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 1.15 ==
   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 1.15 ===
  22
  23 * Added $wgNewPasswordExpiry, to specify an expiry time (in seconds) to
  24   temporary passwords
  25 * Added $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm to choose the Search form behavior/look
  26 * Added $wgNoFollowDomainExceptions to allow exempting particular domain names
  27   from rel="nofollow" on external links
  28
  29 === New features in 1.15 ===
  30
  31 * (bug 2242) Add an expiry time to temporary passwords
  32 * (bug 9947) Add PROTECTIONLEVEL parser function to return the protection level
  33   for the current page for a given action
  34 * (bug 17002) Add &minor= and &summary= as parameters in the url when editing,
  35   to automatically add a summary or a minor edit.
  36 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now accept multiletter pad characters
  37 * When using 'UserCreateForm' hook to add new checkboxes into
  38   Special:UserLogin/signup, the messages can now contain HTML to allow
  39   hyperlinking to the site's Terms of Service page, for example
  40 * Add new hook 'UserLoadFromDatabase' that is called while loading a user
  41   from the database.
  42 * (bug 17045) Options on the block form are prefilled with the options of the
  43   existing block when modifying an existing block.
  44 * (bug 17055) "(show/hide)" links to Special:RevisionDelete now use a CSS class
  45   rather than hardcoded HTML tags
  46 * Added new hook 'WantedPages::getSQL' into SpecialWantedpages.php to allow
  47   extensions to alter the SQL query which is used to get the list of wanted
  48   pages
  49 * (bugs 16957/16969) Add show/hide to preferences for RC patrol options on
  50   specialpages
  51 * (bug 11443) Auto-noindex user/user talk pages for blocked user
  52 * (bug 11644) Add $wgMaxRedirects variable to control how many redirects are
  53   recursed through until the "destination" page is reached.
  54 * Add $wgInvalidRedirectTargets variable to prevent redirects to certain
  55   special pages.
  56 * Use HTML5 rel attributes for some links, where appropriate
  57 * Added optional alternative Search form look - Go button & Advanced search
  58   link instead of Go button & Search button
  59 * (bug 2314) Add links to user custom CSS and JS to Special:Preferences
  60 * More helpful error message on raw page access if PHP_SELF isn't set
  61 * (bug 13040) Gender switch in user preferences
  62 * (bug 13040) {{GENDER:}} magic word for interface messages
  63 * (bug 3301) Optionally sort user list according to account creation time
  64 * Remote description pages for foreign file repos are now fetched in the
  65   content language.
  66 * (bug 17180) If $wgUseFileCache is enabled, $wgShowIPinHeader is automatically
  67   set to false.
  68 * (bug 16604) Mark non-patrolled edits in feeds with "!"
  69 * (bug 16604) Show title/rev in IRC for patrol log
  70 * (bug 16854) Whether a page is being parsed as a preview or section preview
  71   can now be determined and set with ParserOptions.
  72 * Wrap message 'confirmemail_pending' into a div with CSS classes "error" and
  73   "mw-confirmemail-pending"
  74 * Local redirects to foreign images are now displayed on the ImagePage when
  75   viewing on the local wiki.
  76
  77 === Bug fixes in 1.15 ===
  78 * (bug 16968) Special:Upload no longer throws useless warnings.
  79 * (bug 17000) Special:RevisionDelete now checks if the database is locked
  80   before trying to delete the edit.
  81 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now handle multibyte characters correctly
  82 * (bug 17010) maintenance/namespaceDupes.php now add the suffix recursively if
  83   the destination page exists
  84 * (bug 17035) Special:Upload now fails gracefully if PHP's file_uploads has
  85   been disabled
  86 * Fixing the caching issue by using -{T|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  87   LanguageConverter class)
  88 * Improving the efficiency by using -{A|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  89   LanguageConverter class)
  90 * (bug 17054) Added more descriptive errors in Special:RevisionDelete
  91 * (bug 11527) Diff on page with one revision shows "Next" link to same diff
  92 * (bug 8065) Fix summary forcing for new pages
  93 * (bug 10569) redirects to Special:Mypage and Special:Mytalk are no longer
  94   allowed by default. Change $wgInvalidRedirectTargets to re-enable.
  95 * (bug 3043) Feed links of given page are now preceded by standard feed icon
  96 * (bug 17150) escapeLike now escapes literal \ properly
  97 * Inconsistent use of sysop, admin, administrator in system messages changed
  98   to 'administrator'
  99 * (bug 14423) Check block flag validity for block logging
 100 * DB transaction and slave-lag avoidance tweaks for Email Notifications
 101 * (bug 17104) Removed [Mark as patrolled] link for already patrolled revisions
 102 * (bug 17106) Added 'redirect=no' and 'mw-redirect' class to redirects at
 103   "user contributions"
 104 * Rollback links on new pages removed from "user contributions"
 105 * (bug 15811) Re-upload form tweaks: license fields removed, destination locked,
 106   comment label uses better message
 107 * Whole HTML validation ($wgValidateAllHtml) now works with external tidy
 108 * Parser tests no longer fail when $wgExternalLinkTarget is set in LocalSettings
 109 * (bug 15391) catch DBQueryErrors on external storage insertion. This avoids error
 110   messages on save were the edit in fact is saved.
 111 * (bug 17184) Remove duplicate "z" accesskey in MonoBook
 112 * Parser tests no longer fail when $wgAlwaysUseTidy is set in LocalSettings.php
 113 * Removed redundant dupe warnings on reupload for the same title. Dupe warnings
 114   for identical files at different titles are still given.
 115 * Add 'change tagging' facility, where changes can be tagged internally with
 116   certain designations, which are displayed on various summaries of changes, and
 117   the entries can be styled with CSS.
 118 * (bug 17207) Fix regression breaking category page display on PHP 5.1
 119 * Categoryfinder utility class no longer fails on invalid input or gives wrong
 120   results for category names that include pseudo-namespaces
 121 * (bug 17252) Galician numbering format
 122
 123 == API changes in 1.15 ==
 124 * (bug 16858) Revamped list=deletedrevs to make listing deleted contributions
 125   and listing all deleted pages possible
 126 * (bug 16844) Added clcategories parameter to prop=categories
 127 * (bug 17025) Add "fileextension" parameter to meta=siteinfo&siprop=
 128 * (bug 17048) Show the 'new' flag in list=usercontribs for the revision that
 129   created the page, even if it's not the top revision
 130 * (bug 17069) Added ucshow=patrolled|!patrolled to list=usercontribs
 131 * action=delete respects $wgDeleteRevisionsLimit and the bigdelete user right
 132 * (bug 15949) Add undo functionality to action=edit
 133 * (bug 16483) Kill filesort in ApiQueryBacklinks caused by missing parentheses.
 134   Building query properly now using makeList()
 135 * Add "check" parameter to action=email
 136
 137 === Languages updated in 1.15 ===
 138
 139 MediaWiki supports over 300 languages. Many localisations are updated
 140 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed.
 141
 142 * Austrian German (de-at) (new)
 143 * Swiss Standard German (de-ch) (new)
 144 * Literary Chinese (lzh) (new)
 145 * Võro (vro) (renamed from fiu-vro)
 146 * (bug 17151) Add magic word alias for #redirect for Vietnamese
 147
 148 == Compatibility ==
 149
 150 MediaWiki 1.15 requires PHP 5 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
 151
 152 PHP 5.0.x fails on 64-bit systems due to serious bugs with array processing:
 153 http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34879
 154 Upgrade affected systems to PHP 5.1 or higher.
 155
 156 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 157 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 158
 159
 160 == Upgrading ==
 161
 162 1.15 has several database changes since 1.14, and will not work without schema
 163 updates.
 164
 165 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 166 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 167 database schema changes.
 168
 169 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 170 new database fields are filled with data.
 171
 172 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 173 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 174 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 175
 176 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 177
 178
 179 === Caveats ===
 180
 181 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 182 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 183 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 184 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 185 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 186
 187 For notes on 1.14.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 188
 189
 190 === Online documentation ===
 191
 192 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 193 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 194 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 195 the public domain) :
 196
 197   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 198
 199
 200 === Mailing list ===
 201
 202 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 203 wikitech-l list:
 204
 205   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 206
 207 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 208
 209   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 210
 211 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 212 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 213
 214
 215 === IRC help ===
 216
 217 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net