<p>— Eric S. Raymond, <ahref="http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ar01s04.html">The Cathedral and the Bazaar</a>.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2id="versioning">Versioning</h2>
<p>Minor version numbers (0.0.x) are used for changes that are API compatible. You should be able to upgrade between minor point releases without any other code changes.</p>
<p>Medium version numbers (0.x.0) may include API changes, in line with the <ahref="#deprecation-policy">deprecation policy</a>. You should read the release notes carefully before upgrading between medium point releases.</p>
<p>REST framework releases follow a formal deprecation policy, which is in line with <ahref="https://docs.djangoproject.com/en/dev/internals/release-process/#internal-release-deprecation-policy">Django's deprecation policy</a>.</p>
<p>The timeline for deprecation of a feature present in version 1.0 would work as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Version 1.1 would remain <strong>fully backwards compatible</strong> with 1.0, but would raise <code>PendingDeprecationWarning</code> warnings if you use the feature that are due to be deprecated. These warnings are <strong>silent by default</strong>, but can be explicitly enabled when you're ready to start migrating any required changes. For example if you start running your tests using <code>python -Wd manage.py test</code>, you'll be warned of any API changes you need to make.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Version 1.2 would escalate these warnings to <code>DeprecationWarning</code>, which is loud by default.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>Version 1.3 would remove the deprecated bits of API entirely.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Note that in line with Django's policy, any parts of the framework not mentioned in the documentation should generally be considered private API, and may be subject to change.</p>
<h2id="upgrading">Upgrading</h2>
<p>To upgrade Django REST framework to the latest version, use pip:</p>
<p><strong>Date</strong>: <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues?q=milestone%3A%223.1.2+Release%22">13rd May 2015</a>.</p>
<li><code>DateField.to_representation</code> can handle str and empty values. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2656">#2656</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2687">#2687</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2869">#2869</a>)</li>
<li>Raise error when <code>ModelSerializer</code> used with abstract model. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2757">#2757</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2630">#2630</a>)</li>
<li>Handle reversal of non-API view_name in <code>HyperLinkedRelatedField</code> (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2724">#2724</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2711">#2711</a>)</li>
<li>Dont require pk strictly for related fields. (<ahref="../../gh2745">#2745</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2754">#2754</a>)</li>
<li>Don't check for deprecated <code>.model</code> attribute in permissions (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2818">#2818</a>)</li>
<li>Restrict integer field to integers and strings. (<ahref="../../gh2835">#2835</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2836">#2836</a>)</li>
<li>Improve <code>IntegerField</code> to use compiled decimal regex. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2853">#2853</a>)</li>
<li>Prevent empty <code>queryset</code> to raise AssertionError. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2862">#2862</a>)</li>
<li><code>DjangoModelPermissions</code> rely on <code>get_queryset</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2863">#2863</a>)</li>
<li>Check <code>AcceptHeaderVersioning</code> with content negotiation in place. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2868">#2868</a>)</li>
<li>Allow <code>DjangoObjectPermissions</code> to use views that define <code>get_queryset</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2905">#2905</a>)</li>
<p><strong>Date</strong>: <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues?q=milestone%3A%223.1.1+Release%22">23rd March 2015</a>.</p>
<li>Display input forms in browsable API if <code>serializer_class</code> is used, even when <code>get_serializer</code> method does not exist on the view. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2643">#2743</a>)</li>
<li>Use a password input for the AuthTokenSerializer. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2641">#2741</a>)</li>
<li>Fix problem with importing <code>rest_framework.views</code> in <code>apps.py</code> (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2678">#2678</a>)</li>
<li>LimitOffsetPagination raises <code>TypeError</code> if PAGE_SIZE not set (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2667">#2667</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2700">#2700</a>)</li>
<li>German translation for <code>min_value</code> field error message references <code>max_value</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2645">#2645</a>)</li>
<li>Support serializing unsaved models with related fields. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2637">#2637</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2641">#2641</a>)</li>
<li>Allow blank/null on radio.html choices. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2631">#2631</a>)</li>
<p><strong>Date</strong>: <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues?q=milestone%3A%223.1.0+Release%22">5th March 2015</a>.</p>
<p><strong>Date</strong>: <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues?q=milestone%3A%223.0.5+Release%22">10th February 2015</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li>Fix a bug where <code>_closable_objects</code> breaks pickling. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/1850">#1850</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2492">#2492</a>)</li>
<li>Allow non-standard <code>User</code> models with <code>Throttling</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2524">#2524</a>)</li>
<li>Support custom <code>User.db_table</code> in TokenAuthentication migration. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2479">#2479</a>)</li>
<li>Fix misleading <code>AttributeError</code> tracebacks on <code>Request</code> objects. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2530">#2530</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2108">#2108</a>)</li>
<li><code>ManyRelatedField.get_value</code> clearing field on partial update. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2475">#2475</a>)</li>
<li>Removed '.model' shortcut from code. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2486">#2486</a>)</li>
<li>Fix <code>detail_route</code> and <code>list_route</code> mutable argument. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2518">#2518</a>)</li>
<li>Prefetching the user object when getting the token in <code>TokenAuthentication</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2519">#2519</a>)</li>
<p><strong>Date</strong>: <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues?q=milestone%3A%223.0.4+Release%22">28th January 2015</a>.</p>
<li>Add <code>DictField</code> and support Django 1.8 <code>HStoreField</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2451">#2451</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2106">#2106</a>)</li>
<li>Add <code>UUIDField</code> and support Django 1.8 <code>UUIDField</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2448">#2448</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2433">#2433</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2432">#2432</a>)</li>
<li><code>BaseRenderer.render</code> now raises <code>NotImplementedError</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2434">#2434</a>)</li>
<li>Fix timedelta JSON serialization on Python 2.6. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2430">#2430</a>)</li>
<li><code>ResultDict</code> and <code>ResultList</code> now appear as standard dict/list. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2421">#2421</a>)</li>
<li>Fix visible <code>HiddenField</code> in the HTML form of the web browsable API page. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2410">#2410</a>)</li>
<li>Use <code>OrderedDict</code> for <code>RelatedField.choices</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2408">#2408</a>)</li>
<li>Fix ident format when using <code>HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2401">#2401</a>)</li>
<li>Fix invalid key with memcached while using throttling. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2400">#2400</a>)</li>
<li>Fix <code>FileUploadParser</code> with version 3.x. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2399">#2399</a>)</li>
<li>Fix the serializer inheritance. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2388">#2388</a>)</li>
<li>Fix caching issues with <code>ReturnDict</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2360">#2360</a>)</li>
<p><strong>Date</strong>: <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues?q=milestone%3A%223.0.3+Release%22">8th January 2015</a>.</p>
<ul>
<li>Fix <code>MinValueValidator</code> on <code>models.DateField</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2369">#2369</a>)</li>
<li>Fix serializer missing context when pagination is used. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2355">#2355</a>)</li>
<li>Namespaced router URLs are now supported by the <code>DefaultRouter</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2351">#2351</a>)</li>
<li><code>required=False</code> allows omission of value for output. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2342">#2342</a>)</li>
<li>Use textarea input for <code>models.TextField</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2340">#2340</a>)</li>
<li>Use custom <code>ListSerializer</code> for pagination if required. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2331">#2331</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2327">#2327</a>)</li>
<li>Better behavior with null and '' for blank HTML fields. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2330">#2330</a>)</li>
<li>Ensure fields in <code>exclude</code> are model fields. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2319">#2319</a>)</li>
<li>Fix <code>IntegerField</code> and <code>max_length</code> argument incompatibility. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2317">#2317</a>)</li>
<li>Fix the YAML encoder for 3.0 serializers. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2315">#2315</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2283">#2283</a>)</li>
<li>Fix the behavior of empty HTML fields. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2311">#2311</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/1101">#1101</a>)</li>
<li>Fix <code>format_suffix_patterns</code> to work with Django's <code>i18n_patterns</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2278">#2278</a>)</li>
<li>Ability to customize router URLs for custom actions, using <code>url_path</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2010">#2010</a>)</li>
<li>Don't install Django REST Framework as egg. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2386">#2386</a>)</li>
<p><strong>Date</strong>: <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues?q=milestone%3A%223.0.2+Release%22">17th December 2014</a>.</p>
<li>Ensure <code>request.user</code> is made available to response middleware. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2155">#2155</a>)</li>
<li><code>Client.logout()</code> also cancels any existing <code>force_authenticate</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2218">#2218</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2259">#2259</a>)</li>
<li>Extra assertions and better checks to preventing incorrect serializer API use. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2228">#2228</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2234">#2234</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2262">#2262</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2263">#2263</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2266">#2266</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2267">#2267</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2289">#2289</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2291">#2291</a>)</li>
<li>Fixed <code>min_length</code> message for <code>CharField</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2255">#2255</a>)</li>
<li>Fix <code>UnicodeDecodeError</code>, which can occur on serializer <code>repr</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2270">#2270</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2279">#2279</a>)</li>
<li>Fix empty HTML values when a default is provided. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2280">#2280</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2294">#2294</a>)</li>
<li>Fix <code>SlugRelatedField</code> raising <code>UnicodeEncodeError</code> when used as a multiple choice input. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2290">#2290</a>)</li>
<p><strong>Date</strong>: <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues?q=milestone%3A%223.0.1+Release%22">11th December 2014</a>.</p>
<li>More helpful error message when the default Serializer <code>create()</code> fails. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2013">#2013</a>)</li>
<li>Raise error when attempting to save serializer if data is not valid. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2098">#2098</a>)</li>
<li>Fix <code>FileUploadParser</code> breaks with empty file names and multiple upload handlers. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2109">#2109</a>)</li>
<li>Improve <code>BindingDict</code> to support standard dict-functions. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2135">#2135</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2163">#2163</a>)</li>
<li>Add <code>validate()</code> to <code>ListSerializer</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2168">#2168</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2225">#2225</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2232">#2232</a>)</li>
<li>Fix JSONP renderer failing to escape some characters. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2169">#2169</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2195">#2195</a>)</li>
<li>Add missing default style for <code>FileField</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2172">#2172</a>)</li>
<li>Actions are required when calling <code>ViewSet.as_view()</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2175">#2175</a>)</li>
<li>Add <code>allow_blank</code> to <code>ChoiceField</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2184">#2184</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2239">#2239</a>)</li>
<li>Cosmetic fixes in the HTML renderer. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2187">#2187</a>)</li>
<li>Raise error if <code>fields</code> on serializer is not a list of strings. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2193">#2193</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2213">#2213</a>)</li>
<li>Improve checks for nested creates and updates. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2194">#2194</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2196">#2196</a>)</li>
<li><code>validated_attrs</code> argument renamed to <code>validated_data</code> in <code>Serializer</code><code>create()</code>/<code>update()</code>. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2197">#2197</a>)</li>
<li>Remove deprecated code to reflect the dropped Django versions. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2200">#2200</a>)</li>
<li>Better serializer errors for nested writes. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2202">#2202</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2215">#2215</a>)</li>
<li>Fix pagination and custom permissions incompatibility. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2205">#2205</a>)</li>
<li>Raise error if <code>fields</code> on serializer is not a list of strings. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2213">#2213</a>)</li>
<li>Add missing translation markers for relational fields. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2231">#2231</a>)</li>
<li>Improve field lookup behavior for dicts/mappings. (<ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2244">#2244</a>, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/issues/2243">#2243</a>)</li>
<p>For older release notes, <ahref="https://github.com/tomchristie/django-rest-framework/blob/version-2.4.x/docs/topics/release-notes.md">please see the version 2.x documentation</a>.</p>
