SQLAlchemy release 0.8.1 is now available.

This is a bugfix release which resolves many issues, some of which appeared in 0.8.0 as regressions and many more that affect all versions.

Major issues resolved include a significant rework to the Query.join() method, as well as a major fix to an issue regarding overlapping column labels affecting primarily the ORM. In total, there are 27 bug fixes listed in the Changelog. We'd like to thank the many contributors who helped with this release.

SQLAlchemy 0.8.1 is available on the Download Page.

SQLAlchemy release 0.8.0 final is now available.

This release now sets 0.8 as the official production series of SQLAlchemy, following two beta releases.

Version 0.8 marks the most consistent, extensible and performant version of SQLAlchemy to date. The development cycle for 0.8 has been particularly long, starting in April of 2012 with a rewrite of the internals of the relationship() construct, followed by the addition of a significant amount of new functionality regarding "polymorphic" querying, and later into a major upgrade to the typing system, including an extensible operator system and type-specific SQL expression support.

Some major new features include:

• New Relationship Features
• New Polymorphic Features - with_polymorphic() and of_type()
• New Runtime Inspection System
• Extensible Operator System
• HSTORE Support

In addition, a new API for external dialects, along with an associated test suite, allows third-party dialects to be organized and tested in a consistent manner. Several new or updated SQLAlchemy dialects make use of this system, most notably an all new version of IBM DB2 for SQLAlchemy as well as sqlalchemy-akiban.

Beyond the major new additions, SQLAlchemy internals and tests continue to be improved and simplified. Long functions and classes have been broken out into compositions of small functions, which are easier to understand as well as to unit test; tests themselves are being moved from long lists of assertions within a single test into small units each containing a single assertion, with an emphasis on testing smaller units of functionality more exhaustively. The test suite has now surpassed 5000 individual tests, which are run via continuous integration against a variety of Python platforms and DBAPI implementations using on-demand Amazon EC2 instances. Coverage is also high: sqlalchemy.orm is at 95%, sqlalchemy.sql is at 94%, sqlalchemy.ext.declarative is at 99%.

For a full overview of major features and behavioral changes in SQLAlchemy, refer to the What's New? document. For a detailed list of changes in 0.8 and throughout the 0.8 series, refer to the Changelog.

SQLAlchemy 0.8.0 is available for download on the Download Page.

SQLAlchemy 0.7.10 is now available.

This is a bugfix release, sending out a series of fixes that have accumulated as version 0.8.0's release is imminent.

Fixes in this version include issues related to the Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, and Google App Engine dialects, as well as a few schema related and ORM related fixes.

Full changelog is available at 0.7.10 Changelog.

Download SQLAlchemy 0.7.10 on the download page.

The second beta release of the 0.8 series is now released.

This release fixes some regressions found in 0.8.0b1 and improves upon some of what's new in 0.8. In particular, a second rework of the "pathing" mechanics which relate loader strategies to entity paths allows for more elaborate "polymorphic" loading schemes than before. The Postgresql HSTORE type has now been added fully to the Postgresql dialect, and there are many dialect-specific fixes including several for Oracle.

It is hoped that 0.8.0b2 will be the last beta before 0.8, and to encourage more user testing, the release is available on Pypi. Applications which absolutely need to stay on 0.7 should tag their requirements to "SQLAlchemy < 0.8" to prevent inadvertent installs of 0.8.

Users new to 0.8 should start by reading the What's New in 0.8 document, which introduces major new features as well as areas where applications may experience a behavioral change. The 0.8.0b2 Changelog will enumerate most changes in detail.

Download SQLAlchemy 0.8.0b2 on the download page.

The first beta release of the SQLAlchemy 0.8 series, 0.8.0b1, is released for developer evaluation.

0.8 represents the latest series of refinements to the SQLAlchemy Core and ORM libraries and features over 100 individual changes, consisting of major new features, bug fixes, and other enhancements. There are also major refactorings present in both the library and the test suite intended to improve maintainability, performance, and compability with future enhancements and external projects.

The purpose of the beta releases is to give a wide range of developers a chance to evaluate the new version against existing applications, and to alert the SQLAlchemy team of any regressions or major upgrade issues being experienced. Each major release of SQLAlchemy includes a wide array of planned but backwards-incompatible changes, including the removal of deprecated features, as well as bug fixes which change behaviors that some applications may have been relying upon.

Among many changes include improvements to the documentation system. The changelog and migration guides for SQLAlchemy are now integrated with the Sphinx documentation, where they can refer to each other as well as the rest of the SQLAlchemy documentation.

Users should start by reading the What's New in 0.8 document, which introduces major new features as well as areas where applications may experience a behavioral change. The 0.8.0b1 Changelog will enumerate most changes in detail.

Download SQLAlchemy 0.8.0b1 on the download page.

SQLAlchemy 0.7.9 is released. This is a maintenance release primarily containing bug fixes applied to both the 0.7 and 0.8 SQLAlchemy series.

0.7.9 includes some adjustments that will also be present in 0.8, including changes to the event-dispatch system which dramatically reduce the amount of memory used. There are also several fixes related to the relatively new common table expression (CTE) construct.

Other fixes include small bugs present in components such as the ORM, SQL generation system, and various dialect-specific bugs. 0.7.9 also has updates to its unit test system which were backported from 0.8.

The 0.8 series, which includes a long list of new features and improvements, is more or less ready for initial beta releases, and will be available for download within the coming weeks.

For a full list of changes, see CHANGES.

Download SQLAlchemy 0.7.9 on the download page.

SQLAlchemy 0.7.8 is released. This is a maintenance release containing significant bug fixes applied to both the 0.7 and 0.8 SQLAlchemy series.

Significant issues resolved include a memory leak identified when the C extensions were installed in conjunction with usage of the Pyodbc DBAPI driver, and possibly other drivers that use a custom non-tuple for result rows; as well as a Python 3 issue where the execute() method of Engine and Connection would not interpret positional arguments correctly. Users who are using the Pyodbc driver in conjunction with the C extensions on any platform are encouraged to upgrade.

There's also a new dialect added that should allow usage of the new MySQL service provided by Google App Engine.

Overall, 0.7.8 has few changes versus 0.7.7, particularly within the ORM component, save for a few fixes. Users are advised to fully test existing applications before upgrading in any case.

For a full list of changes including all bug fixes, see CHANGES.

Download SQLAlchemy 0.7.8 on the download page.

I'm very pleased to announce that The Architecture of Open Source Applications, Volume II is now available. The AOSA volumes feature in-depth discussions of various open source applications, including Berkeley DB, Sendmail, and Git. Volume II includes my own contributed chapter which I wrote over the course of many weeks last year.

In my chapter, SQLAlchemy, I cover from a software development perspective how the various pieces of SQLAlchemy were conceived and how they fit together. The history of major architectural decisions as well as influencing software are also discussed. Users of SQLAlchemy are encouraged to gain a deeper perspective over how SQLAlchemy came to be the way it is by reading this chapter.

I highly recommend purchasing the book directly from Lulu.com. When purchasing from Lulu, all royalties are donated to Amnesty International. The full text of the book is also available for free on the website directly.

SQLAlchemy 0.7.7 is now available. This is the first release of the 0.7 series subsequent to the promotion of the 0.8 series to trunk. It nearly two dozen bug fixes and features, including some significant ORM issues that have been resolved.

Development is now proceeding with the 0.8 series, which begins to push 0.7 into maintenance mode. Bug fixes and some features are being backported to 0.7 as is possible. The 0.6 series also launches 0.6.9 at the same time as 0.7.7, in an effort to "push out" all the pending fixes for both the 0.6 and 0.7 series, so that development on 0.8 can continue.

While changes from 0.7.6 to 0.7.7 are intended to be fully backwards compatible, existing installations running on 0.7 should refer to the CHANGES file to determine if and how they may be impacted by the fixes in 0.7.7 before upgrading, and users are advised to fully test their applications against 0.7.7 before promoting to production.

For a full list of changes including all bug fixes, see CHANGES.

Download SQLAlchemy 0.7.7 on the download page.

SQLAlchemy 0.6.9, a maintenance release of the 0.6 branch, is now available.

The 0.6 series has not seen a release since 0.6.8 was released nearly a year ago. During that time, the 0.7 series has gone through over six releases, gaining many new features and bug fixes. A portion of these fixes have been backported to 0.6 since 0.6.8, including twelve ORM fixes, so 0.6.9 is an effort to make these fixes widely available to those installations who have not yet upgraded to 0.7. The release coincides at the same time as release 0.7.7, which is also fast approaching maintenance-only mode with 0.8 now well underway and close to initial beta releases.

Care has been taken in 0.6.9 to minimize as much as possible the potential for backwards-incompatibilities with existing code, which sometimes can occur if an application is unknowingly relying upon a buggy behavior that is then fixed. So while 0.6.9 is a very conservative release, it does still represent changes over a year's time; users are strongly urged to carefully review the CHANGES file to see exactly what's been adjusted, and to test it fully in their existing 0.6 applications before promoting it to production.

For a full list of changes including all bug fixes, see CHANGES.

Download SQLAlchemy 0.6.9 on the download page.