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 ** NOTE TO COMMITTERS: Before 1.5.0 release, rearrange these nicely
   7 ** and move 1.4 stuff to HISTORY.
   8
   9 == MediaWiki 1.5 ==
  10
  11 New exciting things! Need further work and testing...
  12 * user groups/permissions scheme
  13 * e-mail change notifications
  14 * 'live preview' reduces preview reload burden on supported browsers
  15 * Schema reworking: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposed_Database_Schema_Changes/October_2004
  16 * New WikiSyntax: -- turns into &emdash; or &ndash; depending on context
  17 * ...and more!
  18
  19 Need to merge:
  20 * stuff
  21
  22
  23 == Version Enotif+Eauthent EN+EA v2.00/CVS, 14.12.2004 ==
  24 written by Thomas Gries, Berlin and Markus Arndt, Munich
  25
  26 Executive summary for the impatient reader:
  27
  28 Enotif adds e-mail notification to MediaWiki and sends e-mails
  29 to watching users when a watch-listed page or user_talk page is changed
  30 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454
  31 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Enotif
  32
  33 Eauthent is a mechanism to use a temporary one-time password cycle
  34 to check whether the email address a user has entered is a valid one.
  35 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=866
  36 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Eauthent
  37
  38 The current patch has only been checked for (see DefaultSettings.php):
  39
  40 - php mail()
  41   ( = not using PEAR:Mail() module --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  42   $wgSMTP = false;
  43 - MySQL database
  44   ( = not using PostgreSQL --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  45   $wgDBtype = "mysql";
  46   $wgSearchType = "MyISAM";
  47
  48 - STILL TODO:
  49   NEW (newpageletter) and CORR (minoreditletter) markers needs
  50   corresponding "spacers"
  51
  52 - table user_newtalk dropped; changes on usertalk pages and their
  53   notifications are now fully handled via existing table watchlist
  54   The user interface and behavious is unchanged to previous version.
  55 - updaters.inc for compatibility with older mediawiki tables:
  56   the conversion script converts existing user_newtalk entries
  57   watchlist table entries
  58   (user_newtalk) id ==> (watchlist) NS_USER_TALK:namefromId(id) timestamp=1
  59 - minor bug fixes:
  60   updated marker now correctly shown on watchlist page
  61   watching users number display with enhanced RC view + RCUseModStyle
  62 - wfUrlencode() instead of rawurlencode() in enotif mails
  63 - duplicate enotif code moved from UserTalkUpdate.php and
  64   merged into UserMailer.php and using usermailer() solely
  65 - fixed an enotif mail text error for user names with spaces
  66 - fixed missing part for suppressing watching user number
  67
  68 v1.36:
  69 magic watchlist shows and counts now only the content page, notwithstanding
  70 the content and talk page are stored separately in watchlist.
  71 * bug fixed: rawurlencode for pagetitles in enotif mails
  72 * bug fixed: link to userpages of anonymous user are correct now
  73
  74 * Enotif v1.34
  75  bugs fixed regarding missing $oldid parameter
  76
  77 * v1.33
  78 * Details:
  79  Implements almost all enotif options as user preferences.
  80  These are only shown on the user preference page, if they are globally
  81  enabled by the corresponding admin option in DefaultSettings.php.
  82  Added admin feature to let enotifs appear to come from the page editor.
  83  This facilitates automatic mail sorting and anti-spam filtering; feature was
  84  originally proposed by Nick Triantos, thank you !
  85  Page editor's email address is however only shown, if this user enabled
  86  the option "reveal my email address" in user preferences. Otherwise,
  87  the enotifs appear to come from WikiAdmin as usual (tricky to program,
  88  but simply trust the algorithm. or look into UserMailer.php and
  89  UserTalkPage.php).
  90
  91 * Changes from previous enotif versions
  92 * v1.31 is an improved version with many security and also cosmetic changes
  93  applied after two first reviews by Brion Vibber. v1.31 is basically the same as
  94  the older Enotif v1.30 and v1.22 versions.
  95
  96  Added UseMod style for recent changes view so that only the most recent
  97  change of any page is listed. The (diff) and (hist) still allow to retrieve the
  98  older versions at users' discretion, but the RC view is much cleaner for
  99  trusted environments such as medium-size companies or family wikis.
 100
 101 * Enotif v1.30 redesign after review by Brion Vibber 25.10.2003
 102
 103 * v1.22 "updated (since my last visit)" also shown for users without stored
 104  email address in preferences, so that they can see, what watched pages
 105  have changed.
 106 * show "updated (since my last visit)" markers in RC, history and watchlist
 107 * Systemvariables to suppress updated marker in all views
 108 * show number of watching users in RC and on bottom of articles in
 109  classic skin and in monobook skin
 110 * Systemvariables in DefaultSettings.php to enable or disable features
 111 * v1.21 now suppresses displaying the marker "updated (since my last visit)"
 112  in recent changes view for the older (already visited) versions of watched
 113  pages - i.e. page versions before the enotif was sent do not bear that
 114  marker any longer.
 115 * enotif mails come with a link to the diff view between current and last
 116  visited version of the watching user.
 117 *database structure is changed automatically when installing via the
 118  recommended way (starting index.php and re-using the old database name).
 119         run php /maintenance/update.php
 120  OR see /maintenance/archives/patch-email-notification.sql and apply the
 121  command
 122         ALTER TABLE  watchlist
 123         ADD (wl_notificationtimestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '0');
 124  manually to your database, which does not harm the non notification versions
 125
 126 *adding a page x to the watchlist does automatically add a watch
 127   for the accompanying talk_page talk:x and vice versa;
 128
 129 == MediaWiki 1.4 BETA ==
 130
 131 [Not everything is 100% working in beta yet, the installer needs fixes still.]
 132
 133 Major changes from 1.3.x:
 134 * Support for table prefixes for better sharing with other web apps
 135 * (?) PostgreSQL support
 136 * Optional article validation voting features
 137 * 'Recentchanges Patrol' to mark new edits that haven't yet been viewed
 138 * Support for faster C++ diff module (WikiDiff extension)
 139 * More scary link caching modes
 140 * Old manually maintained log pages replaced with searchable Special:Log
 141 * Skins system more modular: templates and CSS are now in /skins/
 142 * New user preference for limitting the image size for images on image description
 143   pages
 144 * Error pages no more offer edit / talk / watch links (bug #502)
 145 * Allow user to preview article on first edit (bug #530)
 146 * New dark background skin named Amethyst (thanks Sorwena and Sorkhiri)
 147 * [[RFC 1234]] will now make an internal link (bug #479)
 148 * PhpTal skins shown bogus 'What links here' etc on special pages (bug #511)
 149 * Experimental code to manage user and group rights (Special:Userlevels)
 150 * UI language switching
 151 * Adding filter and username exact search match for Special:Listusers (bug #770)
 152 * Special:Listadmins outdated, use Special:Listusers instead (bug #857)
 153 * Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion
 154 * New tag "<gallery>" to generate a table of image thumbnails
 155 * Installer die if it can not write LocalSettings.php (bug #733)
 156 * Various special pages no more show the rss/atom feed links (bug #705)
 157 * Support for external authentication plug-ins
 158 * (bug 114) use category backlinks in Special:Recentchangeslinked
 159 * ... and more!
 160
 161 === Caveats ===
 162
 163 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 164 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 165 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 166 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 167 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 168
 169 The new 'MonoBook' skin is not compatible with PHP 5 due to bugs in the
 170 underlying PHPTAL library. It will be automatically disabled when running
 171 on PHP5; the older look and feel will be used instead.
 172
 173
 174 For notes on 1.3.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 175
 176
 177 === Online documentation ===
 178
 179 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 180 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 181 License:
 182
 183   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents
 184
 185
 186 === Mailing list ===
 187
 188 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 189 wikitech-l list:
 190
 191   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 192
 193
 194 === IRC help ===
 195
 196 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net