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 510): Special:Randompage now works for other namespaces than NS_MAIN.
  20 * (bug 1015) support for the full wikisyntax in <gallery> captions.
  21 * (bug 1105) A "Destination filename" (save as) added to Special:Upload Upload.
  22 * (bug 1352) Images on description pages now get thumbnailed regardless of whether the thumbnail is larger than the original.
  23 * (bug 1662) A new magicword, {{CURRENTMONTHABBREV}} returns the abbreviation of the current month
  24 * (bug 1668) 'Date format' supported for other languages than English, see:
  25   http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2005-March/028364.html
  26 * (bug 1739) A new magicword, {{REVISIONID}} give you the article or diff database
  27   revision id, useful for proper citation.
  28 * It's now possible to invert the namespace selection at Special:Allpages and Special:Contributions
  29 * No longer using sorbs.net to check for open proxies by default.
  30 * ...and more!
  31
  32 Need to merge:
  33 * stuff
  34
  35
  36 == Version Enotif+Eauthent EN+EA v2.00/CVS, 14.12.2004 ==
  37 written by Thomas Gries, Berlin and Markus Arndt, Munich
  38
  39 Executive summary for the impatient reader:
  40
  41 Enotif adds e-mail notification to MediaWiki and sends e-mails
  42 to watching users when a watch-listed page or user_talk page is changed
  43 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=454
  44 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Enotif
  45
  46 Eauthent is a mechanism to use a temporary one-time password cycle
  47 to check whether the email address a user has entered is a valid one.
  48 http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=866
  49 Visit the complete documentation on http://meta.wikipedia.org/Eauthent
  50
  51 The current patch has only been checked for (see DefaultSettings.php):
  52
  53 - php mail()
  54   ( = not using PEAR:Mail() module --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  55   $wgSMTP = false;
  56 - MySQL database
  57   ( = not using PostgreSQL --- I do not know anyone who uses that)
  58   $wgDBtype = "mysql";
  59   $wgSearchType = "MyISAM";
  60
  61 - STILL TODO:
  62   NEW (newpageletter) and CORR (minoreditletter) markers needs
  63   corresponding "spacers"
  64
  65 - table user_newtalk dropped; changes on usertalk pages and their
  66   notifications are now fully handled via existing table watchlist
  67   The user interface and behavious is unchanged to previous version.
  68 - updaters.inc for compatibility with older mediawiki tables:
  69   the conversion script converts existing user_newtalk entries
  70   watchlist table entries
  71   (user_newtalk) id ==> (watchlist) NS_USER_TALK:namefromId(id) timestamp=1
  72 - minor bug fixes:
  73   updated marker now correctly shown on watchlist page
  74   watching users number display with enhanced RC view + RCUseModStyle
  75 - wfUrlencode() instead of rawurlencode() in enotif mails
  76 - duplicate enotif code moved from UserTalkUpdate.php and
  77   merged into UserMailer.php and using usermailer() solely
  78 - fixed an enotif mail text error for user names with spaces
  79 - fixed missing part for suppressing watching user number
  80
  81 v1.36:
  82 magic watchlist shows and counts now only the content page, notwithstanding
  83 the content and talk page are stored separately in watchlist.
  84 * bug fixed: rawurlencode for pagetitles in enotif mails
  85 * bug fixed: link to userpages of anonymous user are correct now
  86
  87 * Enotif v1.34
  88  bugs fixed regarding missing $oldid parameter
  89
  90 * v1.33
  91 * Details:
  92  Implements almost all enotif options as user preferences.
  93  These are only shown on the user preference page, if they are globally
  94  enabled by the corresponding admin option in DefaultSettings.php.
  95  Added admin feature to let enotifs appear to come from the page editor.
  96  This facilitates automatic mail sorting and anti-spam filtering; feature was
  97  originally proposed by Nick Triantos, thank you !
  98  Page editor's email address is however only shown, if this user enabled
  99  the option "reveal my email address" in user preferences. Otherwise,
 100  the enotifs appear to come from WikiAdmin as usual (tricky to program,
 101  but simply trust the algorithm. or look into UserMailer.php and
 102  UserTalkPage.php).
 103
 104 * Changes from previous enotif versions
 105 * v1.31 is an improved version with many security and also cosmetic changes
 106  applied after two first reviews by Brion Vibber. v1.31 is basically the same as
 107  the older Enotif v1.30 and v1.22 versions.
 108
 109  Added UseMod style for recent changes view so that only the most recent
 110  change of any page is listed. The (diff) and (hist) still allow to retrieve the
 111  older versions at users' discretion, but the RC view is much cleaner for
 112  trusted environments such as medium-size companies or family wikis.
 113
 114 * Enotif v1.30 redesign after review by Brion Vibber 25.10.2003
 115
 116 * v1.22 "updated (since my last visit)" also shown for users without stored
 117  email address in preferences, so that they can see, what watched pages
 118  have changed.
 119 * show "updated (since my last visit)" markers in RC, history and watchlist
 120 * Systemvariables to suppress updated marker in all views
 121 * show number of watching users in RC and on bottom of articles in
 122  classic skin and in monobook skin
 123 * Systemvariables in DefaultSettings.php to enable or disable features
 124 * v1.21 now suppresses displaying the marker "updated (since my last visit)"
 125  in recent changes view for the older (already visited) versions of watched
 126  pages - i.e. page versions before the enotif was sent do not bear that
 127  marker any longer.
 128 * enotif mails come with a link to the diff view between current and last
 129  visited version of the watching user.
 130 *database structure is changed automatically when installing via the
 131  recommended way (starting index.php and re-using the old database name).
 132         run php /maintenance/update.php
 133  OR see /maintenance/archives/patch-email-notification.sql and apply the
 134  command
 135         ALTER TABLE  watchlist
 136         ADD (wl_notificationtimestamp varchar(14) binary NOT NULL default '0');
 137  manually to your database, which does not harm the non notification versions
 138
 139 *adding a page x to the watchlist does automatically add a watch
 140   for the accompanying talk_page talk:x and vice versa;
 141
 142 == MediaWiki 1.4 BETA ==
 143
 144 [Not everything is 100% working in beta yet, the installer needs fixes still.]
 145
 146 Major changes from 1.3.x:
 147 * Support for table prefixes for better sharing with other web apps
 148 * (?) PostgreSQL support
 149 * Optional article validation voting features
 150 * 'Recentchanges Patrol' to mark new edits that haven't yet been viewed
 151 * Support for faster C++ diff module (WikiDiff extension)
 152 * More scary link caching modes
 153 * Old manually maintained log pages replaced with searchable Special:Log
 154 * Skins system more modular: templates and CSS are now in /skins/
 155 * New user preference for limitting the image size for images on image description
 156   pages
 157 * Error pages no more offer edit / talk / watch links (bug #502)
 158 * Allow user to preview article on first edit (bug #530)
 159 * New dark background skin named Amethyst (thanks Sorwena and Sorkhiri)
 160 * [[RFC 1234]] will now make an internal link (bug #479)
 161 * PhpTal skins shown bogus 'What links here' etc on special pages (bug #511)
 162 * Experimental code to manage user and group rights (Special:Userlevels)
 163 * UI language switching
 164 * Adding filter and username exact search match for Special:Listusers (bug #770)
 165 * Special:Listadmins outdated, use Special:Listusers instead (bug #857)
 166 * Traditional/Simplified Chinese conversion
 167 * New tag "<gallery>" to generate a table of image thumbnails
 168 * Installer die if it can not write LocalSettings.php (bug #733)
 169 * Various special pages no more show the rss/atom feed links (bug #705)
 170 * Support for external authentication plug-ins
 171 * (bug 114) use category backlinks in Special:Recentchangeslinked
 172 * ... and more!
 173
 174 === Caveats ===
 175
 176 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 177 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 178 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 179 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 180 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 181
 182 The new 'MonoBook' skin is not compatible with PHP 5 due to bugs in the
 183 underlying PHPTAL library. It will be automatically disabled when running
 184 on PHP5; the older look and feel will be used instead.
 185
 186
 187 For notes on 1.3.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 188
 189
 190 === Online documentation ===
 191
 192 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 193 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 194 License:
 195
 196   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Contents
 197
 198
 199 === Mailing list ===
 200
 201 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 202 wikitech-l list:
 203
 204   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 205
 206
 207 === IRC help ===
 208
 209 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net