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