Django 1.2, my favorite Python web framework, was released this week. You can view the details on djangoproject.com. They are working a few minor fixes for 1.2.1 to be released next week.
I was able to spend some time upgrading thepiepers.net website from Django 1.1.1 to Django 1.2. The changes in 1.2 made it a must-upgrade.
After installing, I had to make a few adjustment to get the codebase compliant. The syndication framework changed. In addition, I had a few quirks left in my code from Django 1.1 that caused some issues. I ended up just refactoring my RSS feeds to work with Django 1.2.
Of all the changes, the one I was looking forward to the most is the template caching. After attaching the cached template loader, I was able to knock off almost a tenth of a second on the homepage load alone! They also made it much easier to include an alternative template framework.
The development server now includes colored messages and detection of stale models...very handy!
After I made a few changes to settings.py and updated some validators to make it compliant, the site was ready. I will be creating a new email backend later to handle email queueing and taking advantage of the multiple database option.
Overall, I am very pleased with the new features and performance in Django 1.2.