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 &mdash; 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 1015) support for the full wikisyntax in <gallery> captions.
  20 * (bug 1105) A "Destination filename" (save as) added to Special:Upload Upload.
  21 * (bug 1352) Images on description pages now get thumbnailed regardless of whether the thumbnail is larger than the original.
  22 * (bug 1662) A new magicword, {{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}} returns the abbreviation of the current month
  23 * (bug 1668) 'Date format' supported for other languages than English, see:
  24   http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2005-March/028364.html
  25 * (bug 1739) A new magicword, {{REVISIONID}} give you the article or diff database
  26   revision id, useful for proper citation.
  27 * It's now possible to invert the namespace selection at Special:Allpages and Special:Contributions
  28 * ...and more!
  29
  30 Need to merge:
  31 * stuff
  32
  33
  34 == Version Enotif+Eauthent EN+EA v2.00/CVS, 14.12.2004 ==
  35 written by Thomas Gries, Berlin and Markus Arndt, Munich
  36
  37 Executive summary for the impatient reader:
  38
  39 Enotif adds e-mail notification to MediaWiki and sends e-mails
  40 to watching users when a watch-listed page or user_talk page is changed
  41 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454
  42 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Enotif
  43
  44 Eauthent is a mechanism to use a temporary one-time password cycle
  45 to check whether the email address a user has entered is a valid one.
  46 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=866
  47 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Eauthent
  48
  49 The current patch has only been checked for (see DefaultSettings.php):
  50
  51 - php mail()
  52   ( = not using PEAR:Mail() module --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  53   $wgSMTP = false;
  54 - MySQL database
  55   ( = not using PostgreSQL --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  56   $wgDBtype = "mysql";
  57   $wgSearchType = "MyISAM";
  58
  59 - STILL TODO:
  60   NEW (newpageletter) and CORR (minoreditletter) markers needs
  61   corresponding "spacers"
  62
  63 - table user_newtalk dropped; changes on usertalk pages and their
  64   notifications are now fully handled via existing table watchlist
  65   The user interface and behavious is unchanged to previous version.
  66 - updaters.inc for compatibility with older mediawiki tables:
  67   the conversion script converts existing user_newtalk entries
  68   watchlist table entries
  69   (user_newtalk) id ==> (watchlist) NS_USER_TALK:namefromId(id) timestamp=1
  70 - minor bug fixes:
  71   updated marker now correctly shown on watchlist page
  72   watching users number display with enhanced RC view + RCUseModStyle
  73 - wfUrlencode() instead of rawurlencode() in enotif mails
  74 - duplicate enotif code moved from UserTalkUpdate.php and
  75   merged into UserMailer.php and using usermailer() solely
  76 - fixed an enotif mail text error for user names with spaces
  77 - fixed missing part for suppressing watching user number
  78
  79 v1.36:
  80 magic watchlist shows and counts now only the content page, notwithstanding
  81 the content and talk page are stored separately in watchlist.
  82 * bug fixed: rawurlencode for pagetitles in enotif mails
  83 * bug fixed: link to userpages of anonymous user are correct now
  84
  85 * Enotif v1.34
  86  bugs fixed regarding missing $oldid parameter
  87
  88 * v1.33
  89 * Details:
  90  Implements almost all enotif options as user preferences.
  91  These are only shown on the user preference page, if they are globally
  92  enabled by the corresponding admin option in DefaultSettings.php.
  93  Added admin feature to let enotifs appear to come from the page editor.
  94  This facilitates automatic mail sorting and anti-spam filtering; feature was
  95  originally proposed by Nick Triantos, thank you !
  96  Page editor's email address is however only shown, if this user enabled
  97  the option "reveal my email address" in user preferences. Otherwise,
  98  the enotifs appear to come from WikiAdmin as usual (tricky to program,
  99  but simply trust the algorithm. or look into UserMailer.php and
 100  UserTalkPage.php).
 101
 102 * Changes from previous enotif versions
 103 * v1.31 is an improved version with many security and also cosmetic changes
 104  applied after two first reviews by Brion Vibber. v1.31 is basically the same as
 105  the older Enotif v1.30 and v1.22 versions.
 106
 107  Added UseMod style for recent changes view so that only the most recent
 108  change of any page is listed. The (diff) and (hist) still allow to retrieve the
 109  older versions at users' discretion, but the RC view is much cleaner for
 110  trusted environments such as medium-size companies or family wikis.
 111
 112 * Enotif v1.30 redesign after review by Brion Vibber 25.10.2003
 113
 114 * v1.22 "updated (since my last visit)" also shown for users without stored
 115  email address in preferences, so that they can see, what watched pages
 116  have changed.
 117 * show "updated (since my last visit)" markers in RC, history and watchlist
 118 * Systemvariables to suppress updated marker in all views
 119 * show number of watching users in RC and on bottom of articles in
 120  classic skin and in monobook skin
 121 * Systemvariables in DefaultSettings.php to enable or disable features
 122 * v1.21 now suppresses displaying the marker "updated (since my last visit)"
 123  in recent changes view for the older (already visited) versions of watched
 124  pages - i.e. page versions before the enotif was sent do not bear that
 125  marker any longer.
 126 * enotif mails come with a link to the diff view between current and last
 127  visited version of the watching user.
 128 *database structure is changed automatically when installing via the
 129  recommended way (starting index.php and re-using the old database name).
 130         run php /maintenance/update.php
 131  OR see /maintenance/archives/patch-email-notification.sql and apply the
 132  command
 133         ALTER TABLE  watchlist
 134         ADD (wl_notificationtimestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '0');
 135  manually to your database, which does not harm the non notification versions
 136
 137 *adding a page x to the watchlist does automatically add a watch
 138   for the accompanying talk_page talk:x and vice versa;
 139
 140 == MediaWiki 1.4 BETA ==
 141
 142 [Not everything is 100% working in beta yet, the installer needs fixes still.]
 143
 144 Major changes from 1.3.x:
 145 * Support for table prefixes for better sharing with other web apps
 146 * (?) PostgreSQL support
 147 * Optional article validation voting features
 148 * 'Recentchanges Patrol' to mark new edits that haven't yet been viewed
 149 * Support for faster C++ diff module (WikiDiff extension)
 150 * More scary link caching modes
 151 * Old manually maintained log pages replaced with searchable Special:Log
 152 * Skins system more modular: templates and CSS are now in /skins/
 153 * New user preference for limitting the image size for images on image description
 154   pages
 155 * Error pages no more offer edit / talk / watch links (bug #502)
 156 * Allow user to preview article on first edit (bug #530)
 157 * New dark background skin named Amethyst (thanks Sorwena and Sorkhiri)
 158 * [[RFC 1234]] will now make an internal link (bug #479)
 159 * PhpTal skins shown bogus 'What links here' etc on special pages (bug #511)
 160 * Experimental code to manage user and group rights (Special:Userlevels)
 161 * UI language switching
 162 * Adding filter and username exact search match for Special:Listusers (bug #770)
 163 * Special:Listadmins outdated, use Special:Listusers instead (bug #857)
 164 * Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion
 165 * New tag "<gallery>" to generate a table of image thumbnails
 166 * Installer die if it can not write LocalSettings.php (bug #733)
 167 * Various special pages no more show the rss/atom feed links (bug #705)
 168 * Support for external authentication plug-ins
 169 * (bug 114) use category backlinks in Special:Recentchangeslinked
 170 * ... and more!
 171
 172 === Caveats ===
 173
 174 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 175 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 176 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 177 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 178 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 179
 180 The new 'MonoBook' skin is not compatible with PHP 5 due to bugs in the
 181 underlying PHPTAL library. It will be automatically disabled when running
 182 on PHP5; the older look and feel will be used instead.
 183
 184
 185 For notes on 1.3.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 186
 187
 188 === Online documentation ===
 189
 190 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 191 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 192 License:
 193
 194   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents
 195
 196
 197 === Mailing list ===
 198
 199 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 200 wikitech-l list:
 201
 202   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 203
 204
 205 === IRC help ===
 206
 207 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net