==========================
Django 1.2.4 release notes
==========================

Welcome to Django 1.2.4!

This is the fourth "bugfix" release in the Django 1.2 series,
improving the stability and performance of the Django 1.2 codebase.

Django 1.2.4 maintains backwards compatibility with Django
1.2.3, but contain a number of fixes and other
improvements. Django 1.2.4 is a recommended upgrade for any
development or deployment currently using or targeting Django 1.2.

For full details on the new features, backwards incompatibilities, and
deprecated features in the 1.2 branch, see the :doc:`/releases/1.2`.

One new feature
===============

Ordinarily, a point release would not include new features, but in the
case of Django 1.2.4, we have made an exception to this rule.

One of the bugs fixed in Django 1.2.4 involves a set of
circumstances whereby a running a test suite on a multiple database
configuration could cause the original source database (i.e., the
actual production database) to be dropped, causing catastrophic loss
of data. In order to provide a fix for this problem, it was necessary
to introduce a new setting -- :setting:`TEST_DEPENDENCIES` -- that
allows you to define any creation order dependencies in your database
configuration.

Most users -- even users with multiple-database configurations -- need
not be concerned about the data loss bug, or the manual configuration of
:setting:`TEST_DEPENDENCIES`. See the `original problem report`_
documentation on :ref:`controlling the creation order of test
databases <topics-testing-creation-dependencies>` for details.

.. _original problem report: http://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/14415

GeoDjango
=========

The function-based :setting:`TEST_RUNNER` previously used to execute
the GeoDjango test suite, :func:`django.contrib.gis.tests.run_gis_tests`,
was finally deprecated in favor of a class-based test runner,
:class:`django.contrib.gis.tests.GeoDjangoTestSuiteRunner`, added in this
release.

In addition, the GeoDjango test suite is now included when
:ref:`running the Django test suite <running-unit-tests>` with ``runtests.py``
and using :ref:`spatial database backends <spatial-backends>`.