[DEPR]: django-stdimage

[mfarhan943]

Proposal Date

1 July 2025

Ticket Acceptance Date

1 August 2025

Technology Removal Date

15 September 2025

First Open edX Named Release Without This Functionality

Ulmo

Rationale

django-stdimage is no longer maintained and has been archived by its author. Keeping it increases technical debt.

Removal

We propose to remove all usage of django-stdimage and its field StdImageField across the course-discovery codebase.

• References to StdImageField in models
• Any settings or code used to configure django-stdimage

Replacement

We will use django-pictures, a modern, responsive, and actively maintained image field library.

It supports:

• Async image processing via Celery/Dramatiq
• AVIF/WEBP and multi-size image generation
• Placeholder and fallbacks

Deprecation

No response

Migration

We'll create a Django data migration using AlterPictureField from django-pictures to convert the field. The migration will retain existing image files and regenerate responsive variations. No data loss is expected.
Migration instructions for django-stdimage github.
Celery will be used to process images asynchronously after migration.

Additional Info

• Upstream deprecation: https://github.com/xarg/django-stdimage
• Recommended replacement: https://github.com/codingjoe/django-pictures
• We have successfully tested this migration in a local project and confirmed auto-generation of image variations post-migration using Celery.