/docs/releases/1.0-alpha-2.txt
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1================================ 2Django 1.0 alpha 2 release notes 3================================ 4 5Welcome to Django 1.0 alpha 2! 6 7This is the second in a series of preview/development releases leading 8up to the eventual release of Django 1.0, currently scheduled to take 9place in early September 2008. This releases is primarily targeted at 10developers who are interested in testing the Django codebase and 11helping to identify and resolve bugs prior to the final 1.0 release. 12 13As such, this release is *not* intended for production use, and any 14such use is strongly discouraged. 15 16 17What's new in Django 1.0 alpha 2 18================================ 19 20Django's development trunk has been the site of nearly constant activity over 21the past year, with several major new features landing since the 0.96 release. 22For features which were new as of Django 1.0 alpha 1, see :doc:`the 1.0 alpha 1 23release notes </releases/1.0-alpha-1>`. Since the 1.0 alpha 1 release several new 24features have landed, including: 25 26``django.contrib.gis`` (`GeoDjango`_) 27 A project over a year in the making, this adds world-class GIS 28 (`Geographic Information Systems`_) support to Django, in the form 29 of a ``contrib`` application. `Its documentation`_ is currently 30 being maintained externally, and will be merged into the main 31 Django documentation prior to the final 1.0 release. Huge thanks 32 go to Justin Bronn, Jeremy Dunck, Brett Hoerner and Travis Pinney 33 for their efforts in creating and completing this feature. 34 35Pluggable file storage 36 Django's built-in ``FileField`` and ``ImageField`` now can take advantage of 37 pluggable file-storage backends, allowing extensive customization of where 38 and how uploaded files get stored by Django. For details, see :doc:`the 39 files documentation </topics/files>`; big thanks go to Marty Alchin for 40 putting in the hard work to get this completed. 41 42Jython compatibility 43 Thanks to a lot of work from Leo Soto during a Google Summer of 44 Code project, Django's codebase has been refactored to remove 45 incompatibilities with `Jython`_, an implementation of Python 46 written in Java, which runs Python code on the Java Virtual 47 Machine. Django is now compatible with the forthcoming Jython 2.5 48 release. 49 50There are many other new features and improvements in this release, including 51two major performance boosts: strings marked for translation using 52:doc:`Django's internationalization system </topics/i18n/index>` now consume far less 53memory, and Django's internal dispatcher -- which is invoked frequently during 54request/response processing and when working with Django's object-relational 55mapper -- is now significantly faster. 56 57.. _GeoDjango: http://geodjango.org/ 58.. _Geographic Information Systems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geographic_information_system 59.. _Its documentation: http://geodjango.org/docs/ 60.. _Jython: http://www.jython.org/ 61 62 63The Django 1.0 roadmap 64====================== 65 66One of the primary goals of this alpha release is to focus attention 67on the remaining features to be implemented for Django 1.0, and on the 68bugs that need to be resolved before the final release. Following this 69release, we'll be conducting a series of development sprints building 70up to the beta and release-candidate stages, followed soon after by 71Django 1.0. The timeline is projected to be: 72 73* **August 14, 2008: Django 1.0 beta release.** Past this point Django 74 will be in a "feature freeze" for the 1.0 release; after Django 1.0 75 beta, the development focus will be solely on bug fixes and 76 stabilization. 77 78* August 15, 2008: Sprint (based in Austin, Texas, USA, and online). 79 80* August 17, 2008: Sprint (based in Tel Aviv, Israel, and online). 81 82* **August 21, 2008: Django 1.0 release candidate 1.** At this point, 83 all strings marked for translation within Django's codebase will be 84 frozen, to provide contributors time to check and finalize all of 85 Django's bundled translation files prior to the final 1.0 release. 86 87* August 22, 2008: Sprint (based in Portland, Oregon, USA, and online). 88 89* **August 26, 2008: Django 1.0 release candidate 2.** 90 91* August 30, 2008: Sprint (based in London, England, UK, and online). 92 93* **September 2, 2008: Django 1.0 final release.** The official Django 94 1.0 release party will take place during the first-ever DjangoCon, 95 to be held in Mountain View, California, USA, September 6-7. 96 97Of course, like any estimated timeline, this is subject to change as 98requirements dictate. The latest information will always be available 99on the Django project wiki: 100 101 http://code.djangoproject.com/wiki/VersionOneRoadmap 102 103 104What you can do to help 105======================= 106 107In order to provide a high-quality 1.0 release, we need your 108help. Although this alpha release is, again, *not* intended for 109production use, you can help the Django team by trying out the alpha 110codebase in a safe test environment and reporting any bugs or issues 111you encounter. The Django ticket tracker is the central place to 112search for open issues: 113 114 http://code.djangoproject.com/timeline 115 116Please open new tickets if no existing ticket corresponds to a problem 117you're running into. 118 119Additionally, discussion of Django development, including progress 120toward the 1.0 release, takes place daily on the django-developers 121mailing list: 122 123 http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers 124 125...and in the ``#django-dev`` IRC channel on ``irc.freenode.net``. If 126you're interested in helping out with Django's development, feel free 127to join the discussions there. 128 129Django's online documentation also includes pointers on how to 130contribute to Django: 131 132 :doc:`contributing to Django </internals/contributing>` 133 134Contributions on any level -- developing code, writing 135documentation or simply triaging tickets and helping to test proposed 136bugfixes -- are always welcome and appreciated.