Django Updates: January 2025

Show & Tell
1

hey all!

I wrote a small script that gets all the commits from django codebase on any given month and summarizes the changes. Then gives me the master summary for the whole month. The result is pretty cool :smile: I posted it here (with all the commit links), but will also paste below:

Overview

The month showed significant development activity with 90 commits focusing on several major themes:

  • Extensive work on composite primary key support and validation
  • Bug fixes and improvements for database operations
  • Documentation updates and cleanup
  • Security and dependency updates
  • Test suite improvements and optimization

Key Changes and Features

Major Features

  • Added automatic model imports to Django shell command, a GSoC 2024 project by Salvo Polizzi
  • Implemented double squashing of migrations capability by Georgi Yanchev
  • Added ability to customize admin password change form by Mohammadreza Eskandari

Composite Primary Key Improvements

  • Added serialization support for composite primary keys by Sarah Boyce
  • Fixed password reset functionality with composite primary keys by Sarah Boyce
  • Added validation for non-local fields in composite primary keys by Bendeguz Csirmaz

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed UnicodeEncodeError in email attachments by greg
  • Fixed bulk_update handling with multiple primary keys by Sarah Boyce
  • Fixed RecursionError in FilteredRelation joins by Peter DeVita

Security and Dependencies

  • Updated minimum supported package versions for Python 3.12 compatibility by Mariusz Felisiak
  • Added documentation for security vulnerability CVE-2024-56374 by Natalia

Development Patterns and Contributors

  • Active Contributors: Sarah Boyce, Simon Charette, Jacob Walls, and Mariusz Felisiak were particularly active
  • Focus Areas: Strong emphasis on improving composite primary key support and fixing related edge cases
  • Testing: Significant attention to test coverage with many commits including comprehensive test additions
  • Documentation: Consistent updates to maintain accuracy and clarity of documentation

Recommendations

  • Developers should review the new composite primary key functionality carefully as it represents a significant change
  • Projects planning to upgrade should pay attention to the new minimum package version requirements for Python 3.12 compatibility
  • Teams using Django’s admin interface should evaluate the new password change form customization capabilities
  • Consider using the new automatic model imports feature in Django shell for improved developer experience

The month showed strong progress in both feature development and stability improvements, with particular attention to composite primary key support and developer experience enhancements.