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 == MediaWiki 1.8 ==
   7
   8 THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET.
   9
  10 MediaWiki is now using a "continuous integration" development model with
  11 quarterly snapshot releases. The latest development code is always kept
  12 "ready to run", and in fact runs our own sites on Wikipedia.
  13
  14 Release branches will continue to receive security updates for about a year
  15 from first release, but nonessential bugfixes and feature development happen
  16 will be made on the development trunk and appear in the next quarterly release.
  17
  18 Those wishing to use the latest code instead of a branch release can obtain
  19 it from source control: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_SVN
  20
  21 == Configuration changes ==
  22
  23 * None yet!
  24
  25
  26 == Major new features ==
  27
  28 * (bug 550) Allow blocks on anonymous users only.
  29 * (bug 6420) Render thumbnails for DJVU images, support multipage DJVU display
  30   on image pages. Added new 'page=' thumbnail option to select a page from a
  31   multipage djvu for thumbnail generation.
  32
  33 == Changes since 1.7 ==
  34
  35 * (bug 6562) Removed unmaintained ParserXml.php for now
  36 * History paging overlap bug fixed
  37 * (bug 6586) Regression in "unblocked" subtitle
  38 * Don't put empty-page message into view-source when page text is blank
  39 * (bug 6587) Remove redundant "allnonarticles" message
  40 * Block improvements: Allow blocks on anonymous users only. Optionally allow
  41   or disallow account creation from blocked IP addresses. Prevent duplicate
  42   blocks. Fixed the problem of expiry and unblocking erroneously affecting
  43   multiple blocks. Fixed confusing lack of error message when a blocked user
  44   attempts to create an account. Fixed inefficiency of Special:Ipblocklist in
  45   the presence of large numbers of blocks; added indexes and implemented an
  46   indexed pager.
  47 * (bug 6448) Allow filtering of Special:Newpages according to username
  48 * (bug 6618) Improve permissions/error detection in Special:Lockdb
  49 * Quick hack for extension testing: parser test doesn't create new message
  50   cache object.
  51 * (bug 6299) Maintain parser's revision ID across recursive calls to fix
  52   {{REVISIONID}} when Cite extension is used
  53 * (bug 6622) Removed deprecated function Image::newFromTitle
  54 * (bug 6627) Fix regression in Special:Ipblocklist with table prefix
  55 * Removed forced dereferencements (new() returns a reference in PHP5)
  56 * Note about $wgUploadSizeWarning using byte
  57 * (bug 6592) Add most viewed pages summary to Special:Statistics
  58 * Pre-strip characters ignored in IDNs from URLs so they can't be used
  59   to break the blacklists for regular URLs
  60 * Fix regression in blocking of user accounts
  61 * (bug 6635) Fix regression searching for range blocks on Ipblocklist
  62 * Fix regression searching Ipblocklist with ugly URLs
  63 * (bug 6639) Use a consistent default for upload directories
  64 * Preserve entered reason when reporting unconfirmed lock on Special:Lockdb
  65 * (bug 6642) Don't offer to unlock the database when it isn't locked
  66 * cleanupTitles.php changed from --dry-run option to --fix, so default
  67   behavior is now a non-invasive check as with namespaceDupes.php
  68 * (bug 6660) Fix behaviour of EditPage::blockedPage() when the article does
  69   not exist; now doesn't show the source box if the user hasn't provided it
  70   (blocked mid-edit) and the page doesn't exist
  71 * Improve default value of "blockedtext"
  72 * (bug 6680) Added localisation for Dutch bookstore list (nl)
  73 * Renamed maintainace script redundanttrans.php to unusedMessages.php - clearer usage
  74 * Fix regression which allowed some blocked users to create additional accounts
  75 * (bug 6657) Fix Hungarian linktrail
  76 * (bug 6751) Fix preview of blanked section with edit on first preview option
  77 * (bug 5456) Separate MediaWiki:Search into messages for both noun and verb,
  78   introduced 'MediaWiki:Searchbutton'
  79 * Made lines from initialiseMessages() appear as list items during installation
  80 * Moved the bulk of the localisation data from the Language*.php files to the
  81   Messages*.php files. Deleted most of the Languages*.php files.
  82 * Introduced "stub global" framework to provide deferred initialisation of core
  83   modules.
  84 * Removed placeholder values for $wgTitle and $wgArticle, these variables will
  85   now be null during the initialisation process, until they are set by index.php
  86   or another entry point.
  87 * Added DBA cache type, for BDB-style caches.
  88 * Removed custom date format functions, replacing them with a format string in
  89   the style of PHP's date(). Used string identifiers instead of integer
  90   identifiers, in both the language files and user preferences. Migration should
  91   be transparent in most cases.
  92 * Simplified the initialisation API for LoadBalancer objects.
  93 * Removed the broken altencoding feature.
  94 * Moved default user options and toggles from Language to User. Language objects
  95   are still able to define default preference overrides and extra user toggles,
  96   via a slightly different interface.
  97 * Don't include the date option in the parser cache rendering hash unless
  98   $wgUseDynamicDates is enabled.
  99 * Merged LanguageUtf8 with Language. Removed LanguageUtf8.php.
 100 * Removed inclusion of language files from the bottom of Language.php. This is
 101   now consistently done from Language::factory().
 102 * Add the name of the executing maintenance script to the debug log. Start the
 103   profiler during maintenance scripts.
 104 * Added "serialized" directory, for storing precompiled data in serialized form.
 105 * Fix regression in auto-set NS_PROJECT_TALK namespace
 106 * Fix regression in ordering of namespaces
 107 * (bug 6806, 6030) Added several global JS variables for article path, user name,
 108   page title, etc.
 109 * hooks registered with addOnloadHook are now called at the one of the html body
 110   by all skins.
 111 * Split ajax aided search from core ajax framework. Use wgUseAjax to enable the
 112   framework and wgAjaxSearch to enable the suggest feature for the search box.
 113 * Added experimental installer for extensions.
 114   See maintenance/installExtension.php
 115 * Added Tajic (tg) language file.
 116 * (bug 6903) Added Cantonese localisation (zh-yue)
 117 * Fix regression in Korean and Japanese date formatting (day of week)
 118 * (bug 6919) Add English alias magic words for Tatar (tt) language file.
 119 * (bug 6753) Fixed broken Kazakh linktrail (kk)
 120 * (bug 6700) Added Kazakh language variants to Names.php
 121 * (bug 6827) some i18n specific maintenance scripts fails after merge of localisation-work branch
 122 * Throwed an exception for the deprecated functions OutputPage::sysopRequired and
 123   OutputPage::developerRequired - use OutputPage::permissionRequired instead.
 124 * Removed the deprecated functions User::isSysop, User::isBureaucrat and User::isDeveloper -
 125   use User::isAllowed instead.
 126 * (bug 769) OutputPage::permissionRequired() should suggest groups with the needed permission
 127 * (bug 6971) Fix regression in Special:Export history view
 128 * Revamped Special:Imagelist
 129 * (bug 7000) updated MessagesPl.php
 130 * (bug 6946) Fix unexpected behavior change with GET hits to Special:Export
 131 * (bug 1866) Improve navigation on Special:Listusers; user now a starting
 132   point as with Special:Allpages, rather than a pure limit.
 133 * Clean up tab order on Special:Blockip
 134 * (bug 5969) Clean up tab order on Special:Userlogin forms
 135
 136
 137 == Languages updated ==
 138
 139 * Albanian (sq)
 140 * Belarusian (be)
 141 * Bishnupriya (bpy) stub file
 142 * Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br)
 143 * Catalan (ca)
 144 * Cantonese (zh-yue)
 145 * Dutch (nl)
 146 * English (en)
 147 * French (fr)
 148 * German (de)
 149 * Georgian (ka)
 150 * Hebrew (he)
 151 * Hungarian (hu)
 152 * Indonesian (id)
 153 * Korean (ko)
 154 * Polish (pl)
 155 * Romani (rmy)
 156 * Russian (ru)
 157 * Spanish (es)
 158 * Tajic (tg)
 159 * Tatar (tt)
 160 * Telugu (te)
 161
 162 == Compatibility ==
 163
 164 MediaWiki 1.8 requires PHP 5 (5.1 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
 165
 166 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 167 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 168
 169
 170 == Upgrading ==
 171
 172 Several changes to the database have been made from 1.6:
 173
 174 * A new "langlinks" table tracks interlanguage links
 175 * A new "filearchive" table stores information on deleted files
 176 * A new "querycache_info" table stores information on query page updates
 177
 178 To ensure that these tables are filled with data, run refreshLinks.php after
 179 the upgrade.
 180
 181 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 182 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 183 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 184
 185 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 186
 187
 188
 189 === Caveats ===
 190
 191 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 192 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 193 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 194 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 195 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 196
 197
 198 For notes on 1.5.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 199
 200
 201 === Online documentation ===
 202
 203 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 204 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 205 License:
 206
 207   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 208
 209
 210 === Mailing list ===
 211
 212 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 213 wikitech-l list:
 214
 215   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 216
 217 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 218
 219   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 220
 221 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 222 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 223
 224
 225 === IRC help ===
 226
 227 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net