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 ** NOTE TO COMMITTERS: Before 1.5.0 release, rearrange these nicely
   7 ** and move 1.4 stuff to HISTORY.
   8
   9 == MediaWiki 1.5 ==
  10
  11 New exciting things! Need further work and testing...
  12 * user groups/permissions scheme
  13 * e-mail change notifications
  14 * 'live preview' reduces preview reload burden on supported browsers
  15 * Schema reworking: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposed_Database_Schema_Changes/October_2004
  16 * New WikiSyntax: -- turns into &mdash; or &ndash; depending on context
  17 * (bug 15) Allow editors to view diff of their change before actually submitting an edit
  18 * (bug 190) Hide your own edits on the watchlist
  19 * (bug 1015) support for the full wikisyntax in <gallery> captions.
  20 * (bug 1662) A new magicword, {{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}} returns the abbreviation of the current month
  21 * (bug 1668) 'Date format' supported for other languages than English, see:
  22   http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2005-March/028364.html
  23 * (bug 1739) A new magicword, {{REVISIONID}} give you the article or diff database
  24   revision id, useful for proper citation.
  25 * It's now possible to invert the namespace selection at Special:Allpages and Special:Contributions
  26 * ...and more!
  27
  28 Need to merge:
  29 * stuff
  30
  31
  32 == Version Enotif+Eauthent EN+EA v2.00/CVS, 14.12.2004 ==
  33 written by Thomas Gries, Berlin and Markus Arndt, Munich
  34
  35 Executive summary for the impatient reader:
  36
  37 Enotif adds e-mail notification to MediaWiki and sends e-mails
  38 to watching users when a watch-listed page or user_talk page is changed
  39 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454
  40 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Enotif
  41
  42 Eauthent is a mechanism to use a temporary one-time password cycle
  43 to check whether the email address a user has entered is a valid one.
  44 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=866
  45 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Eauthent
  46
  47 The current patch has only been checked for (see DefaultSettings.php):
  48
  49 - php mail()
  50   ( = not using PEAR:Mail() module --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  51   $wgSMTP = false;
  52 - MySQL database
  53   ( = not using PostgreSQL --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  54   $wgDBtype = "mysql";
  55   $wgSearchType = "MyISAM";
  56
  57 - STILL TODO:
  58   NEW (newpageletter) and CORR (minoreditletter) markers needs
  59   corresponding "spacers"
  60
  61 - table user_newtalk dropped; changes on usertalk pages and their
  62   notifications are now fully handled via existing table watchlist
  63   The user interface and behavious is unchanged to previous version.
  64 - updaters.inc for compatibility with older mediawiki tables:
  65   the conversion script converts existing user_newtalk entries
  66   watchlist table entries
  67   (user_newtalk) id ==> (watchlist) NS_USER_TALK:namefromId(id) timestamp=1
  68 - minor bug fixes:
  69   updated marker now correctly shown on watchlist page
  70   watching users number display with enhanced RC view + RCUseModStyle
  71 - wfUrlencode() instead of rawurlencode() in enotif mails
  72 - duplicate enotif code moved from UserTalkUpdate.php and
  73   merged into UserMailer.php and using usermailer() solely
  74 - fixed an enotif mail text error for user names with spaces
  75 - fixed missing part for suppressing watching user number
  76
  77 v1.36:
  78 magic watchlist shows and counts now only the content page, notwithstanding
  79 the content and talk page are stored separately in watchlist.
  80 * bug fixed: rawurlencode for pagetitles in enotif mails
  81 * bug fixed: link to userpages of anonymous user are correct now
  82
  83 * Enotif v1.34
  84  bugs fixed regarding missing $oldid parameter
  85
  86 * v1.33
  87 * Details:
  88  Implements almost all enotif options as user preferences.
  89  These are only shown on the user preference page, if they are globally
  90  enabled by the corresponding admin option in DefaultSettings.php.
  91  Added admin feature to let enotifs appear to come from the page editor.
  92  This facilitates automatic mail sorting and anti-spam filtering; feature was
  93  originally proposed by Nick Triantos, thank you !
  94  Page editor's email address is however only shown, if this user enabled
  95  the option "reveal my email address" in user preferences. Otherwise,
  96  the enotifs appear to come from WikiAdmin as usual (tricky to program,
  97  but simply trust the algorithm. or look into UserMailer.php and
  98  UserTalkPage.php).
  99
 100 * Changes from previous enotif versions
 101 * v1.31 is an improved version with many security and also cosmetic changes
 102  applied after two first reviews by Brion Vibber. v1.31 is basically the same as
 103  the older Enotif v1.30 and v1.22 versions.
 104
 105  Added UseMod style for recent changes view so that only the most recent
 106  change of any page is listed. The (diff) and (hist) still allow to retrieve the
 107  older versions at users' discretion, but the RC view is much cleaner for
 108  trusted environments such as medium-size companies or family wikis.
 109
 110 * Enotif v1.30 redesign after review by Brion Vibber 25.10.2003
 111
 112 * v1.22 "updated (since my last visit)" also shown for users without stored
 113  email address in preferences, so that they can see, what watched pages
 114  have changed.
 115 * show "updated (since my last visit)" markers in RC, history and watchlist
 116 * Systemvariables to suppress updated marker in all views
 117 * show number of watching users in RC and on bottom of articles in
 118  classic skin and in monobook skin
 119 * Systemvariables in DefaultSettings.php to enable or disable features
 120 * v1.21 now suppresses displaying the marker "updated (since my last visit)"
 121  in recent changes view for the older (already visited) versions of watched
 122  pages - i.e. page versions before the enotif was sent do not bear that
 123  marker any longer.
 124 * enotif mails come with a link to the diff view between current and last
 125  visited version of the watching user.
 126 *database structure is changed automatically when installing via the
 127  recommended way (starting index.php and re-using the old database name).
 128         run php /maintenance/update.php
 129  OR see /maintenance/archives/patch-email-notification.sql and apply the
 130  command
 131         ALTER TABLE  watchlist
 132         ADD (wl_notificationtimestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '0');
 133  manually to your database, which does not harm the non notification versions
 134
 135 *adding a page x to the watchlist does automatically add a watch
 136   for the accompanying talk_page talk:x and vice versa;
 137
 138 == MediaWiki 1.4 BETA ==
 139
 140 [Not everything is 100% working in beta yet, the installer needs fixes still.]
 141
 142 Major changes from 1.3.x:
 143 * Support for table prefixes for better sharing with other web apps
 144 * (?) PostgreSQL support
 145 * Optional article validation voting features
 146 * 'Recentchanges Patrol' to mark new edits that haven't yet been viewed
 147 * Support for faster C++ diff module (WikiDiff extension)
 148 * More scary link caching modes
 149 * Old manually maintained log pages replaced with searchable Special:Log
 150 * Skins system more modular: templates and CSS are now in /skins/
 151 * New user preference for limitting the image size for images on image description
 152   pages
 153 * Error pages no more offer edit / talk / watch links (bug #502)
 154 * Allow user to preview article on first edit (bug #530)
 155 * New dark background skin named Amethyst (thanks Sorwena and Sorkhiri)
 156 * [[RFC 1234]] will now make an internal link (bug #479)
 157 * PhpTal skins shown bogus 'What links here' etc on special pages (bug #511)
 158 * Experimental code to manage user and group rights (Special:Userlevels)
 159 * UI language switching
 160 * Adding filter and username exact search match for Special:Listusers (bug #770)
 161 * Special:Listadmins outdated, use Special:Listusers instead (bug #857)
 162 * Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion
 163 * New tag "<gallery>" to generate a table of image thumbnails
 164 * Installer die if it can not write LocalSettings.php (bug #733)
 165 * Various special pages no more show the rss/atom feed links (bug #705)
 166 * Support for external authentication plug-ins
 167 * (bug 114) use category backlinks in Special:Recentchangeslinked
 168 * ... and more!
 169
 170 === Caveats ===
 171
 172 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 173 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 174 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 175 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 176 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 177
 178 The new 'MonoBook' skin is not compatible with PHP 5 due to bugs in the
 179 underlying PHPTAL library. It will be automatically disabled when running
 180 on PHP5; the older look and feel will be used instead.
 181
 182
 183 For notes on 1.3.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 184
 185
 186 === Online documentation ===
 187
 188 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 189 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 190 License:
 191
 192   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents
 193
 194
 195 === Mailing list ===
 196
 197 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 198 wikitech-l list:
 199
 200   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 201
 202
 203 === IRC help ===
 204
 205 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net