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 * Add $wgReservedUsernames configuration directive to block account creation/use
  72 * (bug 5576) Remove debugging hack in session check
  73 * (bug 5426) Lowercase treatment of titles in rights log leads to broken links
  74   on Special:Log
  75 * Minor improvements to French localisation files
  76 * (bug 5181) Update "nogomatch" for Slovak
  77 * (bug 5594) Id translation up to # Login and logout pages section
  78 * (bug 5536) Use content language for editing help link
  79 * Improvements to German localisation files
  80 * (bug 5570) Problems using <special page>/parameter link form for long titles
  81 * (bug 3884) Add $user parameter to AddNewUser hook, call it for by-email
  82   registrations as well as self-registrations.
  83 * (bug 4327) Report age of cached data sets in query pages
  84 * (bug 4662) Fix Safari check in wikibits.js
  85 * (bug 4663) Edit toolbar enabled in compatible versions of Safari
  86 * (bug 5572) Edit toolbar enabled in compatible versions of Konqueror (3.5+)
  87 * (bug 5235) Edit toolbar tooltips no longer show JavaScript junk in Opera
  88 * Edit toolbar now works in pure XHTML mode (application/xhtml+xml)
  89 * Add watchlist clear function to allow quick purging of all items
  90 * (bug 5625) Additional namespace translations for Welsh
  91 * Add meta tag and JavaScript variables to cached special pages which provides
  92   the timestamp of the last update, in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format.
  93 * (bug 5628) More translations for MessagesHr.php
  94 * (bug 5595) Localisation for Bosnian language (bs)
  95 * (bug 2910) Default view preferences for watchlists
  96 * Add "hide bot edits from the watchlist" user preference
  97 * (bug 5250) Introduce Special:Unusedtemplates
  98 * Add user preference setting for an extended watchlist, showing all recent
  99   edits up to a certain edit, and not just the latest edit..
 100 * Made MessageRo.php more general
 101 * (bug 5640) Indonesian localisation improvements
 102 * (bug 5592) Actions are logged with the default language for the
 103    wiki, not the language of the user performing the operation.
 104 * (bug 5644) Error in LanguageBs.php file
 105 * (bug 5646) Compare for identical types in wfElement()
 106 * (bug 5472) Language::userAdjust()->minDiff not initialized on else condition
 107 * (bug 5386) LanguageMk.php: updated namespaces translations
 108 * (bug 5422) Stub for Romani (rmy) language which extends ro
 109 * Fix linktrail for LanguageSr
 110 * (bug 5664) Fix Bosnian linktrail
 111 * (bug 3825) Namespace filtering on Special:Newpages
 112 * (bug 1922) When Special:Wantedpages is cached, mark links to pages
 113   which have since been created
 114 * (bug 5659) Change grammar hacks for Bosnian Wikimedia namespaces.
 115   This sort of special casing should be removed and fixed properly.
 116 * Remove useless whitespace from Special:Brokenredirects header
 117 * Treat "allmessagesnotsupporteddb" as wikitext when echoing; change default text
 118
 119 == Compatibility ==
 120
 121 Older PHP 4.2 and 4.1 releases are no longer supported; PHP 4 users must
 122 upgrade to 4.3 or later.
 123
 124 MediaWiki 1.6 is the last major version to support PHP 4; future versions
 125 will require PHP 5.
 126
 127 MySQL 3.23.x is longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 128 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 129
 130
 131 == Upgrading ==
 132
 133 Several changes to the database have been made from 1.5; these are relatively
 134 minor but do require that the update process be run before the new code will
 135 work properly:
 136
 137 * A new "templatelinks" table tracks template inclusions.
 138 * A new "externallinks" table tracks URL links; this can be used by a
 139   mass spam-cleanup tool in the SpamBlacklist extension.
 140 * A new "jobs" table stores a queue of pages to update in the background; this
 141   is used to update links in including pages when templates are edited.
 142
 143 To ensure that these tables are filled with data, run refreshLinks.php after
 144 the upgrade.
 145
 146
 147 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 148 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 149 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 150
 151 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 152
 153
 154
 155 === Caveats ===
 156
 157 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 158 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 159 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 160 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 161 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 162
 163
 164 For notes on 1.5.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 165
 166
 167 === Online documentation ===
 168
 169 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 170 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 171 License:
 172
 173   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 174
 175
 176 === Mailing list ===
 177
 178 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 179 wikitech-l list:
 180
 181   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 182
 183 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 184
 185   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 186
 187 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 188 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 189
 190
 191 === IRC help ===
 192
 193 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net