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
  26 === New features in 1.15 ===
  27
  28 * (bug 2242) Add an expiry time to temporary passwords
  29 * Special:Upload can now have a custom upload message instead of uploadtext by
  30   passing "uploadmsg" parameter in the url
  31 * (bug 9947) Add PROTECTIONLEVEL parser function to return the protection level
  32   for the current page for a given action
  33 * (bug 17002) Add &minor= and &summary= as parameters in the url when editing,
  34   to automatically add a summary or a minor edit.
  35 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now accept multiletter pad characters
  36 * When using 'UserCreateForm' hook to add new checkboxes into
  37   Special:UserLogin/signup, the messages can now contain HTML to allow
  38   hyperlinking to the site's Terms of Service page, for example
  39 * Add new hook 'UserLoadFromDatabase' that is called while loading a user
  40   from the database.
  41 * (bug 17045) Options on the block form are prefilled with the options of the
  42   existing block when modifying an existing block.
  43 * (bug 17055) "(show/hide)" links to Special:RevisionDelete now use a CSS class
  44   rather than hardcoded HTML tags
  45 * Added new hook 'WantedPages::getSQL' into SpecialWantedpages.php to allow
  46   extensions to alter the SQL query which is used to get the list of wanted
  47   pages
  48 * (bugs 16957/16969) Add show/hide to preferences for RC patrol options on
  49   specialpages
  50 * (bug 11443) Auto-noindex user/user talk pages for blocked user
  51 * (bug 11644) Add $wgMaxRedirects variable to control how many redirects are recursed
  52   through until the "destination" page is reached.
  53 * Add $wgInvalidRedirectTargets variable to prevent redirects to certain special pages.
  54
  55 === Bug fixes in 1.15 ===
  56 * (bug 16968) Special:Upload no longer throws useless warnings.
  57 * (bug 17000) Special:RevisionDelete now checks if the database is locked before
  58   trying to delete the edit.
  59 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now handle multibyte characters correctly
  60 * (bug 17010) maintenance/namespaceDupes.php now add the suffix recursively if
  61   the destination page exists
  62 * (bug 17035) Special:Upload now fails gracefully if PHP's file_uploads has been
  63   disabled
  64 * Fixing the caching issue by using -{T|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  65   LanguageConverter class)
  66 * Improving the efficiency by using -{A|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  67   LanguageConverter class)
  68 * (bug 17054) Added more descriptive errors in Special:RevisionDelete
  69 * (bug 11527) Diff on page with one revision shows "Next" link to same diff
  70 * (bug 15936) New page's patrol button should always be visible
  71 * (bug 8065) Fix summary forcing for new pages
  72 * (bug 10569) redirects to Special:Mypage and Special:Mytalk are no longer allowed
  73   by default. Change $wgInvalidRedirectTargets to re-enable.
  74
  75 == API changes in 1.15 ==
  76 * (bug 16858) Revamped list=deletedrevs to make listing deleted contributions
  77   and listing all deleted pages possible
  78 * (bug 16844) Added clcategories parameter to prop=categories
  79 * (bug 17025) Add "fileextension" parameter to meta=siteinfo&siprop=
  80 * (bug 17048) Show the 'new' flag in list=usercontribs for the revision that
  81   created the page, even if it's not the top revision
  82 * (bug 17069) Added ucshow=patrolled|!patrolled to list=usercontribs
  83 * action=delete respects $wgDeleteRevisionsLimit and the bigdelete user right
  84
  85 === Languages updated in 1.15 ===
  86
  87 MediaWiki supports over 300 languages. Many localisations are updated
  88 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed.
  89
  90 * Late Time Chinese (ltc) (new)
  91 * Literary Chinese (lzh) (new)
  92 * Old Chinese (och) (new)
  93
  94 == Compatibility ==
  95
  96 MediaWiki 1.15 requires PHP 5 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
  97
  98 PHP 5.0.x fails on 64-bit systems due to serious bugs with array processing:
  99 http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34879
 100 Upgrade affected systems to PHP 5.1 or higher.
 101
 102 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 103 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 104
 105
 106 == Upgrading ==
 107
 108 1.15 has several database changes since 1.14, and will not work without schema
 109 updates.
 110
 111 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 112 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 113 database schema changes.
 114
 115 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 116 new database fields are filled with data.
 117
 118 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 119 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 120 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 121
 122 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 123
 124
 125 === Caveats ===
 126
 127 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 128 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 129 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 130 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 131 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 132
 133 For notes on 1.14.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 134
 135
 136 === Online documentation ===
 137
 138 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 139 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 140 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 141 the public domain) :
 142
 143   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 144
 145
 146 === Mailing list ===
 147
 148 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 149 wikitech-l list:
 150
 151   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 152
 153 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 154
 155   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 156
 157 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 158 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 159
 160
 161 === IRC help ===
 162
 163 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net