Release Notes

v4

v4 introduces significant updates to import-export. We have taken the opportunity to introduce breaking changes in order to fix some long-standing issues.

Refer to the changelog for more information. Please ensure you test thoroughly before deploying v4 to production.

This guide describes the major changes and how to upgrade.

Installation

We have modified installation methods to allow for optional dependencies. This means that you have to explicitly declare dependencies when installing import-export.

If you are not sure, or want to preserve the pre-v4 behaviour, then ensure that import-export is installed as follows (either in your requirements file or during installation):

django-import-export[all]

Functional changes

CharWidget

clean() will now return a string type as the default. The coerce_to_string option introduced in v3 is no longer used in this method.

Validation error messages

The following widgets have had validation error messages updated:

Export format

We have standardized the export output which is returned from render().

Prior to v4, the export format returned from render() varied between Widget implementations. In v4, return values are rendered as strings by default (where applicable), with None values returned as empty strings. Widget params can modify this behavior.

Refer to the documentation for more information.

Export field order

The ordering rules for exported fields has been standardized. See documentation.

Deprecations

  • The obj param passed to render() is deprecated. The render() method should not need to have a reference to model instance.

  • Use of ExportViewFormMixin is deprecated. See this issue.

Admin UI

LogEntry

LogEntry instances are created during import for creates, updates and deletes. The functionality to store LogEntry has changed in v4 in order to address a deprecation in Django 5. For this to work correctly, deleted instances are now always copied and retained in each RowResult so that they can be recorded in each LogEntry.

This only occurs for delete operations initiated from the Admin UI.

Export action

The export action has been updated to include the export workflow. Prior to v4, it was possible to select export selected items using an export admin action. However this meant that the export workflow was skipped and it was not possible to select the export resource. This has been fixed in v4 so that export workflow is now present when exporting via the Admin UI action. For more information see export documentation.

Success message

The success message shown on successful import has been updated to include the number of ‘deleted’ and ‘skipped’ rows. See this PR.

API changes

v4 of import-export contains a number of minor changes to the API.

If you have customized import-export by overriding methods, then you will have to modify your installation before working with v4. If you have not overridden any methods then you should not be affected by these changes and no changes to your code should be necessary.

The API changes include changes to method arguments, although some method names have changed.

Refer to this PR for more information.

Methods which process row data have been updated so that method args are standardized. This has been done to resolve inconsistency issues where the parameters differed between method calls, and to allow easier extensibility.

import_export.resources.Resource

Renamed methods

Previous

New

Summary

import_obj(self, obj, data, dry_run, **kwargs)

import_instance(self, instance, row, **kwargs)

  • obj param renamed to instance

  • data param renamed to row

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

after_import_instance(self, instance, new, row_number=None, **kwargs)

after_init_instance(self, instance, new, row, **kwargs)

  • row added as mandatory arg

  • row_number now in kwargs

Parameter changes

This section describes methods in which the parameters have changed.

Previous

New

Summary

before_import(self, dataset, using_transactions, dry_run, **kwargs)

before_import(self, dataset, **kwargs)

  • using_transactions param now in kwargs

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

after_import(self, dataset, result, using_transactions, dry_run, **kwargs)

after_import(self, dataset, result, **kwargs)

  • using_transactions param now in kwargs

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

before_import_row(self, row, row_number=None, **kwargs)

before_import_row(self, row, **kwargs)

  • row_number now in kwargs

after_import_row(self, row, row_result, row_number=None, **kwargs)

after_import_row(self, row, row_result, **kwargs)

  • row_number now in kwargs

import_row(self, row, instance_loader, using_transactions=True, dry_run=False, **kwargs)

import_row(self, row, instance_loader, **kwargs)

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

  • using_transactions param now in kwargs

save_instance(self, instance, is_create, using_transactions=True, dry_run=False)

save_instance(self, instance, is_create, row, ***kwargs)

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

  • using_transactions param now in kwargs

  • row added as mandatory arg

save_m2m(self, obj, data, using_transactions, dry_run)

save_m2m(self, instance, row, **kwargs)

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

  • using_transactions param now in kwargs

  • row added as mandatory arg

  • obj renamed to instance

  • data renamed to row

before_save_instance(self, instance, using_transactions, dry_run)

before_save_instance(self, instance, row, **kwargs)

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

  • using_transactions param now in kwargs

  • row added as mandatory arg

after_save_instance(self, instance, using_transactions, dry_run)

after_save_instance(self, instance, row, **kwargs)

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

  • using_transactions param now in kwargs

  • row added as mandatory arg

delete_instance(self, instance, using_transactions=True, dry_run=False)

delete_instance(self, instance, row, **kwargs)

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

  • using_transactions param now in kwargs

  • row added as mandatory arg

before_delete_instance(self, instance, dry_run)

before_delete_instance(self, instance, row, **kwargs)

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

  • using_transactions param now in kwargs

  • row added as mandatory arg

after_delete_instance(self, instance, dry_run)

after_delete_instance(self, instance, row, **kwargs)

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

  • using_transactions param now in kwargs

  • row added as mandatory arg

before_export(self, queryset, *args, **kwargs)

before_export(self, queryset, **kwargs)

  • unused *args list removed

after_export(self, queryset, data, *args, **kwargs)

after_export(self, queryset, dataset, **kwargs)

  • unused *args list removed

  • data renamed to dataset

filter_export(self, queryset, *args, **kwargs)

filter_export(self, queryset, **kwargs)

  • unused *args list removed

export_field(self, field, obj)

export_field(self, field, instance)

  • obj renamed to instance

export(self, *args, queryset=None, **kwargs)

export(self, queryset=None, **kwargs)

  • unused *args list removed

import_export.mixins.BaseImportMixin

Parameter changes

Previous

New

Summary

get_import_resource_kwargs(self, request, *args, **kwargs)

get_import_resource_kwargs(self, request, **kwargs)

  • using_transactions param now in kwargs

  • dry_run param now in kwargs

  • unused *args list removed

import_export.mixins.BaseExportMixin

Parameter changes

Previous

New

Summary

get_export_resource_kwargs(self, request, *args, **kwargs)

get_export_resource_kwargs(self, request, **kwargs)

  • unused *args list removed

get_export_resource_kwargs(self, request, *args, **kwargs)

get_export_resource_kwargs(self, request, **kwargs)

  • unused *args list removed

get_data_for_export(self, request, *args, **kwargs)

get_data_for_export(self, request, queryset, **kwargs)

  • unused *args list removed

import_export.fields.Field

Parameter changes

Previous

New

Summary

clean(self, data, **kwargs)

clean(self, row, **kwargs)

  • data renamed to row

get_value(self, instance)

get_value(self, obj)

  • obj renamed to instance

save(self, obj, data, is_m2m=False, **kwargs)

save(self, instance, row, is_m2m=False, **kwargs)

  • obj renamed to instance

  • data renamed to row

export(self, obj)

export(self, instance)

  • obj renamed to instance

import_export.forms.ImportExportFormBase

If you have subclassed one of the forms then you may need to modify the parameters passed to constructors.

The input_format field of ImportForm has been moved to the parent class (ImportExportFormBase) and renamed to format.

Parameter changes

Previous

New

Summary

__init__(self, *args, resources=None, **kwargs)

__init__(self, formats, resources, *args, **kwargs)

  • formats added as a mandatory arg

  • resources added as a mandatory arg