# Django 1.8.18.dev20170123152445 documentation

# Django Deprecation Timeline

This document outlines when various pieces of Django will be removed or altered in a backward incompatible way, following their deprecation, as per the deprecation policy. More details about each item can often be found in the release notes of two versions prior.

## 1.10

See the Django 1.8 release notes for more details on these changes.

- Support for calling a `SQLCompiler` directly as an alias for calling its `quote_name_unless_alias` method will be removed.
- `cycle` and `firstof` template tags will be removed from the `future` template tag library (used during the 1.6/1.7 deprecation period).
- `django.conf.urls.patterns()` will be removed.
- Support for the `prefix` argument to `django.conf.urls.i18n.i18n_patterns()` will be removed.
- `SimpleTestCase.urls` will be removed.
- Using an incorrect count of unpacked values in the `for` template tag will raise an exception rather than fail silently.
- The ability to `reverse()` URLs using a dotted Python path will be removed.
- The ability to use a dotted Python path for the `LOGIN_URL` and `LOGIN_REDIRECT_URL` settings will be removed.
- Support for `optparse` will be dropped for custom management commands (replaced by `argparse`).
- The class `NoArgsCommand` will be removed. Use `BaseCommand` instead, which takes no arguments by default.
- `django.core.context_processors` module will be removed.
- `django.db.models.sql.aggregates` module will be removed.
- `django.contrib.gis.db.models.sql.aggregates` module will be removed.
- The following methods and properties of `django.db.sql.query.Query` will be removed:
  - Properties: `aggregates` and `aggregate_select`
  - Methods: `add_aggregate`, `set_aggregate_mask`, and `append_aggregate_mask`.
- `django.template.resolve_variable` will be removed.
- The following private APIs will be removed from `django.db.models.options.Options` (`Model._meta`):
  - `get_field_by_name()`
  - `get_all_field_names()`
  - `get_fields_with_model()`
  - `get_concrete_fields_with_model()`
  - `get_m2m_with_model()`
  - `get_all_related_objects()`
  - `get_all_related_objects_with_model()`
  - `get_all_related_many_to_many_objects()`
  - `get_all_related_m2m_objects_with_model()`
- The `error_message` argument of `django.forms.RegexField` will be removed.
- The `unordered_list` filter will no longer support old style lists.
- Support for string `view` arguments to `url()` will be removed.
- The backward compatible shim to rename `django.forms.Form._has_changed()` to `has_changed()` will be removed.
- The `removetags` template filter will be removed.
- The `remove_tags()` and `strip_entities()` functions in `django.utils.html` will be removed.
- The `is_admin_site` argument to `django.contrib.auth.views.password_reset()` will be removed.
- `django.db.models.field.subclassing.SubfieldBase` will be removed.
- `django.utils.checksums` will be removed; its functionality is included in django-localflavor 1.1+.
- The `original_content_type_id` attribute on `django.contrib.admin.helpers.InlineAdminForm` will be removed.
- The backwards compatibility shim to allow `FormMixin.get_form()` to be defined with no default value for its `form_class` argument will be removed.
- The following settings will be removed:
  - `ALLOWED_INCLUDE_ROOTS`
  - `TEMPLATE_CONTEXT_PROCESSORS`
  - `TEMPLATE_DEBUG`
  - `TEMPLATE_DIRS`
  - `TEMPLATE_LOADERS`
  - `TEMPLATE_STRING_IF_INVALID`
- The backwards compatibility alias `django.template.loader.BaseLoader` will be removed.
- Django template objects returned by `get_template()` and `select_template()` won’t accept a `Context` in their `render()` method anymore.
- Template response APIs will enforce the use of `dict` and backend-dependent template objects instead of `Context` and `Template` respectively.
- The `current_app` parameter for the following function and classes will be removed:
  - `django.shortcuts.render()`
  - `django.template.Context()`
  - `django.template.RequestContext()`
  - `django.template.response.TemplateResponse()`
- The `dictionary` and `context_instance` parameters for the following functions will be removed:
  - `django.shortcuts.render()`
  - `django.shortcuts.render_to_response()`
  - `django.template.loader.render_to_string()`
- The `dirs` parameter for the following functions will be removed:
  - `django.template.loader.get_template()`
  - `django.template.loader.select_template()`
  - `django.shortcuts.render()`
  - `django.shortcuts.render_to_response()`
- Session verification will be enabled regardless of whether or not `'django.contrib.auth.middleware.SessionAuthenticationMiddleware'` is in `MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES`.
- Private attribute `django.db.models.Field.related` will be removed.
- The `--list` option of the `migrate` management command will be removed.
- The `ssi` template tag will be removed.
- Support for the `=` comparison operator in the `if` template tag will be removed.
- The backwards compatibility shims to allow `Storage.get_available_name()` and `Storage.save()` to be defined without a `max_length` argument will be removed.
- Support for the legacy `%(<foo>)s` syntax in `ModelFormMixin.success_url` will be removed.
- `GeoQuerySet` aggregate methods `collect()`, `extent()`, `extent3d()`, `make_line()`, and `unionagg()` will be removed.
- Ability to specify `ContentType.name` when creating a content type instance will be removed.
- Support for the old signature of `allow_migrate` will be removed. It changed from `allow_migrate(self, db, model)` to `allow_migrate(self, db, app_label, model_name=None, **hints)`.

## 1.9

See the Django 1.7 release notes for more details on these changes.

- `django.utils.dictconfig` will be removed.
- `django.utils.importlib` will be removed.
- `django.utils.tzinfo` will be removed.
- `django.utils.unittest` will be removed.
- The `syncdb` command will be removed.
- `django.db.models.signals.pre_syncdb` and `django.db.models.signals.post_syncdb` will be removed.
- `allow_syncdb` on database routers will no longer automatically become `allow_migrate`.
- Automatic syncing of apps without migrations will be removed. Migrations will become compulsory for all apps unless you pass the `--run-syncdb` option to `migrate`.
- Support for automatic loading of `initial_data` fixtures and initial SQL data will be removed.
- All models will need to be defined inside an installed application or declare an explicit `app_label`. Furthermore, it won’t be possible to import them before their application is loaded. In particular, it won’t be possible to import models inside the root package of their application.
- The model and form `IPAddressField` will be removed. A stub field will remain for compatibility with historical migrations.
- `AppCommand.handle_app()` will no longer be supported.
- `RequestSite` and `get_current_site()` will no longer be importable from `django.contrib.sites.models`.
- FastCGI support via the `runfcgi` management command will be removed. Please deploy your project using WSGI.
- `django.utils.datastructures.SortedDict` will be removed. Use `collections.OrderedDict` from the Python standard library instead.
- `ModelAdmin.declared_fieldsets` will be removed.
- Instances of `util.py` in the Django codebase have been renamed to `utils.py` in an effort to unify all util and utils references. The modules that provided backwards compatibility will be removed:
  - `django.contrib.admin.util`
  - `django.contrib.gis.db.backends.util`
  - `django.db.backends.util`
  - `django.forms.util`
- `ModelAdmin.get_formsets` will be removed.
- The backward compatibility shim introduced to rename the `BaseMemcachedCache._get_memcache_timeout()` method to `get_backend_timeout()` will be removed.
- The `--natural` and `-n` options for `dumpdata` will be removed. Use `--natural-foreign` instead.
- The `use_natural_keys` argument for `serializers.serialize()` will be removed. Use `use_natural_foreign_keys` instead.
- Private API `django.forms.forms.get_declared_fields()` will be removed.
- The ability to use a `SplitDateTimeWidget` with `DateTimeField` will be removed.
- The `WSGIRequest.REQUEST` property will be removed.
- The class `django.utils.datastructures.MergeDict` will be removed.
- The `zh-cn` and `zh-tw` language codes will be removed and have been replaced by the `zh-hans` and `zh-hant` language code respectively.
- The internal `django.utils.functional.memoize` will be removed.
- `django.core.cache.get_cache` will be removed. Add suitable entries to `CACHES` and use `django.core.cache.caches` instead.
- `django.db.models.loading` will be removed.
- Passing callable arguments to querysets will no longer be possible.
- `BaseCommand.requires_model_validation` will be removed in favor of `requires_system_checks`. Admin validators will be replaced by admin checks.
- The `ModelAdmin.validator_class` and `default_validator_class` attributes will be removed.
- `ModelAdmin.validate()` will be removed.
- `django.db.backends.DatabaseValidation.validate_field` will be removed in favor of the `check_field` method.
- The `validate` management command will be removed.
- `django.utils.module_loading.import_by_path` will be removed in favor of `django.utils.module_loading.import_string`.
- `ssi` and `url` template tags will be removed from the `future` template tag library (used during the 1.3/1.4 deprecation period).
- `django.utils.text.javascript_quote` will be removed.
- Database test settings as independent entries in the database settings, prefixed by `TEST_`, will no longer be supported.
- The cache_choices option to `ModelChoiceField` and `ModelMultipleChoiceField` will be removed.
- The default value of the `RedirectView.permanent` attribute will change from `True` to `False`.
- `django.contrib.sitemaps.FlatPageSitemap` will be removed in favor of `django.contrib.flatpages.sitemaps.FlatPageSitemap`.
- Private API `django.test.utils.TestTemplateLoader` will be removed.
- The `django.contrib.contenttypes.generic` module will be removed.
- Private APIs `django.db.models.sql.where.WhereNode.make_atom()` and `django.db.models.sql.where.Constraint` will be removed.

## 1.8

See the Django 1.6 release notes for more details on these changes.

- `django.contrib.comments` will be removed.
- The following transaction management APIs will be removed:
  - `TransactionMiddleware`,
  - the decorators and context managers `autocommit`, `commit_on_success`, and `commit_manually`, defined in `django.db.transaction`,
  - the functions `commit_unless_managed` and `rollback_unless_managed`, also defined in `django.db.transaction`,
  - the `TRANSACTIONS_MANAGED` setting.
- The `cycle` and `firstof` template tags will auto-escape their arguments. In 1.6 and 1.7, this behavior is provided by the version of these tags in the `future` template tag library.
- The `SEND_BROKEN_LINK_EMAILS` setting will be removed. Add the `django.middleware.common.BrokenLinkEmailsMiddleware` middleware to your `MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES` setting instead.
- `django.middleware.doc.XViewMiddleware` will be removed. Use `django.contrib.admindocs.middleware.XViewMiddleware` instead.
- `Model._meta.module_name` was renamed to `model_name`.
- Remove the backward compatible shims introduced to rename `get_query_set` and similar queryset methods. This affects the following classes: `BaseModelAdmin`, `ChangeList`, `BaseCommentNode`, `GenericForeignKey`, `Manager`, `SingleRelatedObjectDescriptor` and `ReverseSingleRelatedObjectDescriptor`.
- Remove the backward compatible shims introduced to rename the attributes `ChangeList.root_query_set` and `ChangeList.query_set`.
- `django.views.defaults.shortcut` will be removed, as part of the goal of removing all `django.contrib` references from the core Django codebase. Instead use `django.contrib.contenttypes.views.shortcut`. `django.conf.urls.shortcut` will also be removed.
- Support for the Python Imaging Library (PIL) module will be removed, as it no longer appears to be actively maintained & does not work on Python 3. You are advised to install Pillow, which should be used instead.
- The following private APIs will be removed:
  - `django.db.backend`
  - `django.db.close_connection()`
  - `django.db.backends.creation.BaseDatabaseCreation.set_autocommit()`
  - `django.db.transaction.is_managed()`
  - `django.db.transaction.managed()`
- `django.forms.widgets.RadioInput` will be removed in favor of `django.forms.widgets.RadioChoiceInput`.
- The module `django.test.simple` and the class `django.test.simple.DjangoTestSuiteRunner` will be removed. Instead use `django.test.runner.DiscoverRunner`.
- The module `django.test._doctest` will be removed. Instead use the doctest module from the Python standard library.
- The `CACHE_MIDDLEWARE_ANONYMOUS_ONLY` setting will be removed.
- Usage of the hard-coded Hold down “Control”, or “Command” on a Mac, to select more than one. string to override or append to user-provided `help_text` in forms for ManyToMany model fields will not be performed by Django anymore either at the model or forms layer.
- The `Model._meta.get_(add|change|delete)_permission` methods will be removed.
- The session key `django_language` will no longer be read for backwards compatibility.
- Geographic Sitemaps will be removed (`django.contrib.gis.sitemaps.views.index` and `django.contrib.gis.sitemaps.views.sitemap`).
- `django.utils.html.fix_ampersands`, the `fix_ampersands` template filter and `django.utils.html.clean_html` will be removed following an accelerated deprecation.

## 1.7

See the Django 1.5 release notes for more details on these changes.

- The module `django.utils.simplejson` will be removed. The standard library provides `json` which should be used instead.
- The function `django.utils.itercompat.product` will be removed. The Python builtin version should be used instead.
- Auto-correction of INSTALLED_APPS and TEMPLATE_DIRS settings when they are specified as a plain string instead of a tuple will be removed and raise an exception.
- The `mimetype` argument to the `__init__` methods of `HttpResponse`, `SimpleTemplateResponse`, and `TemplateResponse`, will be removed. `content_type` should be used instead. This also applies to the `render_to_response()` shortcut and the sitemap views, `index()` and `sitemap()`.
- When `HttpResponse` is instantiated with an iterator, or when `content` is set to an iterator, that iterator will be immediately consumed.
- The `AUTH_PROFILE_MODULE` setting, and the `get_profile()` method on the User model, will be removed.
- The `cleanup` management command will be removed. It’s replaced by `clearsessions`.
- The `daily_cleanup.py` script will be removed.
- The `depth` keyword argument will be removed from `select_related()`.
- The undocumented `get_warnings_state()`/`restore_warnings_state()` functions from `django.test.utils` and the `save_warnings_state()`/ `restore_warnings_state()` django.test.*TestCase methods are deprecated. Use the `warnings.catch_warnings` context manager available starting with Python 2.6 instead.
- The undocumented `check_for_test_cookie` method in `AuthenticationForm` will be removed following an accelerated deprecation. Users subclassing this form should remove calls to this method, and instead ensure that their auth related views are CSRF protected, which ensures that cookies are enabled.
- The version of `django.contrib.auth.views.password_reset_confirm()` that supports base36 encoded user IDs (`django.contrib.auth.views.password_reset_confirm_uidb36`) will be removed. If your site has been running Django 1.6 for more than `PASSWORD_RESET_TIMEOUT_DAYS`, this change will have no effect. If not, then any password reset links generated before you upgrade to Django 1.7 won’t work after the upgrade.
- The `django.utils.encoding.StrAndUnicode` mix-in will be removed. Define a `__str__` method and apply the `python_2_unicode_compatible()` decorator instead.

## 1.6

See the Django 1.4 release notes for more details on these changes.

- `django.contrib.databrowse` will be removed.
- `django.contrib.localflavor` will be removed following an accelerated deprecation.
- `django.contrib.markup` will be removed following an accelerated deprecation.
- The compatibility modules `django.utils.copycompat` and `django.utils.hashcompat` as well as the functions `django.utils.itercompat.all` and `django.utils.itercompat.any` will be removed. The Python builtin versions should be used instead.
- The `csrf_response_exempt` and `csrf_view_exempt` decorators will be removed. Since 1.4 `csrf_response_exempt` has been a no-op (it returns the same function), and `csrf_view_exempt` has been a synonym for `django.views.decorators.csrf.csrf_exempt`, which should be used to replace it.
- The `django.core.cache.backends.memcached.CacheClass` backend was split into two in Django 1.3 in order to introduce support for PyLibMC. The historical `CacheClass` will be removed in favor of `django.core.cache.backends.memcached.MemcachedCache`.
- The UK-prefixed objects of `django.contrib.localflavor.uk` will only be accessible through their GB-prefixed names (GB is the correct ISO 3166 code for United Kingdom).
- The `IGNORABLE_404_STARTS` and `IGNORABLE_404_ENDS` settings have been superseded by `IGNORABLE_404_URLS` in the 1.4 release. They will be removed.
- The form wizard has been refactored to use class-based views with pluggable backends in 1.4. The previous implementation will be removed.
- Legacy ways of calling `cache_page()` will be removed.
- The backward-compatibility shim to automatically add a debug-false filter to the `'mail_admins'` logging handler will be removed. The `LOGGING` setting should include this filter explicitly if it is desired.
- The builtin truncation functions `django.utils.text.truncate_words()` and `django.utils.text.truncate_html_words()` will be removed in favor of the `django.utils.text.Truncator` class.
- The `GeoIP` class was moved to `django.contrib.gis.geoip` in 1.4 – the shortcut in `django.contrib.gis.utils` will be removed.
- `django.conf.urls.defaults` will be removed. The functions `include()`, `patterns()` and `url()` plus `handler404`, `handler500`, are now available through `django.conf.urls` .
- The functions `setup_environ()` and `execute_manager()` will be removed from `django.core.management`. This also means that the old (pre-1.4) style of `manage.py` file will no longer work.
- Setting the `is_safe` and `needs_autoescape` flags as attributes of template filter functions will no longer be supported.
- The attribute `HttpRequest.raw_post_data` was renamed to `HttpRequest.body` in 1.4. The backward compatibility will be removed – `HttpRequest.raw_post_data` will no longer work.
- The value for the `post_url_continue` parameter in `ModelAdmin.response_add()` will have to be either `None` (to redirect to the newly created object’s edit page) or a pre-formatted url. String formats, such as the previous default `'../%s/'`, will not be accepted any more.

## 1.5

See the Django 1.3 release notes for more details on these changes.

- Starting Django without a `SECRET_KEY` will result in an exception rather than a `DeprecationWarning`. (This is accelerated from the usual deprecation path; see the Django 1.4 release notes.)
- The `mod_python` request handler will be removed. The `mod_wsgi` handler should be used instead.
- The `template` attribute on `django.test.client.Response` objects returned by the test client will be removed. The `templates` attribute should be used instead.
- The `django.test.simple.DjangoTestRunner` will be removed. Instead use a unittest-native class. The features of the `django.test.simple.DjangoTestRunner` (including fail-fast and Ctrl-C test termination) can currently be provided by the unittest-native `TextTestRunner`.
- The undocumented function `django.contrib.formtools.utils.security_hash` will be removed, instead use `django.contrib.formtools.utils.form_hmac`
- The function-based generic view modules will be removed in favor of their class-based equivalents, outlined here.
- The `django.core.servers.basehttp.AdminMediaHandler` will be removed. In its place use `django.contrib.staticfiles.handlers.StaticFilesHandler`.
- The template tags library `adminmedia` and the template tag `{% admin_media_prefix %}` will be removed in favor of the generic static files handling. (This is faster than the usual deprecation path; see the Django 1.4 release notes.)
- The `url` and `ssi` template tags will be modified so that the first argument to each tag is a template variable, not an implied string. In 1.4, this behavior is provided by a version of the tag in the `future` template tag library.
- The `reset` and `sqlreset` management commands will be removed.
- Authentication backends will need to support an inactive user being passed to all methods dealing with permissions. The `supports_inactive_user` attribute will no longer be checked and can be removed from custom backends.
- `transform()` will raise a `GEOSException` when called on a geometry with no SRID value.
- `django.http.CompatCookie` will be removed in favor of `django.http.SimpleCookie`.
- `django.core.context_processors.PermWrapper` and `django.core.context_processors.PermLookupDict` will be removed in favor of the corresponding `django.contrib.auth.context_processors.PermWrapper` and `django.contrib.auth.context_processors.PermLookupDict`, respectively.
- The `MEDIA_URL` or `STATIC_URL` settings will be required to end with a trailing slash to ensure there is a consistent way to combine paths in templates.
- `django.db.models.fields.URLField.verify_exists` will be removed. The feature was deprecated in 1.3.1 due to intractable security and performance issues and will follow a slightly accelerated deprecation timeframe.
- Translations located under the so-called project path will be ignored during the translation building process performed at runtime. The `LOCALE_PATHS` setting can be used for the same task by including the filesystem path to a `locale` directory containing non-app-specific translations in its value.
- The Markup contrib app will no longer support versions of Python-Markdown library earlier than 2.1. An accelerated timeline was used as this was a security related deprecation.
- The `CACHE_BACKEND` setting will be removed. The cache backend(s) should be specified in the `CACHES` setting.

## 1.4

See the Django 1.2 release notes for more details on these changes.

- `CsrfResponseMiddleware` and `CsrfMiddleware` will be removed. Use the `{% csrf_token %}` template tag inside forms to enable CSRF protection. `CsrfViewMiddleware` remains and is enabled by default.
- The old imports for CSRF functionality (`django.contrib.csrf.*`), which moved to core in 1.2, will be removed.
- The `django.contrib.gis.db.backend` module will be removed in favor of the specific backends.
- `SMTPConnection` will be removed in favor of a generic Email backend API.
- The many to many SQL generation functions on the database backends will be removed.
- The ability to use the `DATABASE_*` family of top-level settings to define database connections will be removed.
- The ability to use shorthand notation to specify a database backend (i.e., `sqlite3` instead of `django.db.backends.sqlite3`) will be removed.
- The `get_db_prep_save`, `get_db_prep_value` and `get_db_prep_lookup` methods will have to support multiple databases.
- The `Message` model (in `django.contrib.auth`), its related manager in the `User` model (`user.message_set`), and the associated methods (`user.message_set.create()` and `user.get_and_delete_messages()`), will be removed. The messages framework should be used instead. The related `messages` variable returned by the auth context processor will also be removed. Note that this means that the admin application will depend on the messages context processor.
- Authentication backends will need to support the `obj` parameter for permission checking. The `supports_object_permissions` attribute will no longer be checked and can be removed from custom backends.
- Authentication backends will need to support the `AnonymousUser` class being passed to all methods dealing with permissions. The `supports_anonymous_user` variable will no longer be checked and can be removed from custom backends.
- The ability to specify a callable template loader rather than a `Loader` class will be removed, as will the `load_template_source` functions that are included with the built in template loaders for backwards compatibility.
- `django.utils.translation.get_date_formats()` and `django.utils.translation.get_partial_date_formats()`. These functions will be removed; use the locale-aware `django.utils.formats.get_format()` to get the appropriate formats.
- In `django.forms.fields`, the constants: `DEFAULT_DATE_INPUT_FORMATS`, `DEFAULT_TIME_INPUT_FORMATS` and `DEFAULT_DATETIME_INPUT_FORMATS` will be removed. Use `django.utils.formats.get_format()` to get the appropriate formats.
- The ability to use a function-based test runner will be removed, along with the `django.test.simple.run_tests()` test runner.
- The `views.feed()` view and `feeds.Feed` class in `django.contrib.syndication` will be removed. The class-based view `views.Feed` should be used instead.
- `django.core.context_processors.auth`. This release will remove the old method in favor of the new method in `django.contrib.auth.context_processors.auth`.
- The `postgresql` database backend will be removed, use the `postgresql_psycopg2` backend instead.
- The `no` language code will be removed and has been replaced by the `nb` language code.
- Authentication backends will need to define the boolean attribute `supports_inactive_user` until version 1.5 when it will be assumed that all backends will handle inactive users.
- `django.db.models.fields.XMLField` will be removed. This was deprecated as part of the 1.3 release. An accelerated deprecation schedule has been used because the field hasn’t performed any role beyond that of a simple `TextField` since the removal of `oldforms`. All uses of `XMLField` can be replaced with `TextField`.
- The undocumented `mixin` parameter to the `open()` method of `django.core.files.storage.Storage` (and subclasses) will be removed.

## 1.3

See the Django 1.1 release notes for more details on these changes.

- `AdminSite.root()`. This method of hooking up the admin URLs will be removed in favor of including `admin.site.urls`.
- Authentication backends need to define the boolean attributes `supports_object_permissions` and `supports_anonymous_user` until version 1.4, at which point it will be assumed that all backends will support these options.