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 * (bug 22647) Add category details in search results.
  55 * (bug 23276) Add hook to Special:NewPages to modify query
  56 * Add accesskey 's' and tooltip to 'Save' button at Special:Preferences
  57 * Add accesskey 'b' and tooltip to the summary field of edit mode
  58 * (bug 20186) Allow filtering Special:Contributions for RevisionDeleted edits
  59 * (bug 22858) $wgLocalStylePath is by default set to the same value as
  60   $wgStylePath but should never point to a different domain than the site is
  61   on, allowing skins to use .htc files which are not cross-domain friendly.
  62 * ajaxwatch now uses the API and JQuery, and can be used to animate arbitrary
  63   watch links, not just to watch the page the link is on.
  64 * (bug 20193) Added $wgVectorShowVariantName global configuration variable
  65   which causes Vector to render the variants drop-down menu with a label
  66   showing the current variant name. This is off by default, pending further
  67   research into its user experience implications.
  68 * (bug 20976) "searchmenu-new-nocreate" message now displayed when when there
  69   is no title match in search and the user has no rights to create pages.
  70
  71 === Bug fixes in 1.17 ===
  72 * (bug 17560) Half-broken deletion moved image files to deletion archive
  73   without updating database
  74 * (bug 22666) Submitting user block form with an invalid user name no longer
  75   throws an error
  76 * (bugs 22665 and 22667) User '0' can now be unblocked and have its block
  77   settings changed
  78 * (bug 22606) The body of e-mail address confirmation message is now different
  79   when the address changed
  80 * (bug 22664) Special:Userrights now accepts '0' as a valid user name
  81 * (bug 5210) preload parser now parses <noinclude>, <includeonly> and redirects
  82 * (bug 22709) IIS7 mishandles redirects generated by OutputPage::output() when
  83   the URL contains a colon.
  84 * (bug 22353) Categorised recent changes now works again
  85 * (bug 22747) "Reveal my e-mail address in notification e-mails" preference is
  86   now only displayed when relevant
  87 * (bug 22772) {{#special:}} parser function now works with subpages
  88 * (bug 18664) Relative URIs in interwiki links cause failed redirects
  89 * (bug 19270) Relative URIs in interwiki links break interwiki transclusion
  90 * (bug 22903) Revdelete log entries now show in the user preferred language.
  91 * (bug 22905) Correctly handle <abbr> followed by ISBN
  92 * (bug 22940) Namespace aliases pointing to main namespace don't work
  93 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer block/unblock other users
  94 * (bug 22876) Avoid possible PHP Notice if $wgDefaultUserOptions is not
  95   correctly set
  96 * (bug 14952) Page titles are renormalized after html entities are removed so
  97   that links with non-NFC character references work correctly.
  98 * (bug 22991) wgUserGroups JavaScript variable now reports * group for
  99   anonymous users instead of null.
 100 * (bug 22627) Remove PHP notice when deleting a page only hidden users edited.
 101 * (bug 21520) Anonymous previews now also gives a warning about not being
 102   logged in (anonpreviewwarning).
 103 * (bug 22935) image/x-ms-bmp mime type added for BMP files
 104 * (bug 23024) Special:ListFiles now escapes file names correctly
 105 * (bug 22867) "View source" tab is now only displayed if there's source text
 106 * (bug 19393) Feeds now format dates in user language rather than content
 107   language
 108 * (bug 22852) "Served in" comment is now the time used to cache a single page
 109   when using rebuildFileCache.php
 110 * (bug 22496) Viewing diff of a redirect page without specifying "oldid"
 111   parameter no longer makes the page displayed as being the redirect target
 112 * (bug 22918) Feed cache keys now use $wgRenderHashAppend
 113 * (bug 21916) Last-Modified header is now correct when outputting cached feed
 114 * (bug 20049) Fixed PHP notice in search highlighter that occurs in some cases
 115 * (bug 23017) Special:Disambiguations now list pages in content namespaces
 116   rather than only main namespace
 117 * (bug 23063) $wgMaxAnimatedGifArea is checked against the total size of all
 118   frames, and $wgMaxImageArea against the size of the first frame, rather than
 119   the other way around.  Both now default to 12.5 megapixels.  Also, images
 120   exceeding $wgMaxImageArea can still be embedded at original size
 121 * (bug 23078) "All public logs" option on Special:Log is now always the first
 122   item
 123 * (bug 16817) Group names in user rights log are now singular and in lowercase
 124 * Special:Preferences no longer crashes if the wiki default date formatting
 125   style is not valid for the user's interface language
 126 * (bug 23167) Check the watch checkbox by default if the watchcreations
 127   preference is set
 128 * Maintenance script cleanupTitles is now able to fix titles stored
 129 in a negative namespace (which is invalid).
 130 * (bug 19858) Removed obsolete <big> in interface messages.
 131 * (bug 21456) "Bad title" error when showing non-local interwiki pages no longer
 132   displays incorrect tabs
 133 * (bug 23190) Improved math representation for text browsers.
 134 * (bug 22015) Improved upload-by-url error handling and error display
 135 * (bug 17941) $wgMaxUploadSize is now honored by all upload sources
 136 * (bug 23080) New usernames now limited to 235 bytes so that custom skin files
 137   work.
 138 * (bug 23075) Correct MediaTransformError default width in gallery.
 139 * (bug 16487) The Anonymous user account used on Postgres is no longer
 140   displayed on Special:Listusers.
 141 * (bug 23313) Move watchlisthidepatrolled above token in watchlist preferences
 142   to enhance preference grouping.
 143 * (bug 23298) Interwiki links with prefix only in log summaries now link to the
 144   correct link
 145 * (bug 23284) Times are now rounded correctly
 146 * (bug 23375) Added ogv, oga, spx as extensions for ogg files
 147 * (bug 18408) All required permissions for uploading (upload, edit, create)
 148   are now checked when loading Special:Upload. Toolbar link for Special:Upload
 149   is no longer shown if the user does not have the required permissions.
 150 * (Bug 23397) texvc in html mode renders \sim as &tilde; not &sim;
 151 * (Bug 23241) Remove License selector, because it is not used when uploading a
 152   new version.
 153
 154 === API changes in 1.17 ===
 155 * (bug 22738) Allow filtering by action type on query=logevent
 156 * (bug 22764) uselang parameter for action=parse
 157 * (bug 22944) API: watchlist options are inconsistent
 158 * (bug 22339) "Go" result should be available through the API
 159 * (bug 22868) don't list infinite block expiry date as "now" in API logevents
 160 * (bug 22290) prop=revisions now outputs "comment" field even when comment
 161   is empty, for consistency with list=recentchanges
 162
 163 === Languages updated in 1.17 ===
 164
 165 MediaWiki supports over 330 languages. Many localisations are updated
 166 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 167 changes to languages because of MediaZilla reports.
 168
 169 * Latgalian (ltg) (new)
 170 * Rusyn (rue) (new)
 171
 172 * (bug 23156) Commafy and search normalization updated for Belarusian
 173   (Taraškievica)
 174 * (bug 23283) Native name for Old English -> Ænglisc
 175 * (bug 23364) Native name for Azerbaijani -> Azərbaycanca
 176
 177 == Compatibility ==
 178
 179 MediaWiki 1.17 requires PHP 5.1 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer
 180 supported.
 181
 182 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 183 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 184
 185
 186 == Upgrading ==
 187
 188 1.17 has several database changes since 1.16, and will not work without schema
 189 updates.
 190
 191 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 192 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 193 database schema changes.
 194
 195 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 196 new database fields are filled with data.
 197
 198 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 199 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 200 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 201
 202 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 203
 204
 205 === Caveats ===
 206
 207 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 208 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 209 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 210 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 211 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 212
 213 For notes on 1.16.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 214
 215
 216 === Online documentation ===
 217
 218 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 219 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 220 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 221 the public domain) :
 222
 223   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 224
 225
 226 === Mailing list ===
 227
 228 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 229 wikitech-l list:
 230
 231   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 232
 233 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 234
 235   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 236
 237 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 238 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 239
 240
 241 === IRC help ===
 242
 243 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net