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