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 1.7 ==
   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 development happen
  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 == Changes since 1.6 ==
  22
  23 * (bug 5458) Fix double-URL encoding in block log link in contribs and contribs
  24   link in block log
  25 * (bug 5462) Bogus missing patch warning in updater
  26 * (bug 5461) Use of deprecated "showhideminor" in Special:Recentchangeslinked
  27 * PHP warning when allow_call_time_pass_reference is off
  28 * Update to Finnish localization
  29 * (bug 5467) Link to page histories in watchlist edit mode
  30 * Further additions to Hebrew localisation
  31 * (bug 5476) Invalid xhtml in German localization
  32 * (bug 5479) Id translation for preferences tabs caption
  33 * (bug 5493) Id translation for special pages
  34 * Added skinname and style path parameters to CBT version of MonoBook
  35 * Include subversion revision number in Special:Version if available
  36 * (bug 5344) Fix regression that broke slashes in extension tag parameters
  37 * Improve Special:Log performance on big log sets
  38 * (bug 5507) Changed mediawiki:logouttext from plain to wikitext
  39 * (bug 4760) Prevent creation of entries in protection log when protection levels haven't changed
  40 * (bug 861) Show page protection/unprotection events in histories
  41 * (bug 5499) Don't clear the tag strip state when asked not to clear state.
  42   Fixes regression with use of <ref> in a template breaking <nowiki> etc.
  43 * Minor improvements to English language files
  44 * Display the anon talk page info message on anon talk pages again
  45   (moved outside the parser cache)
  46 * Optional {{DISPLAYTITLE|title with markup}} magic word
  47   Deactivated by default, set "$wgAllowDisplayTitle = true" in LocalSettings.php to activate
  48 * Cleaned SpecialContributions a bit
  49 * Added a table to track interlanguage links
  50 * (bug 5544) Fix redirect arrow in Special:Listredirects for right-to-left languages
  51 * Replace "doubleredirectsarrow" with a content language check that picks the appropriate arrow
  52 * (bug 5537) Add stub language file for Samogitian (bat-smg); inherits Lithuanian (lt)
  53 * Don't force edit summaries when a user is editing their own user/talk page
  54 * (bug 5510) Warning produced when using {{SUBPAGENAME}} in some namespaces
  55 * (bug 385) Installer support for PostgreSQL, fixes for PG compatibility
  56 * PersistentObject removed; it doesn't do anything and was broken besides.
  57   All extensions using it have been corrected.
  58 * Propagate ISBN number for Booksources in LanguageNo.php
  59 * (bug 5548) Improvements to Indonesian localisation [patch: Ivan Lanin]
  60 * Add TALKSPACE, SUBJECTSPACE, TALKPAGENAME, SUBJECTPAGENAME (and encoded forms for all)
  61   magic words
  62 * (bug 5403) Fix Special:Newpages RSS/Atom feeds
  63 * Reject malformed addresses in X-Forwarded-For entries
  64 * (bug 3359) Add hooks on completion of file upload
  65 * (bug 5559) Improve detection of ImageMagick [patch: Greg Turnquist]
  66 * (bug 5475) New pages feeds ignore "limit" argument
  67 * (bug 5184) CSS misapplied to elements in Special:Allmessages due to conflicting
  68   anchor identifiers
  69 * (bug 5519) Allow sidebar cache to be disabled; disable it by default.
  70 * Maintenance script to import the contents of a text file into a wiki page
  71 * installer: show realpath when asking to chmod g+w ./config
  72 * installer: hide errors returned when trying to dl() mysql.so / pgsql.so
  73 * installer: cleanly outputbuffer when dieing out
  74 * Add $wgReservedUsernames configuration directive to block account creation/use
  75
  76 == Compatibility ==
  77
  78 Older PHP 4.2 and 4.1 releases are no longer supported; PHP 4 users must
  79 upgrade to 4.3 or later.
  80
  81 MediaWiki 1.6 is the last major version to support PHP 4; future versions
  82 will require PHP 5.
  83
  84 MySQL 3.23.x is longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
  85 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
  86
  87
  88 == Upgrading ==
  89
  90 Several changes to the database have been made from 1.5; these are relatively
  91 minor but do require that the update process be run before the new code will
  92 work properly:
  93
  94 * A new "templatelinks" table tracks template inclusions.
  95 * A new "externallinks" table tracks URL links; this can be used by a
  96   mass spam-cleanup tool in the SpamBlacklist extension.
  97 * A new "jobs" table stores a queue of pages to update in the background; this
  98   is used to update links in including pages when templates are edited.
  99
 100 To ensure that these tables are filled with data, run refreshLinks.php after
 101 the upgrade.
 102
 103
 104 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 105 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 106 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 107
 108 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 109
 110
 111
 112 === Caveats ===
 113
 114 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 115 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 116 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 117 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 118 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 119
 120
 121 For notes on 1.5.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 122
 123
 124 === Online documentation ===
 125
 126 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 127 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 128 License:
 129
 130   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 131
 132
 133 === Mailing list ===
 134
 135 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 136 wikitech-l list:
 137
 138   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 139
 140 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 141
 142   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 143
 144 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 145 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 146
 147
 148 === IRC help ===
 149
 150 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net