be
• Nested
• Used as a Decorator & Context Manager
Transactions – New APIs

38. Decorator
Transactions – New APIs – atomic()

39. Context Manager
Transactions – New APIs – atomic()

40. Backward Incompatible
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.6/topics/db/transactions/
#transactions-upgrading-from-1-5
Transactions

41. More Details
Excellent Presentations by
Aymeric Augustin
https://myks.org/en/talks/
Transactions

42. New Features
•
•
•
•
Simple Layout
Improved Transactions
Persistent DB Connections
Others

43. Till Django 1.5
New Connection for every
HTTP Request
Persistent DB Connections

44. In Django 1.6
Same Connection will be
reused between requests
Persistent DB Connections

45. CONN_MAX_AGE
•
•
•
•
•
Life Time of a Database Connection
Different for each Database
Default = 0 (Off & No reuse)
For Unlimited, use None
Comply with DB Idle Connection Settings
Persistent DB Connections

46. Processing Behavior
•
•
Connection is established during the first query
Connection won’t be closed and reused for subsequent
requests
One Connection for each Worker Thread
Once it is exceeds the CONN_MAX_AGE, it will be closed
•
•
•
Beginning & end of each request
Persistent DB Connections

47. New Features
•
•
•
•
Simple Layout
Improved Transactions
Persistent DB Connections
Others

48. New Test Runner
Locates tests anywhere
(test*.py)

49. QuerySet.dates() is now Time
Zone Aware
(Earlier Only in UTC)

50. QuerySet.dates() is now
operates only on DateField()
and returns datetime.date

51. QuerySet.datetimes() is
operates on DateTimeField()
and returns datetime.datetime
"hour", "minute" or "second“
lookups are supported

52. BinaryField() is introduced
• Stores raw binary data in bytes
• Queryset is not possible
• Don’t use it to store static files

53. django-admin.py check
• Verifies the setup for Current Version
• Settings
• Application Code
• Warnings will be issued for incompatibles

54. Efficient Model.save()
Before
SELECT is used to determine INSERT (or)
UPDATE
Now
if instance has Primary Key, it is UPDATE
else, it is INSERT

55. Model.objects.earliest()
(latest() with reverse direction)

56. Model.objects.first()
• Returns the first object from QuerySet
• If no order specified, Ordered by PK
• None for EmptyQuerySet

57. Model.objects.first()

58. Model.objects.last()

59. Model.objects.filter(timestamp__hour = 23)
Model.objects.filter(timestamp__minute = 59)
Model.objects.filter(timestamp__second = 59)

60. ModelAdmin.preserve_filters

61. HTML 5 Types for input fields
(Email, URL and Number)
Supported in
•
•
•
•
•
IntegerField
FloatField
DecimalField
EmailField
URLField

62. Blank Password is Supported

63. •
•
•
•
•
SQLite Save Points is supported
Open Layer based GeoDjango Forms API
Pillow is preferred over PIL for ImageField
Django Admin jQuery is upgraded from 1.4.2 to 1.9.1
New Deployment Check List (https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/1.6/howto/deployment/checklist/)

64. Notable Changes

65. •
•
•
UNUSABLE_PASSWORD is removed (is_password_usable)
MAXIMUM_PASSWORD_LENGTH is removed in the latest security fix
Password reset now uses Base64 Encoding (earlier it was base36)
•
•
•
BooleanField is not default to False (None). Be Explicit
django.db.models.query.EmptyQuerySet can’t be instantiated
django-debug-toolbar is breaking

66. Dropped Features

67. django.contrib.localflavor
django.contrib.databrowse
django.contrib.markup

68. Deprecated Features

69. •
•
•
•
•
django.middleware.transaction.TransactionMiddleware
django.db.transaction.autocommit
django.db.transaction.commit_on_success
django.db.transaction.commit_manually
TRANSACTIONS_MANAGED (in settings.py)

70. • CACHE_MIDDLEWARE_ANONYMOUS_ONLY
• SEND_BROKEN_LINK_EMAILS
(django.middleware.common.BrokenLinkEmailsMiddleware)

71. django.contrib.comments

72. Django 1.7

73. In built migrations

74. Thank You!
siva@sivaa.in
bit.ly/sivaa_in
bit.ly/sivasubramaniam

75. References
https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/releases/1.6/
https://speakerdeck.com/julienphalip/django-1-dot-6-the-best-new-features-and-the-important-changes