A guide to the headline features follows. For full details, see [the pagination documentation][pagination].
Note that as a result of this work a number of settings keys and generic view attributes are now moved to pending deprecation. Controlling pagination styles is now largely handled by overriding a pagination class and modifying its configuration attributes.
* The `PAGINATE_BY` settings key will continue to work but is now pending deprecation. The more obviously named `PAGE_SIZE` settings key should now be used instead.
* The `PAGINATE_BY_PARAM`, `MAX_PAGINATE_BY` settings keys will continue to work but are now pending deprecation, in favor of setting configuration attributes on the configured pagination class.
* The `paginate_by`, `page_query_param`, `paginate_by_param` and `max_paginate_by` generic view attributes will continue to work but are now pending deprecation, in favor of setting configuration attributes on the configured pagination class.
* The `pagination_serializer_class` view attribute and `DEFAULT_PAGINATION_SERIALIZER_CLASS` settings key **are no longer valid**. The pagination API does not use serializers to determine the output format, and you'll need to instead override the `get_paginated_response` method on a pagination class in order to specify how the output format is controlled.
Until now, there has only been a single built-in pagination style in REST framework. We now have page, limit/offset and cursor based schemes included by default.
The cursor based pagination scheme is particularly smart, and is a better approach for clients iterating through large or frequently changing result sets. The scheme supports paging against non-unique indexes, by using both cursor and limit/offset information. It also allows for both forward and reverse cursor pagination. Much credit goes to David Cramer for [this blog post](http://cramer.io/2011/03/08/building-cursors-for-the-disqus-api) on the subject.
Paginated results now include controls that render directly in the browsable API. If you're using the page or limit/offset style, then you'll see a page based control displayed in the browsable API:
The pagination API was previously only able to alter the pagination style in the body of the response. The API now supports being able to write pagination information in response headers, making it possible to use pagination schemes that use the `Link` or `Content-Range` headers.
REST framework now includes a built-in set of translations, and [supports internationalized error responses][internationalization]. This allows you to either change the default language, or to allow clients to specify the language via the `Accept-Language` header.
You can change the default language by using the standard Django `LANGUAGE_CODE` setting:
LANGUAGE_CODE = "es-es"
You can turn on per-request language requests by adding `LocalMiddleware` to your `MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES` setting:
MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES = [
...
'django.middleware.locale.LocaleMiddleware'
]
When per-request internationalization is enabled, client requests will respect the `Accept-Language` header where possible. For example, let's make a request for an unsupported media type:
Note that the structure of the error responses is still the same. We still have a `detail` key in the response. If needed you can modify this behavior too, by using a [custom exception handler][custom-exception-handler].
Django 1.8's new `ArrayField`, `HStoreField` and `UUIDField` are now all fully supported.
This work also means that we now have both `serializers.DictField()`, and `serializers.ListField()` types, allowing you to express and validate a wider set of representations.
If you're building a new 1.8 project, then you should probably consider using `UUIDField` as the primary keys for all your models. This style will work automatically with hyperlinked serializers, returning URLs in the following style:
The serializer redesign in 3.0 did not include any public API for modifying how ModelSerializer classes automatically generate a set of fields from a given mode class. We've now re-introduced an API for this, allowing you to create new ModelSerializer base classes that behave differently, such as using a different default style for relationships.
We've now moved a number of packages out of the core of REST framework, and into separately installable packages. If you're currently using these you don't need to worry, you simply need to `pip install` the new packages, and change any import paths.
The change also means we can be more flexible with which external packages we recommend. For example, the excellently maintained [Django OAuth toolkit](https://github.com/evonove/django-oauth-toolkit) has now been promoted as our recommended option for integrating OAuth support.
It's worth reiterating that this change in policy shouldn't mean any work in your codebase other than adding a new requirement and modifying some import paths. For example to install XML rendering, you would now do:
Thanks go to the latest member of our maintenance team, [José Padilla](https://github.com/jpadilla/), for handling this work and taking on ownership of these packages.
The `request.DATA`, `request.FILES` and `request.QUERY_PARAMS` attributes move from pending deprecation, to deprecated. Use `request.data` and `request.query_params` instead, as discussed in the 3.0 release notes.
The ModelSerializer Meta options for `write_only_fields`, `view_name` and `lookup_field` are also moved from pending deprecation, to deprecated. Use `extra_kwargs` instead, as discussed in the 3.0 release notes.
All these attributes and options will still work in 3.1, but their usage will raise a warning. They will be fully removed in 3.2.
This will either be made as a single 3.2 release, or split across two separate releases, with the HTML forms and filter controls coming in 3.2, and the admin-style interface coming in a 3.3 release.
