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
  55 === Bug fixes in 1.17 ===
  56 * (bug 17560) Half-broken deletion moved image files to deletion archive
  57   without updating database
  58 * (bug 22666) Submitting user block form with an invalid user name no longer
  59   throws an error
  60 * (bugs 22665 and 22667) User '0' can now be unblocked and have its block
  61   settings changed
  62 * (bug 22606) The body of e-mail address confirmation message is now different
  63   when the address changed
  64 * (bug 22664) Special:Userrights now accepts '0' as a valid user name
  65 * (bug 5210) preload parser now parses <noinclude>, <includeonly> and redirects
  66 * (bug 22709) IIS7 mishandles redirects generated by OutputPage::output() when
  67   the URL contains a colon.
  68 * (bug 22353) Categorised recent changes now works again
  69 * (bug 22747) "Reveal my e-mail address in notification e-mails" preference is
  70   now only displayed when relevant
  71 * (bug 22772) {{#special:}} parser function now works with subpages
  72 * (bug 18664) Relative URIs in interwiki links cause failed redirects
  73 * (bug 19270) Relative URIs in interwiki links break interwiki transclusion
  74 * (bug 22903) Revdelete log entries now show in the user preferred language.
  75 * (bug 22905) Correctly handle <abbr> followed by ISBN
  76 * (bug 22940) Namespace aliases pointing to main namespace don't work
  77 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer block/unblock other users
  78 * (bug 22876) Avoid possible PHP Notice if $wgDefaultUserOptions is not
  79   correctly set
  80 * (bug 14952) Page titles are renormalized after html entities are removed so
  81   that links with non-NFC character references work correctly.
  82 * (bug 22991) wgUserGroups JavaScript variable now reports * group for
  83   anonymous users instead of null.
  84 * (bug 22627) Remove PHP notice when deleting a page only hidden users edited.
  85 * (bug 21520) Anonymous previews now also gives a warning about not being
  86   logged in (anonpreviewwarning).
  87 * (bug 22935) image/x-ms-bmp mime type added for BMP files
  88 * (bug 23024) Special:ListFiles now escapes file names correctly
  89 * (bug 22867) "View source" tab is now only displayed if there's source text
  90 * (bug 19393) Feeds now format dates in user language rather than content
  91   language
  92 * (bug 22852) "Served in" comment is now the time used to cache a single page
  93   when using rebuildFileCache.php
  94 * (bug 22496) Viewing diff of a redirect page without specifying "oldid"
  95   parameter no longer makes the page displayed as being the redirect target
  96 * (bug 22918) Feed cache keys now use $wgRenderHashAppend
  97 * (bug 21916) Last-Modified header is now correct when outputting cached feed
  98 * (bug 20049) Fixed PHP notice in search highlighter that occurs in some cases
  99 * (bug 23017) Special:Disambiguations now list pages in content namespaces
 100   rather than only main namespace
 101 * (bug 23063) $wgMaxAnimatedGifArea is checked against the total size of all
 102   frames, and $wgMaxImageArea against the size of the first frame, rather than
 103   the other way around.  Both now default to 12.5 megapixels.  Also, images
 104   exceeding $wgMaxImageArea can still be embedded at original size
 105 * (bug 23078) "All public logs" option on Special:Log is now always the first
 106   item
 107 * (bug 16817) Group names in user rights log are now singular and in lowercase
 108 * Special:Preferences no longer crashes if the wiki default date formatting
 109   style is not valid for the user's interface language
 110 * (bug 23167) Check the watch checkbox by default if the watchcreations
 111   preference is set
 112 * Maintenance script cleanupTitles is now able to fix titles stored
 113 in a negative namespace (which is invalid).
 114 * (bug 19858) Removed obsolete <big> in interface messages.
 115 * (bug 21456) "Bad title" error when showing non-local interwiki pages no longer
 116   displays incorrect tabs
 117 * (bug 23190) Improved math representation for text browsers.
 118 * (bug 22015) Improved upload-by-url error handling and error display
 119 * (bug 17941) $wgMaxUploadSize is now honored by all upload sources
 120 * (bug 23080) New usernames now limited to 235 bytes so that custom skin files
 121   work.
 122 * (bug 23075) Correct MediaTransformError default width in gallery.
 123
 124 === API changes in 1.17 ===
 125 * (bug 22738) Allow filtering by action type on query=logevent
 126 * (bug 22764) uselang parameter for action=parse
 127 * (bug 22944) API: watchlist options are inconsistent
 128 * (bug 22339) "Go" result should be available through the API
 129 * (bug 22868) don't list infinite block expiry date as "now" in API logevents
 130 * (bug 22290) prop=revisions now outputs "comment" field even when comment
 131   is empty, for consistency with list=recentchanges
 132
 133 === Languages updated in 1.17 ===
 134
 135 MediaWiki supports over 330 languages. Many localisations are updated
 136 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 137 changes to languages because of MediaZilla reports.
 138
 139 * Latgalian (ltg) (new)
 140 * Rusyn (rue) (new)
 141
 142 * (bug 23156) Commafy and search normalization updated for Belarusian
 143   (Taraškievica)
 144
 145 == Compatibility ==
 146
 147 MediaWiki 1.17 requires PHP 5.1 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer
 148 supported.
 149
 150 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 151 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 152
 153
 154 == Upgrading ==
 155
 156 1.17 has several database changes since 1.16, and will not work without schema
 157 updates.
 158
 159 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 160 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 161 database schema changes.
 162
 163 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 164 new database fields are filled with data.
 165
 166 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 167 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 168 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 169
 170 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 171
 172
 173 === Caveats ===
 174
 175 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 176 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 177 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 178 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 179 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 180
 181 For notes on 1.16.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 182
 183
 184 === Online documentation ===
 185
 186 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 187 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 188 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 189 the public domain) :
 190
 191   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 192
 193
 194 === Mailing list ===
 195
 196 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 197 wikitech-l list:
 198
 199   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 200
 201 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 202
 203   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 204
 205 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 206 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 207
 208
 209 === IRC help ===
 210
 211 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net