Updated the AppCommand API to support apps without a models module.

1 files changed, 25 insertions, 8 deletions

diff --git a/docs/howto/custom-management-commands.txt b/docs/howto/custom-management-commands.txt
index 2325e32ac2..4f95838760 100644
--- a/docs/howto/custom-management-commands.txt
+++ b/docs/howto/custom-management-commands.txt
@@ -313,17 +313,34 @@ BaseCommand subclasses
 
 .. class:: AppCommand
 
-A management command which takes one or more installed application
-names as arguments, and does something with each of them.
+A management command which takes one or more installed application labels as
+arguments, and does something with each of them.
 
-Rather than implementing :meth:`~BaseCommand.handle`, subclasses must implement
-:meth:`~AppCommand.handle_app`, which will be called once for each application.
+Rather than implementing :meth:`~BaseCommand.handle`, subclasses must
+implement :meth:`~AppCommand.handle_app_config`, which will be called once for
+each application.
+
+.. method:: AppCommand.handle_app_config(app_config, **options)
+
+    Perform the command's actions for ``app_config``, which will be an
+    :class:`~django.apps.AppConfig` instance corresponding to an application
+    label given on the command line.
+
+.. versionchanged:: 1.7
+
+    Previously, :class:`AppCommand` subclasses had to implement
+    ``handle_app(app, **options)`` where ``app`` was a models module. The new
+    API makes it possible to handle applications without a models module. The
+    fastest way to migrate is as follows::
 
-.. method:: AppCommand.handle_app(app, **options)
+        def handle_app_config(app_config, **options):
+            if app_config.models_module is None:
+                return                                  # Or raise an exception.
+            app = app_config.models_module
+            # Copy the implementation of handle_app(app_config, **options) here.
 
-    Perform the command's actions for ``app``, which will be the
-    Python module corresponding to an application name given on
-    the command line.
+    However, you may be able to simplify the implementation by using directly
+    the attributes of ``app_config``.
 
 .. class:: LabelCommand