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
  73 === Bug fixes in 1.15 ===
  74 * (bug 16968) Special:Upload no longer throws useless warnings.
  75 * (bug 17000) Special:RevisionDelete now checks if the database is locked
  76   before trying to delete the edit.
  77 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now handle multibyte characters correctly
  78 * (bug 17010) maintenance/namespaceDupes.php now add the suffix recursively if
  79   the destination page exists
  80 * (bug 17035) Special:Upload now fails gracefully if PHP's file_uploads has
  81   been disabled
  82 * Fixing the caching issue by using -{T|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  83   LanguageConverter class)
  84 * Improving the efficiency by using -{A|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  85   LanguageConverter class)
  86 * (bug 17054) Added more descriptive errors in Special:RevisionDelete
  87 * (bug 11527) Diff on page with one revision shows "Next" link to same diff
  88 * (bug 8065) Fix summary forcing for new pages
  89 * (bug 10569) redirects to Special:Mypage and Special:Mytalk are no longer
  90   allowed by default. Change $wgInvalidRedirectTargets to re-enable.
  91 * (bug 3043) Feed links of given page are now preceded by standard feed icon
  92 * (bug 17150) escapeLike now escapes literal \ properly
  93 * Inconsistent use of sysop, admin, administrator in system messages changed
  94   to 'administrator'
  95 * (bug 14423) Check block flag validity for block logging
  96 * DB transaction and slave-lag avoidance tweaks for Email Notifications
  97 * (bug 17104) Removed [Mark as patrolled] link for already patrolled revisions
  98 * (bug 17106) Added 'redirect=no' and 'mw-redirect' class to redirects at
  99   "user contributions"
 100 * Rollback links on new pages removed from "user contributions"
 101 * (bug 15811) Re-upload form tweaks: license fields removed, destination locked,
 102   comment label uses better message
 103 * Whole HTML validation ($wgValidateAllHtml) now works with external tidy
 104 * Parser tests no longer fail when $wgExternalLinkTarget is set in LocalSettings
 105 * (bug 15391) catch DBQueryErrors on external storage insertion. This avoids error
 106   messages on save were the edit in fact is saved.
 107 * (bug 17184) Remove duplicate "z" accesskey in MonoBook
 108 * Parser tests no longer fail when $wgAlwaysUseTidy is set in LocalSettings.php
 109 * Removed redundant dupe warnings on reupload for the same title. Dupe warnings
 110   for identical files at different titles are still given.
 111 * Add 'change tagging' facility, where changes can be tagged internally with
 112   certain designations, which are displayed on various summaries of changes, and
 113   the entries can be styled with CSS.
 114 * (bug 17207) Fix regression breaking category page display on PHP 5.1
 115 * Categoryfinder utility class no longer fails on invalid input or gives wrong
 116   results for category names that include pseudo-namespaces
 117
 118 == API changes in 1.15 ==
 119 * (bug 16858) Revamped list=deletedrevs to make listing deleted contributions
 120   and listing all deleted pages possible
 121 * (bug 16844) Added clcategories parameter to prop=categories
 122 * (bug 17025) Add "fileextension" parameter to meta=siteinfo&siprop=
 123 * (bug 17048) Show the 'new' flag in list=usercontribs for the revision that
 124   created the page, even if it's not the top revision
 125 * (bug 17069) Added ucshow=patrolled|!patrolled to list=usercontribs
 126 * action=delete respects $wgDeleteRevisionsLimit and the bigdelete user right
 127 * (bug 15949) Add undo functionality to action=edit
 128 * (bug 16483) Kill filesort in ApiQueryBacklinks caused by missing parentheses.
 129   Building query properly now using makeList()
 130 * Add "check" parameter to action=email
 131
 132 === Languages updated in 1.15 ===
 133
 134 MediaWiki supports over 300 languages. Many localisations are updated
 135 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed.
 136
 137 * Austrian German (de-at) (new)
 138 * Swiss Standard German (de-ch) (new)
 139 * Literary Chinese (lzh) (new)
 140 * Võro (vro) (renamed from fiu-vro)
 141 * (bug 17151) Add magic word alias for #redirect for Vietnamese
 142
 143 == Compatibility ==
 144
 145 MediaWiki 1.15 requires PHP 5 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
 146
 147 PHP 5.0.x fails on 64-bit systems due to serious bugs with array processing:
 148 http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34879
 149 Upgrade affected systems to PHP 5.1 or higher.
 150
 151 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 152 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 153
 154
 155 == Upgrading ==
 156
 157 1.15 has several database changes since 1.14, and will not work without schema
 158 updates.
 159
 160 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 161 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 162 database schema changes.
 163
 164 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 165 new database fields are filled with data.
 166
 167 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 168 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 169 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 170
 171 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 172
 173
 174 === Caveats ===
 175
 176 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 177 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 178 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 179 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 180 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 181
 182 For notes on 1.14.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 183
 184
 185 === Online documentation ===
 186
 187 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 188 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 189 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 190 the public domain) :
 191
 192   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 193
 194
 195 === Mailing list ===
 196
 197 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 198 wikitech-l list:
 199
 200   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 201
 202 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 203
 204   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 205
 206 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 207 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 208
 209
 210 === IRC help ===
 211
 212 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net