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 * Added $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm to choose the Search form behavior/look
  26 * Added $wgNoFollowDomainExceptions to allow exempting particular domain names
  27   from rel="nofollow" on external links
  28
  29 === New features in 1.15 ===
  30
  31 * (bug 2242) Add an expiry time to temporary passwords
  32 * (bug 9947) Add PROTECTIONLEVEL parser function to return the protection level
  33   for the current page for a given action
  34 * (bug 17002) Add &minor= and &summary= as parameters in the url when editing,
  35   to automatically add a summary or a minor edit.
  36 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now accept multiletter pad characters
  37 * When using 'UserCreateForm' hook to add new checkboxes into
  38   Special:UserLogin/signup, the messages can now contain HTML to allow
  39   hyperlinking to the site's Terms of Service page, for example
  40 * Add new hook 'UserLoadFromDatabase' that is called while loading a user
  41   from the database.
  42 * (bug 17045) Options on the block form are prefilled with the options of the
  43   existing block when modifying an existing block.
  44 * (bug 17055) "(show/hide)" links to Special:RevisionDelete now use a CSS class
  45   rather than hardcoded HTML tags
  46 * Added new hook 'WantedPages::getSQL' into SpecialWantedpages.php to allow
  47   extensions to alter the SQL query which is used to get the list of wanted
  48   pages
  49 * (bugs 16957/16969) Add show/hide to preferences for RC patrol options on
  50   specialpages
  51 * (bug 11443) Auto-noindex user/user talk pages for blocked user
  52 * (bug 11644) Add $wgMaxRedirects variable to control how many redirects are
  53   recursed through until the "destination" page is reached.
  54 * Add $wgInvalidRedirectTargets variable to prevent redirects to certain
  55   special pages.
  56 * Use HTML5 rel attributes for some links, where appropriate
  57 * Added optional alternative Search form look - Go button & Advanced search
  58   link instead of Go button & Search button
  59 * (bug 2314) Add links to user custom CSS and JS to Special:Preferences
  60 * More helpful error message on raw page access if PHP_SELF isn't set
  61 * (bug 13040) Gender switch in user preferences
  62 * (bug 13040) {{GENDER:}} magic word for interface messages
  63 * (bug 3301) Optionally sort user list according to account creation time
  64 * Remote description pages for foreign file repos are now fetched in the
  65   content language.
  66 * (bug 17180) If $wgUseFileCache is enabled, $wgShowIPinHeader is automatically
  67   set to false.
  68 * (bug 16604) Mark non-patrolled edits in feeds with "!"
  69 * (bug 16604) Show title/rev in IRC for patrol log
  70 * (bug 16854) Whether a page is being parsed as a preview or section preview
  71   can now be determined and set with ParserOptions.
  72 * Wrap message 'confirmemail_pending' into a div with CSS classes "error" and
  73   "mw-confirmemail-pending"
  74 * Local redirects to foreign images are now displayed on the ImagePage when
  75   viewing on the local wiki.
  76 * The {{NAMESPACE}}, {{TALKSPACE}}, and {{SUBJECTSPACE}} magic words can now be
  77   used as parser functions to return the desired namespace for a given title.
  78 * Styled #mw-data-after-content in cologneblue.css to match the rest of the font (bug 17110)
  79 * (bug 7556) Time zone names in signatures lack i18n
  80
  81 === Bug fixes in 1.15 ===
  82 * (bug 16968) Special:Upload no longer throws useless warnings.
  83 * (bug 17000) Special:RevisionDelete now checks if the database is locked
  84   before trying to delete the edit.
  85 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now handle multibyte characters correctly
  86 * (bug 17010) maintenance/namespaceDupes.php now add the suffix recursively if
  87   the destination page exists
  88 * (bug 17035) Special:Upload now fails gracefully if PHP's file_uploads has
  89   been disabled
  90 * Fixing the caching issue by using -{T|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  91   LanguageConverter class)
  92 * Improving the efficiency by using -{A|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  93   LanguageConverter class)
  94 * (bug 17054) Added more descriptive errors in Special:RevisionDelete
  95 * (bug 11527) Diff on page with one revision shows "Next" link to same diff
  96 * (bug 8065) Fix summary forcing for new pages
  97 * (bug 10569) redirects to Special:Mypage and Special:Mytalk are no longer
  98   allowed by default. Change $wgInvalidRedirectTargets to re-enable.
  99 * (bug 3043) Feed links of given page are now preceded by standard feed icon
 100 * (bug 17150) escapeLike now escapes literal \ properly
 101 * Inconsistent use of sysop, admin, administrator in system messages changed
 102   to 'administrator'
 103 * (bug 14423) Check block flag validity for block logging
 104 * DB transaction and slave-lag avoidance tweaks for Email Notifications
 105 * (bug 17104) Removed [Mark as patrolled] link for already patrolled revisions
 106 * (bug 17106) Added 'redirect=no' and 'mw-redirect' class to redirects at
 107   "user contributions"
 108 * Rollback links on new pages removed from "user contributions"
 109 * (bug 15811) Re-upload form tweaks: license fields removed, destination locked,
 110   comment label uses better message
 111 * Whole HTML validation ($wgValidateAllHtml) now works with external tidy
 112 * Parser tests no longer fail when $wgExternalLinkTarget is set in LocalSettings
 113 * (bug 15391) catch DBQueryErrors on external storage insertion. This avoids error
 114   messages on save were the edit in fact is saved.
 115 * (bug 17184) Remove duplicate "z" accesskey in MonoBook
 116 * Parser tests no longer fail when $wgAlwaysUseTidy is set in LocalSettings.php
 117 * Removed redundant dupe warnings on reupload for the same title. Dupe warnings
 118   for identical files at different titles are still given.
 119 * Add 'change tagging' facility, where changes can be tagged internally with
 120   certain designations, which are displayed on various summaries of changes, and
 121   the entries can be styled with CSS.
 122 * (bug 17207) Fix regression breaking category page display on PHP 5.1
 123 * Categoryfinder utility class no longer fails on invalid input or gives wrong
 124   results for category names that include pseudo-namespaces
 125 * (bug 17252) Galician numbering format
 126 * (bug 17146) Fix for UTF-8 and short word search for some possible MySQL configs
 127 * (bug 7480) Internationalize database error message
 128
 129 == API changes in 1.15 ==
 130 * (bug 16858) Revamped list=deletedrevs to make listing deleted contributions
 131   and listing all deleted pages possible
 132 * (bug 16844) Added clcategories parameter to prop=categories
 133 * (bug 17025) Add "fileextension" parameter to meta=siteinfo&siprop=
 134 * (bug 17048) Show the 'new' flag in list=usercontribs for the revision that
 135   created the page, even if it's not the top revision
 136 * (bug 17069) Added ucshow=patrolled|!patrolled to list=usercontribs
 137 * action=delete respects $wgDeleteRevisionsLimit and the bigdelete user right
 138 * (bug 15949) Add undo functionality to action=edit
 139 * (bug 16483) Kill filesort in ApiQueryBacklinks caused by missing parentheses.
 140   Building query properly now using makeList()
 141 * (bug 17182) Fix pretty printer so URLs with parentheses in them are
 142   autolinked correctly
 143 * (bug 17224) Added siprop=rightsinfo to meta=siteinfo
 144 * (bug 17239) Added prop=displaytitle to action=parse
 145
 146 === Languages updated in 1.15 ===
 147
 148 MediaWiki supports over 300 languages. Many localisations are updated
 149 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed.
 150
 151 * Austrian German (de-at) (new)
 152 * Swiss Standard German (de-ch) (new)
 153 * Literary Chinese (lzh) (new)
 154 * Võro (vro) (renamed from fiu-vro)
 155 * (bug 17151) Add magic word alias for #redirect for Vietnamese
 156
 157 == Compatibility ==
 158
 159 MediaWiki 1.15 requires PHP 5 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
 160
 161 PHP 5.0.x fails on 64-bit systems due to serious bugs with array processing:
 162 http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34879
 163 Upgrade affected systems to PHP 5.1 or higher.
 164
 165 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 166 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 167
 168
 169 == Upgrading ==
 170
 171 1.15 has several database changes since 1.14, and will not work without schema
 172 updates.
 173
 174 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 175 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 176 database schema changes.
 177
 178 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 179 new database fields are filled with data.
 180
 181 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 182 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 183 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 184
 185 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 186
 187
 188 === Caveats ===
 189
 190 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 191 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 192 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 193 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 194 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 195
 196 For notes on 1.14.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 197
 198
 199 === Online documentation ===
 200
 201 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 202 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 203 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 204 the public domain) :
 205
 206   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 207
 208
 209 === Mailing list ===
 210
 211 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 212 wikitech-l list:
 213
 214   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 215
 216 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 217
 218   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 219
 220 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 221 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 222
 223
 224 === IRC help ===
 225
 226 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net