path: root/guides/source/4_1_release_notes.md

Ruby on Rails 4.1 Release Notes
===============================

Highlights in Rails 4.1:

* Action View extracted from Action Pack

These release notes cover only the major changes. To know about various bug
fixes and changes, please refer to the change logs or check out the
[list of commits](https://github.com/rails/rails/commits/master) in the main
Rails repository on GitHub.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Upgrading to Rails 4.1
----------------------

If you're upgrading an existing application, it's a great idea to have good test
coverage before going in. You should also first upgrade to Rails 4.0 in case you
haven't and make sure your application still runs as expected before attempting
an update to Rails 4.1. A list of things to watch out for when upgrading is
available in the
[Upgrading to Rails](upgrading_ruby_on_rails.html#upgrading-from-rails-4-0-to-rails-4-1)
guide.


Major Features
--------------


Documentation
-------------


Railties
--------

Please refer to the
[Changelog](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-1-stable/railties/CHANGELOG.md)
for detailed changes.

### Removals

*   Removed `update:application_controller` rake task.

*   Removed deprecated `Rails.application.railties.engines`.

*   Removed deprecated threadsafe! from Rails Config.

*   Remove deprecated `ActiveRecord::Generators::ActiveModel#update_attributes` in
    favor of `ActiveRecord::Generators::ActiveModel#update`

*   Remove deprecated `config.whiny_nils` option

*   Removed deprecated rake tasks for running tests: `rake test:uncommitted` and
    `rake test:recent`.

### Notable changes

* `BACKTRACE` environment variable to show unfiltered backtraces for test
  failures. ([Commit](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/84eac5dab8b0fe9ee20b51250e52ad7bfea36553))

* Expose MiddlewareStack#unshift to environment configuration. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12479))


Action Mailer
-------------

Please refer to the
[Changelog](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-1-stable/actionmailer/CHANGELOG.md)
for detailed changes.

### Notable changes

*   Instrument the generation of Action Mailer messages. The time it takes to
    generate a message is written to the log. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12556))


Active Model
------------

Please refer to the
[Changelog](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-1-stable/activemodel/CHANGELOG.md)
for detailed changes.

### Deprecations

* Deprecate `Validator#setup`. This should be done manually now in the
  validator's constructor. ([Commit](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/7d84c3a2f7ede0e8d04540e9c0640de7378e9b3a))

### Notable changes

* Added new API methods `reset_changes` and `changes_applied` to
  `ActiveModel::Dirty` that control changes state.


Active Support
--------------

Please refer to the
[Changelog](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-1-stable/activesupport/CHANGELOG.md)
for detailed changes.


### Removals

* Remove deprecated `String#encoding_aware?` core extensions (`core_ext/string/encoding`).

* Remove deprecated `Module#local_constant_names` in favor of `Module#local_constants`.

* Remove deprecated `DateTime.local_offset` in favor of `DateTime.civil_from_fromat`.

* Remove deprecated `Logger` core extensions (`core_ext/logger.rb`).

* Remove deprecated `Time#time_with_datetime_fallback`, `Time#utc_time` and
  `Time#local_time` in favor of `Time#utc` and `Time#local`.

* Remove deprecated `Hash#diff` with no replacement.

* Remove deprecated `Date#to_time_in_current_zone` in favor of `Date#in_time_zone`.

* Remove deprecated `Proc#bind` with no replacement.

* Remove deprecated `Array#uniq_by` and `Array#uniq_by!`, use native
  `Array#uniq` and `Array#uniq!` instead.

* Remove deprecated `ActiveSupport::BasicObject`, use
  `ActiveSupport::ProxyObject` instead.

* Remove deprecated `BufferedLogger`, use `ActiveSupport::Logger` instead.

* Remove deprecated `assert_present` and `assert_blank` methods, use `assert
  object.blank?` and `assert object.present?` instead.

### Deprecations

* Deprecated `Numeric#{ago,until,since,from_now}`, the user is expected to
  explicitly convert the value into an AS::Duration, i.e. `5.ago` => `5.seconds.ago`
  ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12389))

### Notable changes

* Add `ActiveSupport::Testing::TimeHelpers#travel` and `#travel_to`. These
methods change current time to the given time or time difference by stubbing
`Time.now` and
`Date.today`. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12824))

* Added `Numeric#in_milliseconds`, like `1.hour.in_milliseconds`, so we can feed
  them to JavaScript functions like
  `getTime()`. ([Commit](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/423249504a2b468d7a273cbe6accf4f21cb0e643))

* Add `Date#middle_of_day`, `DateTime#middle_of_day` and `Time#middle_of_day`
  methods. Also added `midday`, `noon`, `at_midday`, `at_noon` and
  `at_middle_of_day` as
  aliases. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/10879))

* Add `String#remove(pattern)` as a short-hand for the common pattern of
  `String#gsub(pattern,'')`. ([Commit](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/5da23a3f921f0a4a3139495d2779ab0d3bd4cb5f))

* Remove 'cow' => 'kine' irregular inflection from default
  inflections. ([Commit](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/c300dca9963bda78b8f358dbcb59cabcdc5e1dc9))

Action Pack
-----------

Please refer to the
[Changelog](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-1-stable/actionpack/CHANGELOG.md)
for detailed changes.

### Removals

*   Remove deprecated Rails application fallback for integration testing, set
    `ActionDispatch.test_app` instead.

*   Remove deprecated `page_cache_extension` config.

*   Remove deprecated constants from Action Controller:

        ActionController::AbstractRequest  => ActionDispatch::Request
        ActionController::Request          => ActionDispatch::Request
        ActionController::AbstractResponse => ActionDispatch::Response
        ActionController::Response         => ActionDispatch::Response
        ActionController::Routing          => ActionDispatch::Routing
        ActionController::Integration      => ActionDispatch::Integration
        ActionController::IntegrationTest  => ActionDispatch::IntegrationTest

### Notable changes

* Take a hash with options inside array in
  `#url_for`. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/9599))

* Add `session#fetch` method fetch behaves similarly to
  [Hash#fetch](http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-1.9.3/Hash.html#method-i-fetch),
  with the exception that the returned value is always saved into the
  session. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12692))

* Separate Action View completely from Action
  Pack. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/11032))


Active Record
-------------

Please refer to the
[Changelog](https://github.com/rails/rails/blob/4-1-stable/activerecord/CHANGELOG.md)
for detailed changes.

### Removals

* Remove deprecated nil-passing to the following `SchemaCache` methods:
  `primary_keys`, `tables`, `columns` and `columns_hash`.

* Remove deprecated block filter from `ActiveRecord::Migrator#migrate`.

* Remove deprecated String constructor from `ActiveRecord::Migrator`.

* Remove deprecated `scope` use without passing a callable object.

* Remove deprecated `transaction_joinable=` in favor of `begin_transaction`
  with `:joinable` option.

* Remove deprecated `decrement_open_transactions`.

* Remove deprecated `increment_open_transactions`.

* Remove deprecated `PostgreSQLAdapter#outside_transaction?`
  method. You can use `#transaction_open?` instead.

* Remove deprecated `ActiveRecord::Fixtures.find_table_name` in favor of
  `ActiveRecord::Fixtures.default_fixture_model_name`.

* Removed deprecated `columns_for_remove` from `SchemaStatements`.

* Remove deprecated `SchemaStatements#distinct`.

* Move deprecated `ActiveRecord::TestCase` into the rails test
  suite. The class is no longer public and is only used for internal
  Rails tests.

* Removed support for deprecated option `:restrict` for `:dependent`
  in associations.

* Removed support for deprecated `delete_sql` in associations.

* Removed support for deprecated `insert_sql` in associations.

* Removed support for deprecated `finder_sql` in associations.

* Removed support for deprecated `counter_sql` in associations.

* Removed deprecated method `type_cast_code` from Column.

* Removed deprecated options `delete_sql` and `insert_sql` from HABTM
  association.

* Removed deprecated options `finder_sql` and `counter_sql` from
  collection association.

* Remove deprecated `ActiveRecord::Base#connection` method.
  Make sure to access it via the class.

* Remove deprecation warning for `auto_explain_threshold_in_seconds`.

* Remove deprecated `:distinct` option from `Relation#count`.

* Removed deprecated methods `partial_updates`, `partial_updates?` and
  `partial_updates=`.

* Removed deprecated method `scoped`

* Removed deprecated method `default_scopes?`

* Remove implicit join references that were deprecated in 4.0.

* Remove `activerecord-deprecated_finders` as a dependency

* Usage of `implicit_readonly` is being removed`. Please use `readonly` method
  explicitly to mark records as
  `readonly. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/10769))

### Deprecations

* Deprecate `quoted_locking_column` method, which isn't used anywhere.

* Deprecate the delegation of Array bang methods for associations.
  To use them, instead first call `#to_a` on the association to access the
  array to be acted
  on. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12129))

* Deprecate `ConnectionAdapters::SchemaStatements#distinct`,
  as it is no longer used by internals. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/10556))

### Notable changes

* Added `ActiveRecord::Base.to_param` for convenient "pretty" URLs derived from
  a model's attribute or
  method. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12891))

* Added `ActiveRecord::Base.no_touching`, which allows ignoring touch on
  models. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12772))

* Unify boolean type casting for `MysqlAdapter` and `Mysql2Adapter`.
  `type_cast` will return `1` for `true` and `0` for `false`. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12425))

* `.unscope` now removes conditions specified in
  `default_scope`. ([Commit](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/94924dc32baf78f13e289172534c2e71c9c8cade))

* Added `ActiveRecord::QueryMethods#rewhere` which will overwrite an existing,
  named where condition. ([Commit](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/f950b2699f97749ef706c6939a84dfc85f0b05f2))

* Extend `ActiveRecord::Base#cache_key` to take an optional list of timestamp
  attributes of which the highest will be used. ([Commit](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/e94e97ca796c0759d8fcb8f946a3bbc60252d329))

* Added `ActiveRecord::Base#enum` for declaring enum attributes where the values
  map to integers in the database, but can be queried by
  name. ([Commit](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/db41eb8a6ea88b854bf5cd11070ea4245e1639c5))

* Type cast json values on write, so that the value is consistent with reading
  from the database. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12643))

* Type cast hstore values on write, so that the value is consistent
  with reading from the database. ([Commit](https://github.com/rails/rails/commit/5ac2341fab689344991b2a4817bd2bc8b3edac9d))

* Make `next_migration_number` accessible for third party
  generators. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12407))

* Calling `update_attributes` will now throw an `ArgumentError` whenever it
  gets a `nil` argument. More specifically, it will throw an error if the
  argument that it gets passed does not respond to to
  `stringify_keys`. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/9860))

* `CollectionAssociation#first`/`#last` (e.g. `has_many`) use a `LIMIT`ed
  query to fetch results rather than loading the entire
  collection. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/12137))

* `inspect` on Active Record model classes does not initiate a new
  connection. This means that calling `inspect`, when the database is missing,
  will no longer raise an exception. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/11014))

* Remove column restrictions for `count`, let the database raise if the SQL is
  invalid. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/10710))

* Rails now automatically detects inverse associations. If you do not set the
  `:inverse_of` option on the association, then Active Record will guess the
  inverse association based on heuristics. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/10886))

* Handle aliased attributes in ActiveRecord::Relation. When using symbol keys,
  ActiveRecord will now translate aliased attribute names to the actual column
  name used in the database. ([Pull Request](https://github.com/rails/rails/pull/7839))

Credits
-------

See the
[full list of contributors to Rails](http://contributors.rubyonrails.org/) for
the many people who spent many hours making Rails, the stable and robust
framework it is. Kudos to all of them.