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
  43 === Bug fixes in 1.17 ===
  44 * (bug 17560) Half-broken deletion moved image files to deletion archive
  45   without updating database
  46 * (bug 22666) Submitting user block form with an invalid user name no longer
  47   throws an error
  48 * (bugs 22665 and 22667) User '0' can now be unblocked and have its block
  49   settings changed
  50 * (bug 22606) The body of e-mail address confirmation message is now different
  51   when the address changed
  52 * (bug 22664) Special:Userrights now accepts '0' as a valid user name
  53 * (bug 5210) preload parser now parses <noinclude>, <includeonly> and redirects
  54 * (bug 22709) IIS7 mishandles redirects generated by OutputPage::output() when
  55   the URL contains a colon.
  56 * (bug 22353) Categorised recent changes now works again
  57 * (bug 22747) "Reveal my e-mail address in notification e-mails" preference is
  58   now only displayed when relevant
  59 * (bug 22772) {{#special:}} parser function now works with subpages
  60 * (bug 18664) Relative URIs in interwiki links cause failed redirects
  61 * (bug 19270) Relative URIs in interwiki links break interwiki transclusion
  62 * (bug 22903) Revdelete log entries now show in the user preferred language.
  63 * (bug 22905) Correctly handle <abbr> followed by ISBN
  64 * (bug 22940) Namespace aliases pointing to main namespace don't work
  65 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer block/unblock other users
  66 * (bug 22876) Avoid possible PHP Notice if $wgDefaultUserOptions is not
  67   correctly set
  68 * (bug 14952) Page titles are renormalized after html entities are removed so
  69   that links with non-NFC character references work correctly.
  70 * (bug 22991) wgUserGroups JavaScript variable now reports * group for
  71   anonymous users instead of null.
  72 * (bug 22627) Remove PHP notice when deleting a page only hidden users edited.
  73 * (bug 21520) Anonymous previews now also gives a warning about not being
  74   logged in (anonpreviewwarning).
  75 * (bug 22935) image/x-ms-bmp mime type added for BMP files
  76 * (bug 23024) Special:ListFiles now escapes file names correctly
  77 * (bug 22867) "View source" tab is now only displayed if there's source text
  78 * (bug 19393) Feeds now format dates in user language rather than content
  79   language
  80 * (bug 22852) "Served in" comment is now the time used to cache a single page
  81   when using rebuildFileCache.php
  82 * (bug 22496) Viewing diff of a redirect page without specifying "oldid"
  83   parameter no longer makes the page displayed as being the redirect target
  84 * (bug 22918) Feed cache keys now use $wgRenderHashAppend
  85
  86 === API changes in 1.17 ===
  87 * (bug 22738) Allow filtering by action type on query=logevent
  88 * (bug 22764) uselang parameter for action=parse
  89 * (bug 22944) API: watchlist options are inconsistent
  90 * (bug 22339) "Go" result should be available through the API
  91 * (bug 22868) don't list infinite block expiry date as "now" in API logevents
  92 * (bug 22290) prop=revisions now outputs "comment" field even when comment
  93   is empty, for consistency with list=recentchanges
  94
  95 === Languages updated in 1.17 ===
  96
  97 MediaWiki supports over 330 languages. Many localisations are updated
  98 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
  99 changes to languages because of MediaZilla reports.
 100
 101 * Latgalian (ltg) (new)
 102 * Rusyn (rue) (new)
 103
 104 == Compatibility ==
 105
 106 MediaWiki 1.17 requires PHP 5.1 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer
 107 supported.
 108
 109 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 110 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 111
 112
 113 == Upgrading ==
 114
 115 1.17 has several database changes since 1.16, and will not work without schema
 116 updates.
 117
 118 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 119 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 120 database schema changes.
 121
 122 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 123 new database fields are filled with data.
 124
 125 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 126 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 127 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 128
 129 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 130
 131
 132 === Caveats ===
 133
 134 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 135 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 136 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 137 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 138 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 139
 140 For notes on 1.16.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 141
 142
 143 === Online documentation ===
 144
 145 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 146 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 147 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 148 the public domain) :
 149
 150   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 151
 152
 153 === Mailing list ===
 154
 155 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 156 wikitech-l list:
 157
 158   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 159
 160 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 161
 162   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 163
 164 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 165 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 166
 167
 168 === IRC help ===
 169
 170 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net