Add 1.1 alpha 1 release notes

git-svn-id: http://code.djangoproject.com/svn/django/trunk@9893 bcc190cf-cafb-0310-a4f2-bffc1f526a37

1 files changed, 160 insertions, 0 deletions

diff --git a/docs/releases/1.1-alpha-1.txt b/docs/releases/1.1-alpha-1.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..9b5e5fb03a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/releases/1.1-alpha-1.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,160 @@
+.. _releases-1.1-alpha-1:
+
+================================
+Django 1.1 alpha 1 release notes
+================================
+
+February 23, 2009
+
+Welcome to Django 1.1 alpha 1!
+
+This is the first in a series of preview/development releases leading
+up to the eventual release of Django 1.1, currently scheduled to take
+place in April 2009. This release is primarily targeted at developers
+who are interested in trying out new features and testing the Django
+codebase to help identify and resolve bugs prior to the final 1.1
+release.
+
+As such, this release is *not* intended for production use, and any
+such use is discouraged.
+
+
+What's new in Django 1.1 alpha 1
+================================
+
+Two major enhancements have been added to Django's object-relational
+mapper (ORM):
+
+Aggregate support
+    It's now possible to run various SQL aggregate queries from within
+    Django's ORM, and to either return the results of an aggregate
+    query directly or annotate the objects in a ``QuerySet`` with the
+    results of an aggregate query. This is accomplished by the new
+    ``QuerySet`` methods ``aggregate()`` and ``annotate()``, and is
+    covered in detail in `the ORM aggregation documentation <topics-db-aggregation>`_.
+
+Query expressions
+    A new type of object -- ``django.db.models.F`` -- has been added.
+    ``F`` instances refer to a particular field on a model (and can
+    traverse relationships to refer to fields on related models as
+    well). This allows a variety of query types to be formulated which
+    were not previously possible; for full details, including
+    examples, consult the `documentation for F expressions <query-expressions>`_.
+
+Django's test suite and integrated `testing framework <topics-testing>`_
+have also been improved, via the introduction of transaction-based
+tests: when using ``django.test.TestCase``, your tests will now (when
+supported by the underlying database) be run in a transaction which is
+rolled back when finished, instead of by flushing and re-populating
+the database. This results in an immense speedup for most types of
+unit tests. See the documentation for :class:`~django.test.TestCase`
+and :class:`~django.test.TransactionTestCase` for a full description,
+and some important notes on database support.
+
+Other new features and changes introduced since Django 1.0 include:
+
+* The `CSRF protection middleware <ref-contrib-csrf>`_ has been split
+  into two classes -- ``CsrfViewMiddleware`` checks incoming requests,
+  and ``CsrfResponseMiddleware`` processes outgoing responses. The
+  combined ``CsrfMiddleware`` class (which does both) remains for
+  backwards-compatibility, but using the split classes is now
+  recommended in order to allow fine-grained control of when and where
+  the CSRF processing takes place.
+
+* :func:`~django.core.urlresolvers.reverse` and code which uses it
+  (e.g., the ``{% url %}`` template tag) now works with URLs in
+  Django's administrative site, provided that the admin URLs are set
+  up via ``include(admin.site.urls)`` (sending admin requests to the
+  ``admin.site.root`` view still works, but URLs in the admin will not
+  be "reversible" when configured this way).
+
+* The ``include()`` function in Django URLConf modules can now accept
+  sequences of URL patterns (generated by ``patterns()``) in addition
+  to module names.
+
+* Instances of Django forms (see `the forms overview <topics-forms-index>`_
+  now have two additional methods, ``hidden_fields()`` and
+  ``visible_fields()``, which return the list of hidden -- i.e.,
+  ``<input type="hidden">`` -- and visible fields on the form,
+  respectively.
+
+* The ``redirect_to`` generic view (see
+  `the generic views documentation <ref-generic-views>`_) now accepts
+  an additional keyword argument ``permanent``. If ``permanent`` is
+  ``True``, the view will emit an HTTP permanent redirect (status code
+  301). If ``False``, the view will emit an HTTP temporary redirect
+  (status code 302).
+
+* A new database lookup type -- ``week_day`` -- has been added for
+  ``DateField`` and ``DateTimeField``. This type of lookup accepts a
+  number between 1 (Sunday) and 7 (Saturday), and returns objects
+  where the field value matches that day of the week. See
+  `the full list of lookup types <field-lookups>`_ for details.
+
+* The ``{% for %}`` tag in Django's template language now accepts an
+  optional ``{% empty %}`` clause, to be displayed when ``{% for %}``
+  is asked to loop over an empty sequence. See
+  `the list of built-in template tags <ref-templates-builtins>`_
+   for examples of this.
+
+
+The Django 1.1 roadmap
+======================
+
+Before Django 1.1 goes final, several other preview/development
+releases will be made available. The current schedule consists of at
+least the following:
+
+* *March 20, 2009:* Django 1.1 beta 1, at which point Django 1.1 will
+   be in "feature freeze": no new features will be implemented for 1.1
+   past that point, and all new feature work will be deferred to
+   Django 1.2.
+
+* *April 2, 2009:* Django 1.1 release candidate. At this point all
+   strings marked for translation must freeze to allow translations to
+   be submitted in advance of the final release.
+
+* *April 13, 2009:* Django 1.1 is released.
+
+If necessary, additional alpha, beta or release candidate packages
+will be issued prior to the final 1.1 release.
+
+
+What you can do to help
+=======================
+
+In order to provide a high-quality 1.1 release, we need your
+help. Although this alpha release is, again, *not* intended for
+production use, you can help the Django team by trying out the alpha
+codebase in a safe test environment and reporting any bugs or issues
+you encounter. The Django ticket tracker is the central place to
+search for open issues:
+
+    http://code.djangoproject.com/timeline
+
+Please open new tickets if no existing ticket corresponds to a problem
+you're running into.
+
+Additionally, discussion of Django development, including progress
+toward the 1.1 release, takes place daily on the django-developers
+mailing list:
+
+    http://groups.google.com/group/django-developers
+
+...and in the ``#django-dev`` IRC channel on ``irc.freenode.net``. If
+you're interested in helping out with Django's development, feel free
+to join the discussions there.
+
+Django's online documentation also includes pointers on how to
+contribute to Django:
+
+    :ref:`contributing to Django <internals-contributing>`
+
+Contributions on any level -- developing code, writing
+documentation or simply triaging tickets and helping to test proposed
+bugfixes -- are always welcome and appreciated.
+
+Development sprints for Django 1.1 will also be taking place at PyCon
+US 2009, on the dedicated sprint days (March 30 through April 2), and
+anyone who wants to help out is welcome to join in, either in person
+at PyCon or virtually in the IRC channel or on the mailing list.