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
  27 === New features in 1.15 ===
  28
  29 * (bug 2242) Add an expiry time to temporary passwords
  30 * Special:Upload can now have a custom upload message instead of uploadtext by
  31   passing "uploadmsg" parameter in the url
  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
  60 === Bug fixes in 1.15 ===
  61 * (bug 16968) Special:Upload no longer throws useless warnings.
  62 * (bug 17000) Special:RevisionDelete now checks if the database is locked
  63   before trying to delete the edit.
  64 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now handle multibyte characters correctly
  65 * (bug 17010) maintenance/namespaceDupes.php now add the suffix recursively if
  66   the destination page exists
  67 * (bug 17035) Special:Upload now fails gracefully if PHP's file_uploads has
  68   been disabled
  69 * Fixing the caching issue by using -{T|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  70   LanguageConverter class)
  71 * Improving the efficiency by using -{A|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  72   LanguageConverter class)
  73 * (bug 17054) Added more descriptive errors in Special:RevisionDelete
  74 * (bug 11527) Diff on page with one revision shows "Next" link to same diff
  75 * (bug 15936) New page's patrol button should always be visible
  76 * (bug 8065) Fix summary forcing for new pages
  77 * (bug 10569) redirects to Special:Mypage and Special:Mytalk are no longer
  78   allowed by default. Change $wgInvalidRedirectTargets to re-enable.
  79
  80 == API changes in 1.15 ==
  81 * (bug 16858) Revamped list=deletedrevs to make listing deleted contributions
  82   and listing all deleted pages possible
  83 * (bug 16844) Added clcategories parameter to prop=categories
  84 * (bug 17025) Add "fileextension" parameter to meta=siteinfo&siprop=
  85 * (bug 17048) Show the 'new' flag in list=usercontribs for the revision that
  86   created the page, even if it's not the top revision
  87 * (bug 17069) Added ucshow=patrolled|!patrolled to list=usercontribs
  88 * action=delete respects $wgDeleteRevisionsLimit and the bigdelete user right
  89
  90 === Languages updated in 1.15 ===
  91
  92 MediaWiki supports over 300 languages. Many localisations are updated
  93 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed.
  94
  95 * Literary Chinese (lzh) (new)
  96
  97 == Compatibility ==
  98
  99 MediaWiki 1.15 requires PHP 5 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
 100
 101 PHP 5.0.x fails on 64-bit systems due to serious bugs with array processing:
 102 http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34879
 103 Upgrade affected systems to PHP 5.1 or higher.
 104
 105 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 106 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 107
 108
 109 == Upgrading ==
 110
 111 1.15 has several database changes since 1.14, and will not work without schema
 112 updates.
 113
 114 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 115 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 116 database schema changes.
 117
 118 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 119 new database fields are filled with data.
 120
 121 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 122 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 123 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 124
 125 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 126
 127
 128 === Caveats ===
 129
 130 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 131 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 132 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 133 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 134 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 135
 136 For notes on 1.14.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 137
 138
 139 === Online documentation ===
 140
 141 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 142 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 143 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 144 the public domain) :
 145
 146   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 147
 148
 149 === Mailing list ===
 150
 151 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 152 wikitech-l list:
 153
 154   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 155
 156 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 157
 158   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 159
 160 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 161 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 162
 163
 164 === IRC help ===
 165
 166 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net