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
  27 === New features in 1.17 ===
  28 * (bug 10183) Users can now add personal styles and scripts to all skins via
  29   User:<name>/common.css and /common.js (if user css/js is enabled)
  30 * (bug 22748) Add anchors on Special:ListGroupRights
  31 * (bug 21981) Add parameter 'showfilename' to <gallery> to automatically apply
  32   the names of the individual files within the gallery
  33 * (bug 12797) Add $wgGalleryOptions for adjusting of default gallery display
  34   options
  35 * $wgAllowUserCssPrefs option allows disabling CSS-based preferences; which can
  36   improve page loading speed.
  37 * Future-proof redirection to fragments in Gecko, so things work a little nicer
  38   if they fix <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=516293>.
  39 * Support git:// and mms:// protocols by default for external links
  40 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer unblock themselves without the
  41   'unblockself' permission (which they have by default)
  42 * (bug 18499) Added "enhanced" URL parameter to switch between old and enhanced
  43   changes list
  44 * (bug 22925) "sp-contributions-blocked-notice-anon" message now displayed when
  45   viewing contributions of a blocked IP address
  46 * (bug 22474) {{urlencode:}} now takes an optional second paramter for type of
  47   escaping.
  48 * Special:Listfiles now supports a username parameter
  49
  50 === Bug fixes in 1.17 ===
  51 * (bug 17560) Half-broken deletion moved image files to deletion archive
  52   without updating database
  53 * (bug 22666) Submitting user block form with an invalid user name no longer
  54   throws an error
  55 * (bugs 22665 and 22667) User '0' can now be unblocked and have its block
  56   settings changed
  57 * (bug 22606) The body of e-mail address confirmation message is now different
  58   when the address changed
  59 * (bug 22664) Special:Userrights now accepts '0' as a valid user name
  60 * (bug 5210) preload parser now parses <noinclude>, <includeonly> and redirects
  61 * (bug 22709) IIS7 mishandles redirects generated by OutputPage::output() when
  62   the URL contains a colon.
  63 * (bug 22353) Categorised recent changes now works again
  64 * (bug 22747) "Reveal my e-mail address in notification e-mails" preference is
  65   now only displayed when relevant
  66 * (bug 22772) {{#special:}} parser function now works with subpages
  67 * (bug 18664) Relative URIs in interwiki links cause failed redirects
  68 * (bug 19270) Relative URIs in interwiki links break interwiki transclusion
  69 * (bug 22903) Revdelete log entries now show in the user preferred language.
  70 * (bug 22905) Correctly handle <abbr> followed by ISBN
  71 * (bug 22940) Namespace aliases pointing to main namespace don't work
  72 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer block/unblock other users
  73 * (bug 22876) Avoid possible PHP Notice if $wgDefaultUserOptions is not
  74   correctly set
  75 * (bug 14952) Page titles are renormalized after html entities are removed so
  76   that links with non-NFC character references work correctly.
  77 * (bug 22991) wgUserGroups JavaScript variable now reports * group for
  78   anonymous users instead of null.
  79 * (bug 22627) Remove PHP notice when deleting a page only hidden users edited.
  80 * (bug 21520) Anonymous previews now also gives a warning about not being
  81   logged in (anonpreviewwarning).
  82 * (bug 22935) image/x-ms-bmp mime type added for BMP files
  83 * (bug 23024) Special:ListFiles now escapes file names correctly
  84 * (bug 22867) "View source" tab is now only displayed if there's source text
  85 * (bug 19393) Feeds now format dates in user language rather than content
  86   language
  87 * (bug 22852) "Served in" comment is now the time used to cache a single page
  88   when using rebuildFileCache.php
  89 * (bug 22496) Viewing diff of a redirect page without specifying "oldid"
  90   parameter no longer makes the page displayed as being the redirect target
  91 * (bug 22918) Feed cache keys now use $wgRenderHashAppend
  92 * (bug 21916) Last-Modified header is now correct when outputting cached feed
  93 * (bug 20049) Fixed PHP notice in search highlighter that occurs in some cases
  94 * (bug 23017) Special:Disambiguations now list pages in content namespaces
  95   rather than only main namespace
  96 * (bug 23063) $wgMaxAnimatedGifArea is checked against the total size of all
  97   frames, and $wgMaxImageArea against the size of the first frame, rather than
  98   the other way around.  Both now default to 12.5 megapixels.  Also, images
  99   exceeding $wgMaxImageArea can still be embedded at original size
 100 * (bug 23078) "All public logs" option on Special:Log is now always the first
 101   item
 102 * (bug 16817) Group names in user rights log are now singular and in lowercase
 103 * Special:Preferences no longer crashes if the wiki default date formatting
 104   style is not valid for the user's interface language
 105 * (bug 23167) Check the watch checkbox by default if the watchcreations
 106   preference is set
 107 * Maintenance script cleanupTitles is now able to fix titles stored
 108 in a negative namespace (which is invalid).
 109 * (bug 19858) Removed obsolete <big> in interface messages.
 110 * (bug 21456) "Bad title" error when showing non-local interwiki pages no longer
 111   displays incorrect tabs
 112
 113 === API changes in 1.17 ===
 114 * (bug 22738) Allow filtering by action type on query=logevent
 115 * (bug 22764) uselang parameter for action=parse
 116 * (bug 22944) API: watchlist options are inconsistent
 117 * (bug 22339) "Go" result should be available through the API
 118 * (bug 22868) don't list infinite block expiry date as "now" in API logevents
 119 * (bug 22290) prop=revisions now outputs "comment" field even when comment
 120   is empty, for consistency with list=recentchanges
 121
 122 === Languages updated in 1.17 ===
 123
 124 MediaWiki supports over 330 languages. Many localisations are updated
 125 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 126 changes to languages because of MediaZilla reports.
 127
 128 * Latgalian (ltg) (new)
 129 * Rusyn (rue) (new)
 130
 131 * (bug 23156) Commafy and search normalization updated for Belarusian
 132   (Taraškievica)
 133
 134 == Compatibility ==
 135
 136 MediaWiki 1.17 requires PHP 5.1 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer
 137 supported.
 138
 139 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 140 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 141
 142
 143 == Upgrading ==
 144
 145 1.17 has several database changes since 1.16, and will not work without schema
 146 updates.
 147
 148 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 149 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 150 database schema changes.
 151
 152 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 153 new database fields are filled with data.
 154
 155 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 156 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 157 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 158
 159 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 160
 161
 162 === Caveats ===
 163
 164 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 165 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 166 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 167 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 168 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 169
 170 For notes on 1.16.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 171
 172
 173 === Online documentation ===
 174
 175 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 176 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 177 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 178 the public domain) :
 179
 180   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 181
 182
 183 === Mailing list ===
 184
 185 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 186 wikitech-l list:
 187
 188   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 189
 190 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 191
 192   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 193
 194 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 195 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 196
 197
 198 === IRC help ===
 199
 200 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net