From a86187a90613329e8ed28ca4cc5d989be2dc9c9d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Brion Vibber Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 12:03:23 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] Write some preliminary release notes for 1.5 alpha --- RELEASE-NOTES | 287 ++++++++++++++++++++++++-------------------------- 1 file changed, 135 insertions(+), 152 deletions(-) diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES b/RELEASE-NOTES index cbd1fc4221..c7103f7764 100644 --- a/RELEASE-NOTES +++ b/RELEASE-NOTES @@ -3,14 +3,135 @@ Security reminder: MediaWiki does not require PHP's register_globals setting since version 1.2.0. If you have it on, turn it *off* if you can. -** NOTE TO COMMITTERS: Before 1.5.0 release, rearrange these nicely -** and move 1.4 stuff to HISTORY. -== MediaWiki 1.5 == +== MediaWiki 1.5 alpha 1 == + +May 3, 2005 + +This is a testing preview release, being put out mainly to aid testers in +finding installation bugs and other major problems. It is strongly recommended +NOT to run a live production web site on this alpha release. + +** WARNING: USE OF THIS ALPHA RELEASE MAY INFEST YOUR HOUSE WITH ** +** TERMITES, ROT YOUR TEETH, GROW HAIR ON YOUR PALMS, AND PASTE ** +** INNUENDO INTO YOUR C.V. RIGHT BEFORE A JOB INTERVIEW! ** +** DON'T SAY WE DIDN'T WARN YOU, MAN. WE TOTALLY DID RIGHT HERE. ** + + +=== Big changes === + +Schema: + The core table schema has changed significantly. This should make better + use of the database's cache and disk I/O, and make significantly speed up + rename and delete operations on pages with very long edit histories. + + Unfortunately this does mean upgrading a wiki of size from 1.4 will require + some downtime for the schema restructuring, but future storage backend + changes should be able to integrate into the new system more easily. + +Permalinks: + The current revision of a page now has a permanent 'oldid' number assigned + immediately, and the id numbers are now preserved across deletion/undeletion. + A permanent reference to the current revision of a page is now just a matter + of going to the 'history' tab and copying the first link in the list. + +Page move log: + Renames of pages are now recorded in Special:Log and the page history. + A handy revert link is available from the log for sysops. + +Editing diff: + Ever lost track of what you'd done so far during an edit? A 'Show diff' + button on the edit page now makes it easy to remember. + +Uploads: + It's now possible to specify the final filename of an upload distinct + from the original filename on your disk. + + An image link for a missing file will now take you straight to the upload page. + + More metadata is pre-extracted from uploaded images, which will ease pressure + on disk or NFS volumes used to store images. EXIF metadata is displayed on + the image description page if PHP is configured with the necessary module. + +User accounts: + There are some changes to the user permissions system, with assignable + groups. This is still somewhat in flux; do not rely on the present system + that you see in this alpha to still be there. + +E-mail: + User-to-user e-mail can now be restricted to require a mail-back confirmation + first to reduce potential for abuse with false addresses. + + Updates to user talk pages and watchlist entries can optionally send e-mail + notifications. + +External hooks: + A somewhat experimental interface for hooking in an external editor + application is included. This may not be on by default in final release, + depending on support. + +And... + A bunch of stuff we forgot to mention. + + +=== What's gone? === + +Latin-1: + Wikis must now be encoded in Unicode UTF-8; this has been the default for + some time, but some languages could optionally be installed in Latin-1 mode. + This is no longer supported. + +MySQL 3.x: + Some optimization hacks for MySQL 3.x have been removed as part of the schema + clean-up (specifically, the inverse_timestamp fields). MediaWiki 1.5 should + still run, but wikis of significant size should very seriously consider + upgrading to a more modern release. MySQL 3.x support will probably be + entirely dropped in the next major release later this year. + +Special:Maintenance + These tools were, ironically enough, not really maintained. This special + page has been removed; insofar as some of its pieces were useful and haven't + already been supplanted by other special pages they should be rewritten in + an efficient and safe manner in the future. + + +=== What's still waiting? === + +These things should be fixed by the time 1.5.0 final is released: + +Upgrade: + Wikis in Latin-1 encoding are no longer supported; only Unicode UTF-8. + A new option $wgLegacyEncoding is provided to allow on-the-fly recoding of + old page text entries, but other metadata fields (titles, comments etc) need + to be pre-converted. The upgrade process does not yet fully automate this. + + In general the upgrade from 1.4 to 1.5 schema has not been tested for all + cases, and there may be problems. + +Backups: + The text entries of deleted pages are no longer removed from the main + text table on deletion. If you provide public backup dumps of your databases, + you will probably want to use the new XML-format dump generator... but + this hasn't been finished yet. + +PostgreSQL: + The table definitions for PostgreSQL install are out of date, and patches + to support PostgreSQL from the main installer are still pending. + +MySQL 4.1+: + Proper charset encoding / collation configuration for installs on MySQL 4.1 + and higher still needs to be fiddled with. Some bits may fail on the UTF-8 + setting due to some long field keys. + +Authentication plugin fixes: + The AuthPlugin interface needs some improvements to work better with LDAP, + HTTP basic auth, and other such environments. Some patches are pending. + + +=== Smaller changes === + +Various bugfixes, small features, and a few experimental things: -New exciting things! Need further work and testing... -* user groups/permissions scheme -* e-mail change notifications * 'live preview' reduces preview reload burden on supported browsers * Schema reworking: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposed_Database_Schema_Changes/October_2004 * New WikiSyntax: -- turns into — or – depending on context @@ -34,147 +155,7 @@ New exciting things! Need further work and testing... * $wgStyleSheetDirectory is no longer an alias for $wgStyleDirectory; * ...and more! -Need to merge: -* stuff - - -== Version Enotif+Eauthent EN+EA v2.00/CVS, 14.12.2004 == -written by Thomas Gries, Berlin and Markus Arndt, Munich - -Executive summary for the impatient reader: - -Enotif adds e-mail notification to MediaWiki and sends e-mails -to watching users when a watch-listed page or user_talk page is changed -http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454 -Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Enotif - -Eauthent is a mechanism to use a temporary one-time password cycle -to check whether the email address a user has entered is a valid one. -http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=866 -Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Eauthent - -The current patch has only been checked for (see DefaultSettings.php): - -- php mail() - ( = not using PEAR:Mail() module --- I do not know anyone who uses that) - $wgSMTP = false; -- MySQL database - ( = not using PostgreSQL --- I do not know anyone who uses that) - $wgDBtype = "mysql"; - $wgSearchType = "MyISAM"; - -- STILL TODO: - NEW (newpageletter) and CORR (minoreditletter) markers needs - corresponding "spacers" - -- table user_newtalk dropped; changes on usertalk pages and their - notifications are now fully handled via existing table watchlist - The user interface and behavious is unchanged to previous version. -- updaters.inc for compatibility with older mediawiki tables: - the conversion script converts existing user_newtalk entries - watchlist table entries - (user_newtalk) id ==> (watchlist) NS_USER_TALK:namefromId(id) timestamp=1 -- minor bug fixes: - updated marker now correctly shown on watchlist page - watching users number display with enhanced RC view + RCUseModStyle -- wfUrlencode() instead of rawurlencode() in enotif mails -- duplicate enotif code moved from UserTalkUpdate.php and - merged into UserMailer.php and using usermailer() solely -- fixed an enotif mail text error for user names with spaces -- fixed missing part for suppressing watching user number - -v1.36: -magic watchlist shows and counts now only the content page, notwithstanding -the content and talk page are stored separately in watchlist. -* bug fixed: rawurlencode for pagetitles in enotif mails -* bug fixed: link to userpages of anonymous user are correct now - -* Enotif v1.34 - bugs fixed regarding missing $oldid parameter - -* v1.33 -* Details: - Implements almost all enotif options as user preferences. - These are only shown on the user preference page, if they are globally - enabled by the corresponding admin option in DefaultSettings.php. - Added admin feature to let enotifs appear to come from the page editor. - This facilitates automatic mail sorting and anti-spam filtering; feature was - originally proposed by Nick Triantos, thank you ! - Page editor's email address is however only shown, if this user enabled - the option "reveal my email address" in user preferences. Otherwise, - the enotifs appear to come from WikiAdmin as usual (tricky to program, - but simply trust the algorithm. or look into UserMailer.php and - UserTalkPage.php). - -* Changes from previous enotif versions -* v1.31 is an improved version with many security and also cosmetic changes - applied after two first reviews by Brion Vibber. v1.31 is basically the same as - the older Enotif v1.30 and v1.22 versions. - - Added UseMod style for recent changes view so that only the most recent - change of any page is listed. The (diff) and (hist) still allow to retrieve the - older versions at users' discretion, but the RC view is much cleaner for - trusted environments such as medium-size companies or family wikis. - -* Enotif v1.30 redesign after review by Brion Vibber 25.10.2003 - -* v1.22 "updated (since my last visit)" also shown for users without stored - email address in preferences, so that they can see, what watched pages - have changed. -* show "updated (since my last visit)" markers in RC, history and watchlist -* Systemvariables to suppress updated marker in all views -* show number of watching users in RC and on bottom of articles in - classic skin and in monobook skin -* Systemvariables in DefaultSettings.php to enable or disable features -* v1.21 now suppresses displaying the marker "updated (since my last visit)" - in recent changes view for the older (already visited) versions of watched - pages - i.e. page versions before the enotif was sent do not bear that - marker any longer. -* enotif mails come with a link to the diff view between current and last - visited version of the watching user. -*database structure is changed automatically when installing via the - recommended way (starting index.php and re-using the old database name). - run php /maintenance/update.php - OR see /maintenance/archives/patch-email-notification.sql and apply the - command - ALTER TABLE watchlist - ADD (wl_notificationtimestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '0'); - manually to your database, which does not harm the non notification versions - -*adding a page x to the watchlist does automatically add a watch - for the accompanying talk_page talk:x and vice versa; - -== MediaWiki 1.4 BETA == - -[Not everything is 100% working in beta yet, the installer needs fixes still.] - -Major changes from 1.3.x: -* Support for table prefixes for better sharing with other web apps -* (?) PostgreSQL support -* Optional article validation voting features -* 'Recentchanges Patrol' to mark new edits that haven't yet been viewed -* Support for faster C++ diff module (WikiDiff extension) -* More scary link caching modes -* Old manually maintained log pages replaced with searchable Special:Log -* Skins system more modular: templates and CSS are now in /skins/ -* New user preference for limitting the image size for images on image description - pages -* Error pages no more offer edit / talk / watch links (bug #502) -* Allow user to preview article on first edit (bug #530) -* New dark background skin named Amethyst (thanks Sorwena and Sorkhiri) -* [[RFC 1234]] will now make an internal link (bug #479) -* PhpTal skins shown bogus 'What links here' etc on special pages (bug #511) -* Experimental code to manage user and group rights (Special:Userlevels) -* UI language switching -* Adding filter and username exact search match for Special:Listusers (bug #770) -* Special:Listadmins outdated, use Special:Listusers instead (bug #857) -* Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion -* New tag "" to generate a table of image thumbnails -* Installer die if it can not write LocalSettings.php (bug #733) -* Various special pages no more show the rss/atom feed links (bug #705) -* Support for external authentication plug-ins -* (bug 114) use category backlinks in Special:Recentchangeslinked -* ... and more! + === Caveats === @@ -184,12 +165,8 @@ set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for MathML to display properly in Mozilla.) -The new 'MonoBook' skin is not compatible with PHP 5 due to bugs in the -underlying PHPTAL library. It will be automatically disabled when running -on PHP5; the older look and feel will be used instead. - -For notes on 1.3.x and older releases, see HISTORY. +For notes on 1.4.x and older releases, see HISTORY. === Online documentation === @@ -208,6 +185,12 @@ wikitech-l list: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l +A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available: + http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce + +It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're +going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes. + === IRC help === -- 2.20.1