Django 1.2 includes a number of new features and very minimal backwards incompatible changes. As of Django 1.0, the Django development team adopted an API stability policy that alleviates the worry about backwards incompatible changes being introduced into the framework throughout the 1.x series of releases. In other words, with few exceptions, if your application runs on version 1.0, it should run on all 1.x versions.

Major new additions to the Django framework in version 1.2 include multiple-database support, improved if template tag, object-level permissions, e-mail backends, and much, much more.

Per the API stability policy, a minimal number of backwards incompatible changes are included in 1.2. Major changes to existing framework features, like the new if tag, necessitate some incompatible changes. In 1.2 these have been very minor and are well documented in the release notes.

The Django 1.2 release notes also include an overview and brief documentation of the new features and functionality available, and are an excellent starting point for projects that are upgrading.