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
  25 === New features in 1.17 ===
  26 * (bug 10183) Users can now add personal styles and scripts to all skins via
  27   User:<name>/common.css and /common.js (if user css/js is enabled)
  28 * (bug 22748) Add anchors on Special:ListGroupRights
  29 * (bug 21981) Add parameter 'showfilename' to <gallery> to automatically apply
  30   the names of the individual files within the gallery
  31 * (bug 12797) Add $wgGalleryOptions for adjusting of default gallery display
  32   options
  33 * $wgAllowUserCssPrefs option allows disabling CSS-based preferences; which can
  34   improve page loading speed.
  35 * Future-proof redirection to fragments in Gecko, so things work a little nicer
  36   if they fix <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=516293>.
  37 * Support git:// and mms:// protocols by default for external links
  38 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer unblock themselves without the
  39   'unblockself' permission (which they have by default)
  40 * (bug 18499) Added "enhanced" URL parameter to switch between old and enhanced
  41   changes list
  42 * (bug 22925) "sp-contributions-blocked-notice-anon" message now displayed when
  43   viewing contributions of a blocked IP address
  44 * (bug 22474) {{urlencode:}} now takes an optional second paramter for type of
  45   escaping.
  46
  47 === Bug fixes in 1.17 ===
  48 * (bug 17560) Half-broken deletion moved image files to deletion archive
  49   without updating database
  50 * (bug 22666) Submitting user block form with an invalid user name no longer
  51   throws an error
  52 * (bugs 22665 and 22667) User '0' can now be unblocked and have its block
  53   settings changed
  54 * (bug 22606) The body of e-mail address confirmation message is now different
  55   when the address changed
  56 * (bug 22664) Special:Userrights now accepts '0' as a valid user name
  57 * (bug 5210) preload parser now parses <noinclude>, <includeonly> and redirects
  58 * (bug 22709) IIS7 mishandles redirects generated by OutputPage::output() when
  59   the URL contains a colon.
  60 * (bug 22353) Categorised recent changes now works again
  61 * (bug 22747) "Reveal my e-mail address in notification e-mails" preference is
  62   now only displayed when relevant
  63 * (bug 22772) {{#special:}} parser function now works with subpages
  64 * (bug 18664) Relative URIs in interwiki links cause failed redirects
  65 * (bug 19270) Relative URIs in interwiki links break interwiki transclusion
  66 * (bug 22903) Revdelete log entries now show in the user preferred language.
  67 * (bug 22905) Correctly handle <abbr> followed by ISBN
  68 * (bug 22940) Namespace aliases pointing to main namespace don't work
  69 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer block/unblock other users
  70 * (bug 22876) Avoid possible PHP Notice if $wgDefaultUserOptions is not
  71   correctly set
  72 * (bug 14952) Page titles are renormalized after html entities are removed so
  73   that links with non-NFC character references work correctly.
  74 * (bug 22991) wgUserGroups JavaScript variable now reports * group for
  75   anonymous users instead of null.
  76 * (bug 22627) Remove PHP notice when deleting a page only hidden users edited.
  77 * (bug 21520) Anonymous previews now also gives a warning about not being
  78   logged in (anonpreviewwarning).
  79 * (bug 22935) image/x-ms-bmp mime type added for BMP files
  80 * (bug 23024) Special:ListFiles now escapes file names correctly
  81 * (bug 22867) "View source" tab is now only displayed if there's source text
  82 * (bug 19393) Feeds now format dates in user language rather than content
  83   language
  84 * (bug 22852) "Served in" comment is now the time used to cache a single page
  85   when using rebuildFileCache.php
  86 * (bug 22496) Viewing diff of a redirect page without specifying "oldid"
  87   parameter no longer makes the page displayed as being the redirect target
  88 * (bug 22918) Feed cache keys now use $wgRenderHashAppend
  89 * (bug 21916) Last-Modified header is now correct when outputting cached feed
  90 * (bug 20049) Fixed PHP notice in search highlighter that occurs in some cases
  91 * (bug 23017) Special:Disambiguations now list pages in content namespaces
  92   rather than only main namespace
  93 * (bug 23063) $wgMaxAnimatedGifArea is checked against the total size of all
  94   frames, and $wgMaxImageArea against the size of the first frame, rather than
  95   the other way around.  Both now default to 12.5 megapixels.  Also, images
  96   exceeding $wgMaxImageArea can still be embedded at original size
  97 * (bug 23078) "All public logs" option on Special:Log is now always the first
  98   item
  99 * Special:ChangePassword no longer loads user javascript
 100 * (bug 16817) Group names in user rights log are now singular and in lowercase
 101
 102 === API changes in 1.17 ===
 103 * (bug 22738) Allow filtering by action type on query=logevent
 104 * (bug 22764) uselang parameter for action=parse
 105 * (bug 22944) API: watchlist options are inconsistent
 106 * (bug 22339) "Go" result should be available through the API
 107 * (bug 22868) don't list infinite block expiry date as "now" in API logevents
 108 * (bug 22290) prop=revisions now outputs "comment" field even when comment
 109   is empty, for consistency with list=recentchanges
 110
 111 === Languages updated in 1.17 ===
 112
 113 MediaWiki supports over 330 languages. Many localisations are updated
 114 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 115 changes to languages because of MediaZilla reports.
 116
 117 * Latgalian (ltg) (new)
 118 * Rusyn (rue) (new)
 119
 120 == Compatibility ==
 121
 122 MediaWiki 1.17 requires PHP 5.1 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer
 123 supported.
 124
 125 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 126 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 127
 128
 129 == Upgrading ==
 130
 131 1.17 has several database changes since 1.16, and will not work without schema
 132 updates.
 133
 134 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 135 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 136 database schema changes.
 137
 138 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 139 new database fields are filled with data.
 140
 141 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 142 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 143 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 144
 145 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 146
 147
 148 === Caveats ===
 149
 150 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 151 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 152 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 153 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 154 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 155
 156 For notes on 1.16.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 157
 158
 159 === Online documentation ===
 160
 161 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 162 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 163 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 164 the public domain) :
 165
 166   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 167
 168
 169 === Mailing list ===
 170
 171 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 172 wikitech-l list:
 173
 174   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 175
 176 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 177
 178   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 179
 180 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 181 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 182
 183
 184 === IRC help ===
 185
 186 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net