New algorithms or improvements

• Implemented Spark item to item recommenders by @ChuyangKe in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1809
• Correct packaging commands in SARPlus workflow by @simonzhaoms in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1860
• New URL of Glove from Huggingface by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1949
• Bug in Deeprec tests and adding more tests by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1957
• Make early_stopping a callable in LightGBM by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1967
• Update Hybrid algo classification to align with Recommenders book and Aggarwal by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2050
• Fixed bug when reading dataset with timestamp for sasrec model by @gazon1 in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2052
• Catch import error separately for SUMModel by @SimonYansenZhao in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2077
• Fixed error in fastai in nightly by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2068

New utilities or improvements

• Optimized Python splitters by @ChuyangKe in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1802
• Replace append with pd.concat by @gro1m in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1811
• Python generalized ndcg by @ChuyangKe in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1812
• Simplify eval args by @AdityaSoni19031997 in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1828
• CVE-2007-4559 Patch by @TrellixVulnTeam in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1835
• New notebook executor #1865 #2048 #2031
• Restricting cornac to 1.15.1 for issue with 1.15.4 by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1934
• Refactor ranking metric map to be the same as Spark's by @loomlike in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2004
• Correct MIND user behavior history construction by @thaiminhpv in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2054
• Merged two concats into one by @daviddavo in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2075

New notebooks or improvements

• Minor change in lightgcn_deep_dive.ipynb by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1814
• Removed unused import by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1824
• Benchmark movielens in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1831 #1846
• Fix error Wide and Deep by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1854
• Update xDeepFM notebook and fix test error by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1850
• Rerun and clean dataprep notebooks by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1873
• typo fixes wrt notebook by @AdityaSoni19031997 in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1836
• Update multinomial_vae.py by @kone807 in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1916
• Review CPU notebooks in quick start with Python 3.9 by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1944
• Rerun and clean notebooks https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1947 #1950
• Update DKN notebook by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1959

Other features

• Explicitly list references in the pull request template by @simonzhaoms in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1798
• Improve README.md in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1805 #1827 #1906 #1871 #1912 #2058 #2053
• Improve SETUP in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1920 #1926 #1923
• Miguel/remove ado by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1820
• Optimize tests in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1823 #1819 #1808 #1837 #1907 #1911
• Refactor tests into new categories reviewed by Eric Gamma in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1989 #1822
• Remove pull_request_target by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1840
• AzureML test improvements #1842 #1845 #1844 #1855 #1863 #1864 #1897 #1885 #2009 #1797 #2069 #2059
• Workflow dispatch for manually trigger SAR+ tests by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1880
• Update the Python version support #1901 #1974 #1988 #1937
• Fix pyspark test bugs in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1909 #1899
• Fix GPU test bugs in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1886 #2046 #1995 #2045
• Fix CPU test bugs in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1879 #1882 #2033 #2037 #1797
• Remove deprecated utilities in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1917 #1935 #1982
• Remove non essential deps by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1939 #1938 #1952 #1971
• Remove non essential files #1799 #1979 #1993 #2007 #2000
• Moving to the Linux Foundation #1970 #1977 #1978 #2003 #2008 #1976
• Typos #1984 #1866
• Merging the extra_requires examples into the core package by @miguelgfierro in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1987
• Security alerts and issues with Tensorflow in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2017 #2071 #2022
• New documentation with Jupyter book in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2051 #2078
• Fix issues with pandera by @anargyri in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2061 #2062

New Contributors

• @gro1m made their first contribution in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1811
• @TrellixVulnTeam made their first contribution in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1835
• @kone807 made their first contribution in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1916
• @henningsway made their first contribution in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1984
• @SimonYansenZhao made their first contribution in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/1988
• @thaiminhpv made their first contribution in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2054
• @gazon1 made their first contribution in https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/pull/2052

Full Changelog: https://github.com/recommenders-team/recommenders/compare/1.1.1...1.2.0