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