Refs #27795 -- Removed force_bytes() usage from django/utils/http.py.

django.utils.http.urlsafe_base64_encode() now returns a string, not a
bytestring. Since URLs are represented as strings,
urlsafe_base64_encode() should return a string. All uses immediately
decoded the bytestring to a string anyway.

As the inverse operation, urlsafe_base64_decode() accepts a string.

2 files changed, 14 insertions, 2 deletions

diff --git a/docs/ref/utils.txt b/docs/ref/utils.txt
index f196a9b846..6f529d14fb 100644
--- a/docs/ref/utils.txt
+++ b/docs/ref/utils.txt
@@ -726,14 +726,22 @@ escaping HTML.
 
 .. function:: urlsafe_base64_encode(s)
 
-    Encodes a bytestring in base64 for use in URLs, stripping any trailing
-    equal signs.
+    Encodes a bytestring to a base64 string for use in URLs, stripping any
+    trailing equal signs.
+
+    .. versionchanged:: 2.2
+
+        In older versions, it returns a bytestring instead of a string.
 
 .. function::  urlsafe_base64_decode(s)
 
     Decodes a base64 encoded string, adding back any trailing equal signs that
     might have been stripped.
 
+    .. versionchanged:: 2.2
+
+        In older versions, ``s`` may be a bytestring.
+
 ``django.utils.module_loading``
 ===============================
 
diff --git a/docs/releases/2.2.txt b/docs/releases/2.2.txt
index 7d85d30c4a..19c98639d8 100644
--- a/docs/releases/2.2.txt
+++ b/docs/releases/2.2.txt
@@ -298,6 +298,10 @@ Miscellaneous
 
 * Support for bytestring paths in the template filesystem loader is removed.
 
+* :func:`django.utils.http.urlsafe_base64_encode` now returns a string instead
+  of a bytestring, and :func:`django.utils.http.urlsafe_base64_decode` may no
+  longer be passed a bytestring.
+
 .. _deprecated-features-2.2:
 
 Features deprecated in 2.2