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 * $wgLogAutocreatedAccounts controls whether autocreation of accounts is logged
  25   to new users log.
  26 * $wgAllowImageTag can be set to true to whitelist the <img> tag in wikitext.
  27
  28 === New features in 1.17 ===
  29 * (bug 10183) Users can now add personal styles and scripts to all skins via
  30   User:<name>/common.css and /common.js (if user css/js is enabled)
  31 * (bug 22748) Add anchors on Special:ListGroupRights
  32 * (bug 21981) Add parameter 'showfilename' to <gallery> to automatically apply
  33   the names of the individual files within the gallery
  34 * (bug 12797) Add $wgGalleryOptions for adjusting of default gallery display
  35   options
  36 * $wgAllowUserCssPrefs option allows disabling CSS-based preferences; which can
  37   improve page loading speed.
  38 * Future-proof redirection to fragments in Gecko, so things work a little nicer
  39   if they fix <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=516293>.
  40 * Support git:// and mms:// protocols by default for external links
  41 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer unblock themselves without the
  42   'unblockself' permission (which they have by default)
  43 * (bug 18499) Added "enhanced" URL parameter to switch between old and enhanced
  44   changes list
  45 * (bug 22925) "sp-contributions-blocked-notice-anon" message now displayed when
  46   viewing contributions of a blocked IP address
  47 * (bug 22474) {{urlencode:}} now takes an optional second paramter for type of
  48   escaping.
  49 * Special:Listfiles now supports a username parameter
  50 * Special:Random carries over query string parameters
  51 * (bug 23206) Add Special::Search hook for detecting successful "Go"
  52 * When visiting a "red link" of a deleted file, a deletion and move log excerpt
  53   is provided on the Upload form.
  54 * (bug 22647) Add category details in search results.
  55
  56 === Bug fixes in 1.17 ===
  57 * (bug 17560) Half-broken deletion moved image files to deletion archive
  58   without updating database
  59 * (bug 22666) Submitting user block form with an invalid user name no longer
  60   throws an error
  61 * (bugs 22665 and 22667) User '0' can now be unblocked and have its block
  62   settings changed
  63 * (bug 22606) The body of e-mail address confirmation message is now different
  64   when the address changed
  65 * (bug 22664) Special:Userrights now accepts '0' as a valid user name
  66 * (bug 5210) preload parser now parses <noinclude>, <includeonly> and redirects
  67 * (bug 22709) IIS7 mishandles redirects generated by OutputPage::output() when
  68   the URL contains a colon.
  69 * (bug 22353) Categorised recent changes now works again
  70 * (bug 22747) "Reveal my e-mail address in notification e-mails" preference is
  71   now only displayed when relevant
  72 * (bug 22772) {{#special:}} parser function now works with subpages
  73 * (bug 18664) Relative URIs in interwiki links cause failed redirects
  74 * (bug 19270) Relative URIs in interwiki links break interwiki transclusion
  75 * (bug 22903) Revdelete log entries now show in the user preferred language.
  76 * (bug 22905) Correctly handle <abbr> followed by ISBN
  77 * (bug 22940) Namespace aliases pointing to main namespace don't work
  78 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer block/unblock other users
  79 * (bug 22876) Avoid possible PHP Notice if $wgDefaultUserOptions is not
  80   correctly set
  81 * (bug 14952) Page titles are renormalized after html entities are removed so
  82   that links with non-NFC character references work correctly.
  83 * (bug 22991) wgUserGroups JavaScript variable now reports * group for
  84   anonymous users instead of null.
  85 * (bug 22627) Remove PHP notice when deleting a page only hidden users edited.
  86 * (bug 21520) Anonymous previews now also gives a warning about not being
  87   logged in (anonpreviewwarning).
  88 * (bug 22935) image/x-ms-bmp mime type added for BMP files
  89 * (bug 23024) Special:ListFiles now escapes file names correctly
  90 * (bug 22867) "View source" tab is now only displayed if there's source text
  91 * (bug 19393) Feeds now format dates in user language rather than content
  92   language
  93 * (bug 22852) "Served in" comment is now the time used to cache a single page
  94   when using rebuildFileCache.php
  95 * (bug 22496) Viewing diff of a redirect page without specifying "oldid"
  96   parameter no longer makes the page displayed as being the redirect target
  97 * (bug 22918) Feed cache keys now use $wgRenderHashAppend
  98 * (bug 21916) Last-Modified header is now correct when outputting cached feed
  99 * (bug 20049) Fixed PHP notice in search highlighter that occurs in some cases
 100 * (bug 23017) Special:Disambiguations now list pages in content namespaces
 101   rather than only main namespace
 102 * (bug 23063) $wgMaxAnimatedGifArea is checked against the total size of all
 103   frames, and $wgMaxImageArea against the size of the first frame, rather than
 104   the other way around.  Both now default to 12.5 megapixels.  Also, images
 105   exceeding $wgMaxImageArea can still be embedded at original size
 106 * (bug 23078) "All public logs" option on Special:Log is now always the first
 107   item
 108 * (bug 16817) Group names in user rights log are now singular and in lowercase
 109 * Special:Preferences no longer crashes if the wiki default date formatting
 110   style is not valid for the user's interface language
 111 * (bug 23167) Check the watch checkbox by default if the watchcreations
 112   preference is set
 113 * Maintenance script cleanupTitles is now able to fix titles stored
 114 in a negative namespace (which is invalid).
 115 * (bug 19858) Removed obsolete <big> in interface messages.
 116 * (bug 21456) "Bad title" error when showing non-local interwiki pages no longer
 117   displays incorrect tabs
 118 * (bug 23190) Improved math representation for text browsers.
 119 * (bug 22015) Improved upload-by-url error handling and error display
 120 * (bug 17941) $wgMaxUploadSize is now honored by all upload sources
 121 * (bug 23080) New usernames now limited to 235 bytes so that custom skin files
 122   work.
 123 * (bug 23075) Correct MediaTransformError default width in gallery.
 124
 125 === API changes in 1.17 ===
 126 * (bug 22738) Allow filtering by action type on query=logevent
 127 * (bug 22764) uselang parameter for action=parse
 128 * (bug 22944) API: watchlist options are inconsistent
 129 * (bug 22339) "Go" result should be available through the API
 130 * (bug 22868) don't list infinite block expiry date as "now" in API logevents
 131 * (bug 22290) prop=revisions now outputs "comment" field even when comment
 132   is empty, for consistency with list=recentchanges
 133
 134 === Languages updated in 1.17 ===
 135
 136 MediaWiki supports over 330 languages. Many localisations are updated
 137 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 138 changes to languages because of MediaZilla reports.
 139
 140 * Latgalian (ltg) (new)
 141 * Rusyn (rue) (new)
 142
 143 * (bug 23156) Commafy and search normalization updated for Belarusian
 144   (Taraškievica)
 145
 146 == Compatibility ==
 147
 148 MediaWiki 1.17 requires PHP 5.1 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer
 149 supported.
 150
 151 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 152 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 153
 154
 155 == Upgrading ==
 156
 157 1.17 has several database changes since 1.16, and will not work without schema
 158 updates.
 159
 160 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 161 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 162 database schema changes.
 163
 164 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 165 new database fields are filled with data.
 166
 167 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 168 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 169 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 170
 171 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 172
 173
 174 === Caveats ===
 175
 176 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 177 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 178 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 179 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 180 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 181
 182 For notes on 1.16.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 MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 189 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 190 the public domain) :
 191
 192   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 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://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 201
 202 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 203
 204   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 205
 206 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 207 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 208
 209
 210 === IRC help ===
 211
 212 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net