Glossary

evolution label

The name of a particular evolution for an app. These must be unique within an app, but do not have to be unique within a project.

legacy app label

legacy app labels

The form of app label used in Django 1.6 and earlier. Legacy app labels are generated solely from the app’s module name.

migrations

Django 1.7+’s built-in method of managing changes to the database schema. See the migrations documentation.

modern app label

modern app labels

The form of app label used in Django 1.7 and later. Modern app labels default to being generated from the app’s module name, but can be customized.

project signature

project signatures

A stored representation of all the apps and models in your project. This is stored in the django_project_version table, and is a critical part in determining how the database has evolved and what changes need to be made.

In Django Evolution 2.0 and higher, this is stored as JSON data. In prior versions, this was stored as Pickle protocol 0 data.