RELEASE-NOTES

   1 = MediaWiki release notes =
   2
   3 Security reminder: MediaWiki does not require PHP's register_globals
   4 setting since version 1.2.0. If you have it on, turn it *off* if you can.
   5
   6 == MediaWiki 1.17 ==
   7
   8 THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET
   9
  10 MediaWiki is now using a "continuous integration" development model with
  11 quarterly snapshot releases. The latest development code is always kept
  12 "ready to run", and in fact runs our own sites on Wikipedia.
  13
  14 Release branches will continue to receive security updates for about a year
  15 from first release, but nonessential bugfixes and feature developments
  16 will be made on the development trunk and appear in the next quarterly release.
  17
  18 Those wishing to use the latest code instead of a branch release can obtain
  19 it from source control: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_SVN
  20
  21 === Configuration changes in 1.17 ===
  22 * DatabaseFunctions.php that was needed for compatibility with pre-1.3
  23   extensions has been removed.
  24 * $wgLogAutocreatedAccounts controls whether autocreation of accounts is logged
  25   to new users log.
  26 * $wgAllowImageTag can be set to true to whitelist the <img> tag in wikitext.
  27
  28 === New features in 1.17 ===
  29 * (bug 10183) Users can now add personal styles and scripts to all skins via
  30   User:<name>/common.css and /common.js (if user css/js is enabled)
  31 * (bug 22748) Add anchors on Special:ListGroupRights
  32 * (bug 21981) Add parameter 'showfilename' to <gallery> to automatically apply
  33   the names of the individual files within the gallery
  34 * (bug 12797) Add $wgGalleryOptions for adjusting of default gallery display
  35   options
  36 * $wgAllowUserCssPrefs option allows disabling CSS-based preferences; which can
  37   improve page loading speed.
  38 * Future-proof redirection to fragments in Gecko, so things work a little nicer
  39   if they fix <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=516293>.
  40 * Support git:// and mms:// protocols by default for external links
  41 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer unblock themselves without the
  42   'unblockself' permission (which they have by default)
  43 * (bug 18499) Added "enhanced" URL parameter to switch between old and enhanced
  44   changes list
  45 * (bug 22925) "sp-contributions-blocked-notice-anon" message now displayed when
  46   viewing contributions of a blocked IP address
  47 * (bug 22474) {{urlencode:}} now takes an optional second paramter for type of
  48   escaping.
  49 * Special:Listfiles now supports a username parameter
  50 * Special:Random carries over query string parameters
  51 * (bug 23206) Add Special::Search hook for detecting successful "Go"
  52 * When visiting a "red link" of a deleted file, a deletion and move log excerpt
  53   is provided on the Upload form.
  54 * (bug 22647) Add category details in search results.
  55 * (bug 23276) Add hook to Special:NewPages to modify query
  56 * Add accesskey 's' and tooltip to 'Save' button at Special:Preferences
  57 * Add accesskey 'b' and tooltip to the summary field of edit mode
  58 * (bug 20186) Allow filtering Special:Contributions for RevisionDeleted edits
  59 * (bug 22858) $wgLocalStylePath is by default set to the same value as
  60   $wgStylePath but should never point to a different domain than the site is
  61   on, allowing skins to use .htc files which are not cross-domain friendly.
  62 * ajaxwatch now uses the API and JQuery, and can be used to animate arbitrary
  63   watch links, not just to watch the page the link is on.
  64 * (bug 20193) Added $wgVectorShowVariantName global configuration variable
  65   which causes Vector to render the the variants drop-down menu with a label
  66   showing the current variant name. This is off by default, pending further
  67   research into its user experience implications.
  68
  69 === Bug fixes in 1.17 ===
  70 * (bug 17560) Half-broken deletion moved image files to deletion archive
  71   without updating database
  72 * (bug 22666) Submitting user block form with an invalid user name no longer
  73   throws an error
  74 * (bugs 22665 and 22667) User '0' can now be unblocked and have its block
  75   settings changed
  76 * (bug 22606) The body of e-mail address confirmation message is now different
  77   when the address changed
  78 * (bug 22664) Special:Userrights now accepts '0' as a valid user name
  79 * (bug 5210) preload parser now parses <noinclude>, <includeonly> and redirects
  80 * (bug 22709) IIS7 mishandles redirects generated by OutputPage::output() when
  81   the URL contains a colon.
  82 * (bug 22353) Categorised recent changes now works again
  83 * (bug 22747) "Reveal my e-mail address in notification e-mails" preference is
  84   now only displayed when relevant
  85 * (bug 22772) {{#special:}} parser function now works with subpages
  86 * (bug 18664) Relative URIs in interwiki links cause failed redirects
  87 * (bug 19270) Relative URIs in interwiki links break interwiki transclusion
  88 * (bug 22903) Revdelete log entries now show in the user preferred language.
  89 * (bug 22905) Correctly handle <abbr> followed by ISBN
  90 * (bug 22940) Namespace aliases pointing to main namespace don't work
  91 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer block/unblock other users
  92 * (bug 22876) Avoid possible PHP Notice if $wgDefaultUserOptions is not
  93   correctly set
  94 * (bug 14952) Page titles are renormalized after html entities are removed so
  95   that links with non-NFC character references work correctly.
  96 * (bug 22991) wgUserGroups JavaScript variable now reports * group for
  97   anonymous users instead of null.
  98 * (bug 22627) Remove PHP notice when deleting a page only hidden users edited.
  99 * (bug 21520) Anonymous previews now also gives a warning about not being
 100   logged in (anonpreviewwarning).
 101 * (bug 22935) image/x-ms-bmp mime type added for BMP files
 102 * (bug 23024) Special:ListFiles now escapes file names correctly
 103 * (bug 22867) "View source" tab is now only displayed if there's source text
 104 * (bug 19393) Feeds now format dates in user language rather than content
 105   language
 106 * (bug 22852) "Served in" comment is now the time used to cache a single page
 107   when using rebuildFileCache.php
 108 * (bug 22496) Viewing diff of a redirect page without specifying "oldid"
 109   parameter no longer makes the page displayed as being the redirect target
 110 * (bug 22918) Feed cache keys now use $wgRenderHashAppend
 111 * (bug 21916) Last-Modified header is now correct when outputting cached feed
 112 * (bug 20049) Fixed PHP notice in search highlighter that occurs in some cases
 113 * (bug 23017) Special:Disambiguations now list pages in content namespaces
 114   rather than only main namespace
 115 * (bug 23063) $wgMaxAnimatedGifArea is checked against the total size of all
 116   frames, and $wgMaxImageArea against the size of the first frame, rather than
 117   the other way around.  Both now default to 12.5 megapixels.  Also, images
 118   exceeding $wgMaxImageArea can still be embedded at original size
 119 * (bug 23078) "All public logs" option on Special:Log is now always the first
 120   item
 121 * (bug 16817) Group names in user rights log are now singular and in lowercase
 122 * Special:Preferences no longer crashes if the wiki default date formatting
 123   style is not valid for the user's interface language
 124 * (bug 23167) Check the watch checkbox by default if the watchcreations
 125   preference is set
 126 * Maintenance script cleanupTitles is now able to fix titles stored
 127 in a negative namespace (which is invalid).
 128 * (bug 19858) Removed obsolete <big> in interface messages.
 129 * (bug 21456) "Bad title" error when showing non-local interwiki pages no longer
 130   displays incorrect tabs
 131 * (bug 23190) Improved math representation for text browsers.
 132 * (bug 22015) Improved upload-by-url error handling and error display
 133 * (bug 17941) $wgMaxUploadSize is now honored by all upload sources
 134 * (bug 23080) New usernames now limited to 235 bytes so that custom skin files
 135   work.
 136 * (bug 23075) Correct MediaTransformError default width in gallery.
 137 * (bug 16487) The Anonymous user account used on Postgres is no longer
 138   displayed on Special:Listusers.
 139 * (bug 23313) Move watchlisthidepatrolled above token in watchlist preferences
 140   to enhance preference grouping.
 141 * (bug 23298) Interwiki links with prefix only in log summaries now link to the
 142   correct link
 143
 144 === API changes in 1.17 ===
 145 * (bug 22738) Allow filtering by action type on query=logevent
 146 * (bug 22764) uselang parameter for action=parse
 147 * (bug 22944) API: watchlist options are inconsistent
 148 * (bug 22339) "Go" result should be available through the API
 149 * (bug 22868) don't list infinite block expiry date as "now" in API logevents
 150 * (bug 22290) prop=revisions now outputs "comment" field even when comment
 151   is empty, for consistency with list=recentchanges
 152
 153 === Languages updated in 1.17 ===
 154
 155 MediaWiki supports over 330 languages. Many localisations are updated
 156 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 157 changes to languages because of MediaZilla reports.
 158
 159 * Latgalian (ltg) (new)
 160 * Rusyn (rue) (new)
 161
 162 * (bug 23156) Commafy and search normalization updated for Belarusian
 163   (Taraškievica)
 164 * (bug 23283) Native name for Old English -> Ænglisc
 165
 166 == Compatibility ==
 167
 168 MediaWiki 1.17 requires PHP 5.1 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer
 169 supported.
 170
 171 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 172 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 173
 174
 175 == Upgrading ==
 176
 177 1.17 has several database changes since 1.16, and will not work without schema
 178 updates.
 179
 180 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 181 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 182 database schema changes.
 183
 184 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 185 new database fields are filled with data.
 186
 187 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 188 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 189 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 190
 191 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 192
 193
 194 === Caveats ===
 195
 196 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 197 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 198 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 199 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 200 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 201
 202 For notes on 1.16.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 203
 204
 205 === Online documentation ===
 206
 207 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 208 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 209 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 210 the public domain) :
 211
 212   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 213
 214
 215 === Mailing list ===
 216
 217 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 218 wikitech-l list:
 219
 220   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 221
 222 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 223
 224   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 225
 226 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 227 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 228
 229
 230 === IRC help ===
 231
 232 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net