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 * ...and more!
  17
  18 Need to merge:
  19 * stuff
  20
  21
  22 == Version Enotif+Eauthent EN+EA v2.00/CVS, 14.12.2004 ==
  23 written by Thomas Gries, Berlin and Markus Arndt, Munich
  24
  25 Executive summary for the impatient reader:
  26
  27 Enotif adds e-mail notification to MediaWiki and sends e-mails
  28 to watching users when a watch-listed page or user_talk page is changed
  29 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454
  30 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Enotif
  31
  32 Eauthent is a mechanism to use a temporary one-time password cycle
  33 to check whether the email address a user has entered is a valid one.
  34 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=866
  35 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Eauthent
  36
  37 The current patch has only been checked for (see DefaultSettings.php):
  38
  39 - php mail()
  40   ( = not using PEAR:Mail() module --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  41   $wgSMTP = false;
  42 - MySQL database
  43   ( = not using PostgreSQL --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  44   $wgDBtype = "mysql";
  45   $wgSearchType = "MyISAM";
  46
  47 - STILL TODO:
  48   NEW (newpageletter) and CORR (minoreditletter) markers needs
  49   corresponding "spacers"
  50
  51 - table user_newtalk dropped; changes on usertalk pages and their
  52   notifications are now fully handled via existing table watchlist
  53   The user interface and behavious is unchanged to previous version.
  54 - updaters.inc for compatibility with older mediawiki tables:
  55   the conversion script converts existing user_newtalk entries
  56   watchlist table entries
  57   (user_newtalk) id ==> (watchlist) NS_USER_TALK:namefromId(id) timestamp=1
  58 - minor bug fixes:
  59   updated marker now correctly shown on watchlist page
  60   watching users number display with enhanced RC view + RCUseModStyle
  61 - wfUrlencode() instead of rawurlencode() in enotif mails
  62 - duplicate enotif code moved from UserTalkUpdate.php and
  63   merged into UserMailer.php and using usermailer() solely
  64 - fixed an enotif mail text error for user names with spaces
  65 - fixed missing part for suppressing watching user number
  66
  67 v1.36:
  68 magic watchlist shows and counts now only the content page, notwithstanding
  69 the content and talk page are stored separately in watchlist.
  70 * bug fixed: rawurlencode for pagetitles in enotif mails
  71 * bug fixed: link to userpages of anonymous user are correct now
  72
  73 * Enotif v1.34
  74  bugs fixed regarding missing $oldid parameter
  75
  76 * v1.33
  77 * Details:
  78  Implements almost all enotif options as user preferences.
  79  These are only shown on the user preference page, if they are globally
  80  enabled by the corresponding admin option in DefaultSettings.php.
  81  Added admin feature to let enotifs appear to come from the page editor.
  82  This facilitates automatic mail sorting and anti-spam filtering; feature was
  83  originally proposed by Nick Triantos, thank you !
  84  Page editor's email address is however only shown, if this user enabled
  85  the option "reveal my email address" in user preferences. Otherwise,
  86  the enotifs appear to come from WikiAdmin as usual (tricky to program,
  87  but simply trust the algorithm. or look into UserMailer.php and
  88  UserTalkPage.php).
  89
  90 * Changes from previous enotif versions
  91 * v1.31 is an improved version with many security and also cosmetic changes
  92  applied after two first reviews by Brion Vibber. v1.31 is basically the same as
  93  the older Enotif v1.30 and v1.22 versions.
  94
  95  Added UseMod style for recent changes view so that only the most recent
  96  change of any page is listed. The (diff) and (hist) still allow to retrieve the
  97  older versions at users' discretion, but the RC view is much cleaner for
  98  trusted environments such as medium-size companies or family wikis.
  99
 100 * Enotif v1.30 redesign after review by Brion Vibber 25.10.2003
 101
 102 * v1.22 "updated (since my last visit)" also shown for users without stored
 103  email address in preferences, so that they can see, what watched pages
 104  have changed.
 105 * show "updated (since my last visit)" markers in RC, history and watchlist
 106 * Systemvariables to suppress updated marker in all views
 107 * show number of watching users in RC and on bottom of articles in
 108  classic skin and in monobook skin
 109 * Systemvariables in DefaultSettings.php to enable or disable features
 110 * v1.21 now suppresses displaying the marker "updated (since my last visit)"
 111  in recent changes view for the older (already visited) versions of watched
 112  pages - i.e. page versions before the enotif was sent do not bear that
 113  marker any longer.
 114 * enotif mails come with a link to the diff view between current and last
 115  visited version of the watching user.
 116 *database structure is changed automatically when installing via the
 117  recommended way (starting index.php and re-using the old database name).
 118         run php /maintenance/update.php
 119  OR see /maintenance/archives/patch-email-notification.sql and apply the
 120  command
 121         ALTER TABLE  watchlist
 122         ADD (wl_notificationtimestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '0');
 123  manually to your database, which does not harm the non notification versions
 124
 125 *adding a page x to the watchlist does automatically add a watch
 126   for the accompanying talk_page talk:x and vice versa;
 127
 128 == MediaWiki 1.4 BETA ==
 129
 130 [Not everything is 100% working in beta yet, the installer needs fixes still.]
 131
 132 Major changes from 1.3.x:
 133 * Support for table prefixes for better sharing with other web apps
 134 * (?) PostgreSQL support
 135 * Optional article validation voting features
 136 * 'Recentchanges Patrol' to mark new edits that haven't yet been viewed
 137 * Support for faster C++ diff module (WikiDiff extension)
 138 * More scary link caching modes
 139 * Old manually maintained log pages replaced with searchable Special:Log
 140 * Skins system more modular: templates and CSS are now in /skins/
 141 * New user preference for limitting the image size for images on image description
 142   pages
 143 * Error pages no more offer edit / talk / watch links (bug #502)
 144 * Allow user to preview article on first edit (bug #530)
 145 * New dark background skin named Amethyst (thanks Sorwena and Sorkhiri)
 146 * [[RFC 1234]] will now make an internal link (bug #479)
 147 * PhpTal skins shown bogus 'What links here' etc on special pages (bug #511)
 148 * Experimental code to manage user and group rights (Special:Userlevels)
 149 * UI language switching
 150 * Adding filter and username exact search match for Special:Listusers (bug #770)
 151 * Special:Listadmins outdated, use Special:Listusers instead (bug #857)
 152 * Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion
 153 * New tag "<gallery>" to generate a table of image thumbnails
 154 * Installer die if it can not write LocalSettings.php (bug #733)
 155 * Various special pages no more show the rss/atom feed links (bug #705)
 156 * Support for external authentication plug-ins
 157 * (bug 114) use category backlinks in Special:Recentchangeslinked
 158 * ... and more!
 159
 160 === Caveats ===
 161
 162 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 163 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 164 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 165 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 166 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 167
 168 The new 'MonoBook' skin is not compatible with PHP 5 due to bugs in the
 169 underlying PHPTAL library. It will be automatically disabled when running
 170 on PHP5; the older look and feel will be used instead.
 171
 172
 173 For notes on 1.3.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 174
 175
 176 === Online documentation ===
 177
 178 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 179 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 180 License:
 181
 182   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents
 183
 184
 185 === Mailing list ===
 186
 187 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 188 wikitech-l list:
 189
 190   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 191
 192
 193 === IRC help ===
 194
 195 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net