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