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 * (bug 15) Allow editors to view diff of their change before actually submitting an edit
  18 * (bug 190) Hide your own edits on the watchlist
  19 * (bug 1739) Magic keyword {{REVISIONID}} give you the article or diff database
  20 ~ revision id, useful for proper citation.
  21 * ...and more!
  22
  23 Need to merge:
  24 * stuff
  25
  26
  27 == Version Enotif+Eauthent EN+EA v2.00/CVS, 14.12.2004 ==
  28 written by Thomas Gries, Berlin and Markus Arndt, Munich
  29
  30 Executive summary for the impatient reader:
  31
  32 Enotif adds e-mail notification to MediaWiki and sends e-mails
  33 to watching users when a watch-listed page or user_talk page is changed
  34 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454
  35 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Enotif
  36
  37 Eauthent is a mechanism to use a temporary one-time password cycle
  38 to check whether the email address a user has entered is a valid one.
  39 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=866
  40 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Eauthent
  41
  42 The current patch has only been checked for (see DefaultSettings.php):
  43
  44 - php mail()
  45   ( = not using PEAR:Mail() module --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  46   $wgSMTP = false;
  47 - MySQL database
  48   ( = not using PostgreSQL --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  49   $wgDBtype = "mysql";
  50   $wgSearchType = "MyISAM";
  51
  52 - STILL TODO:
  53   NEW (newpageletter) and CORR (minoreditletter) markers needs
  54   corresponding "spacers"
  55
  56 - table user_newtalk dropped; changes on usertalk pages and their
  57   notifications are now fully handled via existing table watchlist
  58   The user interface and behavious is unchanged to previous version.
  59 - updaters.inc for compatibility with older mediawiki tables:
  60   the conversion script converts existing user_newtalk entries
  61   watchlist table entries
  62   (user_newtalk) id ==> (watchlist) NS_USER_TALK:namefromId(id) timestamp=1
  63 - minor bug fixes:
  64   updated marker now correctly shown on watchlist page
  65   watching users number display with enhanced RC view + RCUseModStyle
  66 - wfUrlencode() instead of rawurlencode() in enotif mails
  67 - duplicate enotif code moved from UserTalkUpdate.php and
  68   merged into UserMailer.php and using usermailer() solely
  69 - fixed an enotif mail text error for user names with spaces
  70 - fixed missing part for suppressing watching user number
  71
  72 v1.36:
  73 magic watchlist shows and counts now only the content page, notwithstanding
  74 the content and talk page are stored separately in watchlist.
  75 * bug fixed: rawurlencode for pagetitles in enotif mails
  76 * bug fixed: link to userpages of anonymous user are correct now
  77
  78 * Enotif v1.34
  79  bugs fixed regarding missing $oldid parameter
  80
  81 * v1.33
  82 * Details:
  83  Implements almost all enotif options as user preferences.
  84  These are only shown on the user preference page, if they are globally
  85  enabled by the corresponding admin option in DefaultSettings.php.
  86  Added admin feature to let enotifs appear to come from the page editor.
  87  This facilitates automatic mail sorting and anti-spam filtering; feature was
  88  originally proposed by Nick Triantos, thank you !
  89  Page editor's email address is however only shown, if this user enabled
  90  the option "reveal my email address" in user preferences. Otherwise,
  91  the enotifs appear to come from WikiAdmin as usual (tricky to program,
  92  but simply trust the algorithm. or look into UserMailer.php and
  93  UserTalkPage.php).
  94
  95 * Changes from previous enotif versions
  96 * v1.31 is an improved version with many security and also cosmetic changes
  97  applied after two first reviews by Brion Vibber. v1.31 is basically the same as
  98  the older Enotif v1.30 and v1.22 versions.
  99
 100  Added UseMod style for recent changes view so that only the most recent
 101  change of any page is listed. The (diff) and (hist) still allow to retrieve the
 102  older versions at users' discretion, but the RC view is much cleaner for
 103  trusted environments such as medium-size companies or family wikis.
 104
 105 * Enotif v1.30 redesign after review by Brion Vibber 25.10.2003
 106
 107 * v1.22 "updated (since my last visit)" also shown for users without stored
 108  email address in preferences, so that they can see, what watched pages
 109  have changed.
 110 * show "updated (since my last visit)" markers in RC, history and watchlist
 111 * Systemvariables to suppress updated marker in all views
 112 * show number of watching users in RC and on bottom of articles in
 113  classic skin and in monobook skin
 114 * Systemvariables in DefaultSettings.php to enable or disable features
 115 * v1.21 now suppresses displaying the marker "updated (since my last visit)"
 116  in recent changes view for the older (already visited) versions of watched
 117  pages - i.e. page versions before the enotif was sent do not bear that
 118  marker any longer.
 119 * enotif mails come with a link to the diff view between current and last
 120  visited version of the watching user.
 121 *database structure is changed automatically when installing via the
 122  recommended way (starting index.php and re-using the old database name).
 123         run php /maintenance/update.php
 124  OR see /maintenance/archives/patch-email-notification.sql and apply the
 125  command
 126         ALTER TABLE  watchlist
 127         ADD (wl_notificationtimestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '0');
 128  manually to your database, which does not harm the non notification versions
 129
 130 *adding a page x to the watchlist does automatically add a watch
 131   for the accompanying talk_page talk:x and vice versa;
 132
 133 == MediaWiki 1.4 BETA ==
 134
 135 [Not everything is 100% working in beta yet, the installer needs fixes still.]
 136
 137 Major changes from 1.3.x:
 138 * Support for table prefixes for better sharing with other web apps
 139 * (?) PostgreSQL support
 140 * Optional article validation voting features
 141 * 'Recentchanges Patrol' to mark new edits that haven't yet been viewed
 142 * Support for faster C++ diff module (WikiDiff extension)
 143 * More scary link caching modes
 144 * Old manually maintained log pages replaced with searchable Special:Log
 145 * Skins system more modular: templates and CSS are now in /skins/
 146 * New user preference for limitting the image size for images on image description
 147   pages
 148 * Error pages no more offer edit / talk / watch links (bug #502)
 149 * Allow user to preview article on first edit (bug #530)
 150 * New dark background skin named Amethyst (thanks Sorwena and Sorkhiri)
 151 * [[RFC 1234]] will now make an internal link (bug #479)
 152 * PhpTal skins shown bogus 'What links here' etc on special pages (bug #511)
 153 * Experimental code to manage user and group rights (Special:Userlevels)
 154 * UI language switching
 155 * Adding filter and username exact search match for Special:Listusers (bug #770)
 156 * Special:Listadmins outdated, use Special:Listusers instead (bug #857)
 157 * Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion
 158 * New tag "<gallery>" to generate a table of image thumbnails
 159 * Installer die if it can not write LocalSettings.php (bug #733)
 160 * Various special pages no more show the rss/atom feed links (bug #705)
 161 * Support for external authentication plug-ins
 162 * (bug 114) use category backlinks in Special:Recentchangeslinked
 163 * ... and more!
 164
 165 === Caveats ===
 166
 167 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 168 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 169 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 170 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 171 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 172
 173 The new 'MonoBook' skin is not compatible with PHP 5 due to bugs in the
 174 underlying PHPTAL library. It will be automatically disabled when running
 175 on PHP5; the older look and feel will be used instead.
 176
 177
 178 For notes on 1.3.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 179
 180
 181 === Online documentation ===
 182
 183 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 184 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 185 License:
 186
 187   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents
 188
 189
 190 === Mailing list ===
 191
 192 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 193 wikitech-l list:
 194
 195   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 196
 197
 198 === IRC help ===
 199
 200 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net