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 510): Special:Randompage now works for other namespaces than NS_MAIN.
  20 * (bug 1015) support for the full wikisyntax in <gallery> captions.
  21 * (bug 1105) A "Destination filename" (save as) added to Special:Upload Upload.
  22 * (bug 1352) Images on description pages now get thumbnailed regardless of whether the thumbnail is larger than the original.
  23 * (bug 1662) A new magicword, {{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}} returns the abbreviation of the current month
  24 * (bug 1668) 'Date format' supported for other languages than English, see:
  25   http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2005-March/028364.html
  26 * (bug 1739) A new magicword, {{REVISIONID}} give you the article or diff database
  27   revision id, useful for proper citation.
  28 * (bug 1998) Updated the Russian translation.
  29 * It's now possible to invert the namespace selection at Special:Allpages and Special:Contributions
  30 * No longer using sorbs.net to check for open proxies by default.
  31 * What was $wgDisableUploads is now $wgEnableUploads, and should be set to true if one wishes to enable uploads.
  32 * Supplying a reason for a block is no longer mandatory
  33 * Language conversion support for category pages
  34 * ...and more!
  35
  36 Need to merge:
  37 * stuff
  38
  39
  40 == Version Enotif+Eauthent EN+EA v2.00/CVS, 14.12.2004 ==
  41 written by Thomas Gries, Berlin and Markus Arndt, Munich
  42
  43 Executive summary for the impatient reader:
  44
  45 Enotif adds e-mail notification to MediaWiki and sends e-mails
  46 to watching users when a watch-listed page or user_talk page is changed
  47 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454
  48 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Enotif
  49
  50 Eauthent is a mechanism to use a temporary one-time password cycle
  51 to check whether the email address a user has entered is a valid one.
  52 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=866
  53 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Eauthent
  54
  55 The current patch has only been checked for (see DefaultSettings.php):
  56
  57 - php mail()
  58   ( = not using PEAR:Mail() module --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  59   $wgSMTP = false;
  60 - MySQL database
  61   ( = not using PostgreSQL --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  62   $wgDBtype = "mysql";
  63   $wgSearchType = "MyISAM";
  64
  65 - STILL TODO:
  66   NEW (newpageletter) and CORR (minoreditletter) markers needs
  67   corresponding "spacers"
  68
  69 - table user_newtalk dropped; changes on usertalk pages and their
  70   notifications are now fully handled via existing table watchlist
  71   The user interface and behavious is unchanged to previous version.
  72 - updaters.inc for compatibility with older mediawiki tables:
  73   the conversion script converts existing user_newtalk entries
  74   watchlist table entries
  75   (user_newtalk) id ==> (watchlist) NS_USER_TALK:namefromId(id) timestamp=1
  76 - minor bug fixes:
  77   updated marker now correctly shown on watchlist page
  78   watching users number display with enhanced RC view + RCUseModStyle
  79 - wfUrlencode() instead of rawurlencode() in enotif mails
  80 - duplicate enotif code moved from UserTalkUpdate.php and
  81   merged into UserMailer.php and using usermailer() solely
  82 - fixed an enotif mail text error for user names with spaces
  83 - fixed missing part for suppressing watching user number
  84
  85 v1.36:
  86 magic watchlist shows and counts now only the content page, notwithstanding
  87 the content and talk page are stored separately in watchlist.
  88 * bug fixed: rawurlencode for pagetitles in enotif mails
  89 * bug fixed: link to userpages of anonymous user are correct now
  90
  91 * Enotif v1.34
  92  bugs fixed regarding missing $oldid parameter
  93
  94 * v1.33
  95 * Details:
  96  Implements almost all enotif options as user preferences.
  97  These are only shown on the user preference page, if they are globally
  98  enabled by the corresponding admin option in DefaultSettings.php.
  99  Added admin feature to let enotifs appear to come from the page editor.
 100  This facilitates automatic mail sorting and anti-spam filtering; feature was
 101  originally proposed by Nick Triantos, thank you !
 102  Page editor's email address is however only shown, if this user enabled
 103  the option "reveal my email address" in user preferences. Otherwise,
 104  the enotifs appear to come from WikiAdmin as usual (tricky to program,
 105  but simply trust the algorithm. or look into UserMailer.php and
 106  UserTalkPage.php).
 107
 108 * Changes from previous enotif versions
 109 * v1.31 is an improved version with many security and also cosmetic changes
 110  applied after two first reviews by Brion Vibber. v1.31 is basically the same as
 111  the older Enotif v1.30 and v1.22 versions.
 112
 113  Added UseMod style for recent changes view so that only the most recent
 114  change of any page is listed. The (diff) and (hist) still allow to retrieve the
 115  older versions at users' discretion, but the RC view is much cleaner for
 116  trusted environments such as medium-size companies or family wikis.
 117
 118 * Enotif v1.30 redesign after review by Brion Vibber 25.10.2003
 119
 120 * v1.22 "updated (since my last visit)" also shown for users without stored
 121  email address in preferences, so that they can see, what watched pages
 122  have changed.
 123 * show "updated (since my last visit)" markers in RC, history and watchlist
 124 * Systemvariables to suppress updated marker in all views
 125 * show number of watching users in RC and on bottom of articles in
 126  classic skin and in monobook skin
 127 * Systemvariables in DefaultSettings.php to enable or disable features
 128 * v1.21 now suppresses displaying the marker "updated (since my last visit)"
 129  in recent changes view for the older (already visited) versions of watched
 130  pages - i.e. page versions before the enotif was sent do not bear that
 131  marker any longer.
 132 * enotif mails come with a link to the diff view between current and last
 133  visited version of the watching user.
 134 *database structure is changed automatically when installing via the
 135  recommended way (starting index.php and re-using the old database name).
 136         run php /maintenance/update.php
 137  OR see /maintenance/archives/patch-email-notification.sql and apply the
 138  command
 139         ALTER TABLE  watchlist
 140         ADD (wl_notificationtimestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '0');
 141  manually to your database, which does not harm the non notification versions
 142
 143 *adding a page x to the watchlist does automatically add a watch
 144   for the accompanying talk_page talk:x and vice versa;
 145
 146 == MediaWiki 1.4 BETA ==
 147
 148 [Not everything is 100% working in beta yet, the installer needs fixes still.]
 149
 150 Major changes from 1.3.x:
 151 * Support for table prefixes for better sharing with other web apps
 152 * (?) PostgreSQL support
 153 * Optional article validation voting features
 154 * 'Recentchanges Patrol' to mark new edits that haven't yet been viewed
 155 * Support for faster C++ diff module (WikiDiff extension)
 156 * More scary link caching modes
 157 * Old manually maintained log pages replaced with searchable Special:Log
 158 * Skins system more modular: templates and CSS are now in /skins/
 159 * New user preference for limitting the image size for images on image description
 160   pages
 161 * Error pages no more offer edit / talk / watch links (bug #502)
 162 * Allow user to preview article on first edit (bug #530)
 163 * New dark background skin named Amethyst (thanks Sorwena and Sorkhiri)
 164 * [[RFC 1234]] will now make an internal link (bug #479)
 165 * PhpTal skins shown bogus 'What links here' etc on special pages (bug #511)
 166 * Experimental code to manage user and group rights (Special:Userlevels)
 167 * UI language switching
 168 * Adding filter and username exact search match for Special:Listusers (bug #770)
 169 * Special:Listadmins outdated, use Special:Listusers instead (bug #857)
 170 * Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion
 171 * New tag "<gallery>" to generate a table of image thumbnails
 172 * Installer die if it can not write LocalSettings.php (bug #733)
 173 * Various special pages no more show the rss/atom feed links (bug #705)
 174 * Support for external authentication plug-ins
 175 * (bug 114) use category backlinks in Special:Recentchangeslinked
 176 * ... and more!
 177
 178 === Caveats ===
 179
 180 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 181 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 182 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 183 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 184 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 185
 186 The new 'MonoBook' skin is not compatible with PHP 5 due to bugs in the
 187 underlying PHPTAL library. It will be automatically disabled when running
 188 on PHP5; the older look and feel will be used instead.
 189
 190
 191 For notes on 1.3.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 192
 193
 194 === Online documentation ===
 195
 196 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 197 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 198 License:
 199
 200   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents
 201
 202
 203 === Mailing list ===
 204
 205 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 206 wikitech-l list:
 207
 208   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 209
 210
 211 === IRC help ===
 212
 213 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net