RELEASE-NOTES

   1 = MediaWiki release notes =
   2
   3 == Version 1.3.0beta1, 2004-05-21 ==
   4
   5 **** THIS IS A BETA AND MAY STUNT YOUR GROWTH OR KILL YOUR PETS ****
   6
   7 Look & layout:
   8 * New default layout 'MonoBook'
   9 * Print stylesheet now built-in to every page
  10 * More or less correct XHTML 1.0 (served as text/html by default)
  11
  12 Wiki features:
  13 * Image captions can now include links and other basic formatting
  14 * Image bounding box can be specified instead of width, e.g. as
  15   100x100px, making the image not wider than 100px and not higher
  16   than 100px, keeping aspect ratio.
  17 * Templates have been expanded with parameters, and separated from
  18   the MediaWiki: localization scheme.
  19 * Categories more or less work
  20
  21 Editing:
  22 * Automatic merging of edit conflicts that don't directly interfere
  23 * Edit summaries can now include basic formatting and links
  24
  25 Metadata and output:
  26 * Linked Creative Commons copyright metadata (optional)
  27 * RSS 2.0 feeds for Recent Changes, New Pages
  28
  29 Optional modules:
  30 * WikiHiero hieroglyphic module can be added (separate download)
  31 * Timeline module can be added (separate download).
  32   Requires ploticus.
  33 * TeX now has an experimental MathML output mode (incomplete)
  34
  35 Installation and upgrading:
  36 * The old install.php and update.php have been removed. In-place
  37   installation introduced in 1.2 is now the standard installation
  38   and upgrade method, see INSTALL for directions.
  39
  40 Database:
  41 * The links table has been changed to use a cur_id for l_from.
  42   The link tables must be converted on upgrade, which may entail
  43   some downtime.
  44
  45 Code and compatibility:
  46 * Should now run clean with error reporting set to E_ALL.
  47 * register_globals hack from 1.2 has been replaced with safer code
  48 * Bundled PHPTAL 0.7.0 from http://phptal.sourceforge.net/
  49   (with some patches)
  50 * Most image-related code moved to Image.php
  51 * More fixes for PHP 4.1.2 (thanks to Asheesh Laroia)
  52 * URL encoding fix for anchors
  53
  54 === Caveats ===
  55
  56 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
  57 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
  58 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
  59 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
  60 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
  61
  62
  63 == Version 1.2.5, 2004-05-01 ==
  64 * Fixed install problem with blank root password
  65 * Fixed Special:Emailuser/Username links
  66 * Fixed main-page edit links on fuzzy search results
  67 * Fixed wikipedia-interwiki.sql
  68 * Fixed install with apache2filter (ugly URLs)
  69 * IP in 'go' search brings up contributions
  70 * Switch from broken & to ? on top-level wiki URL hack
  71
  72 == Version 1.2.4, 2004-04-13 ==
  73
  74 * Fixed edit toolbar in Mozilla
  75 * Diff links in Contributions for 'top' edits
  76 * Fixed Nostalgia skin drop-down for register_globals off
  77 * Backported optional open proxy blocker
  78 * Backported $wgWhitelistRead
  79 * $wgCapitalLinks option to force full case sensitivity in titles
  80 * Cleaned up error handling when can't talk to database
  81 * Disabled unsafe command-line installer (remove the "die()" call to use)
  82
  83 == Version 1.2.3, 2004-04-02 ==
  84
  85 * Fixed an in-place install bug with non-root MySQL user
  86 * Fixed history diff checkboxes bug on titles with ampersands
  87 * Fixed printable link bug on special pages with parameters
  88 * Fixed bug that broke IP blocking w/o memcached
  89 * Turns off E_NOTICE warnings if PHP settings have them on
  90   (you can grope in and turn this off if you like to debug)
  91
  92 == Version 1.2.2, 2004-03-28 ==
  93
  94 * Fixed an upgrade bug introduced in 1.2.1.
  95 * Disabled $wgUseCategoryMagic, which feature is incomplete broken
  96
  97 == Version 1.2.1, 2004-03-27 ==
  98
  99 Installation, compatibility, security fixlets:
 100 * Detect use of PHP as CGI and disable index.php/Title URLs
 101 * Try to auto-create math tmp & output directories if not present
 102 * Disable Asksql in default install ($wgAllowSysopQueries)
 103 * Better handling of get_magic_quotes_gpc (apostrophe problems)
 104 * French localisation no longer hard-codes "Wikipedia" name
 105
 106 == Version 1.2.0 ==
 107
 108 New features in 1.2:
 109 * Image resizing/thumbnail generation
 110 * Stricter upload file extension blacklist and whitelist options
 111 * More flexible blocking system; time period may be set
 112 * Handier sysop account management. An account marked "bureaucrat"
 113   may assign sysop access to other accounts via Special:Makesysop.
 114   (The exact details of this may change in the future)
 115 * Support for a squid cache with explicit purging of cached anon pages
 116 * Optional compression of old revision text (requires zlib support)
 117 * Fuzzy title search (experimental, requires memcached)
 118 * Page rendering cache (experimental)
 119 * Editing toolbar to demonstrate wiki syntax to newbies
 120   (off by default in user preferences)
 121 * Support for authenticated SMTP outgoing e-mail (experimental)
 122 * It's now possible to assign sysop accounts from within the wiki.
 123   An account with this ability must be labeled with the "bureaucrat"
 124   privilege, such as the 'Developer' account created by the install.
 125
 126 Fixes and tweaks:
 127 * Now works with register_globals off!
 128 * Works with short tags disabled.
 129 * Should work out of the box on MySQL 3.2.x again. On 4.x set
 130   $wgEnablePersistentLC = true; to turn on the link cache table
 131   for a slight rendering speed boost.
 132 * rebuildMessages.php can now selectively update new messages, or
 133   overwrite everything.
 134 * Various bug fixes.
 135 * Other stuff we forgot.
 136 * Documentation more out of date than ever before!
 137
 138 === Behavior changes ===
 139
 140 * wiki.phtml and redirect.phtml are now renamed to index.php and redirect.php
 141   The old names are provided too for compatibility, but make sure they don't
 142   conflict if you've been putting other files in your wiki.
 143 * Uploaded filenames are more strictly checked than before. See bits in
 144   DefaultSettings.php to tweak this behavior to your needs.
 145 * Database messages are now enabled by default, so the interface messages can
 146   be tweaked through the wiki with a sysop account. Disable this if you
 147   don't want the performance hit.
 148
 149 === Database changes ===
 150
 151 An index was added to recentchanges table to speed up Newpages
 152 (patch-rc-newindex.sql for manual updaters).
 153
 154 Expiration date field has been added to ipblocks table
 155 (patch-ipb_expiry.sql for manual updaters).
 156
 157
 158 == Version 1.1.0, 2003-12-08 ==
 159
 160 This is the new production release. Any following 1.1.x releases are expected
 161 to contain only bug fixes; developments of new features will go towards a 1.2.0
 162 release.
 163
 164 New features in 1.1:
 165 * New wiki table syntax:
 166   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User%27s_Guide:_Using_tables
 167 * User-editable interface messages:
 168   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_namespace
 169 * XML-wrapped page source export with optional history:
 170   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_import_and_export
 171   (There is not yet an import function!)
 172 * "Magic words"
 173
 174 Fixes and tweaks:
 175 * linkscc table caches link data for rendering; faster rebuildlinks.php
 176 * Numerous bugs in Cologne Blue skin fixed
 177 * Login gives warning about missing cookies
 178 * Block log, protection log added; deletion log now includes undeletions
 179 * Deletion & upload logs now escape comment text properly
 180 * Problems with <nowiki> segments in section titles etc mitigated
 181 * Contributions offset and minor edit bugs fixed
 182 * Whatlinkshere now sorted alphabetically
 183 * Various exciting new profiling options.
 184 * Debug log is off by default.
 185 * Various small bugs fixed.
 186
 187 Internal changes:
 188 * wfQuery has had a second parameter inserted, DB_READ or DB_WRITE. This value
 189   is not actually used so far.
 190 * Partial code for categories and Smarty template-based skins is in the tree
 191   but disabled.
 192 * Parts of Article.php have been moved to EditPage.php and ImagePage.php.
 193
 194 New translations:
 195 * fi - Finnish
 196 * ia - Interlingua
 197 * no - Norwegian
 198 * sk - Slovak
 199 * ta - Tamil
 200
 201 === Database changes ===
 202
 203 "linkscc" table added. If upgrading manually (rather than with update.php),
 204 run maintenance/archives/patch-linkscc.sql to create the table.
 205
 206 Older releases were dated snapshots from the old 'stable' branch:
 207
 208 == mediawiki-20031118 ==
 209
 210 * Image deletion fixed.
 211 * Deletion of image old revisions now restricted to sysops
 212   (this is an irreversible action and not well logged)
 213 * Fixed maintenance scripts broken by last release's security fix
 214 * Many errors in rebuildlinks script fixed.
 215
 216 == mediawiki-20031117 ==
 217
 218 * SECURITY FIX: stricter checking of include path
 219 * Fixed user contributions next/prev bug
 220 * Login cookies now have the database name prefixed to allow wikis
 221   to coexist in the same domain. This will invalidate any old saved
 222   password cookies.
 223 * Update cache timestamp when talk pages are created
 224 * Saving the login form in Mozilla no longer blanks password in prefs.
 225 * Check existence of source page before performing a move.
 226 * Detect invalid titles in Special:Allpages
 227 * Q-encode headers on outgoing inter-user e-mail
 228 * Updates to some translations.
 229 * Added table of contents border/bg to Cologne Blue, Nostalgia skins
 230 * Protected pages no longer appear unprotected when visited via redirect
 231 * Swapped old Wikipedia logo for the MediaWiki sunflower logo
 232 * install.php, update.php print warning on old PHP versions,
 233   added compatibility functions that might or might not help
 234
 235 No database changes since 20031107; upgrading should be clean.
 236
 237
 238 == mediawiki-20031107 ==
 239
 240 * Fixed various bugs!
 241 * Some speed improvements from tweaks to the table indexes
 242 * Limited support for memcached (see below)
 243 * New translations (see below)
 244 * Interwiki link data now kept in database for flexibility
 245 * Friendlier read-only source view if asked to edit a page when
 246   the db is locked or the page is protected.
 247 * Normal IP blocks auto-expire after 24 hours
 248 * Optional support for blocking usernames
 249 * Uploads disabled by default (see below)
 250
 251
 252 === Security note ===
 253
 254 Uploads are now disabled by default. If you've set up a secure configuration
 255 you can reenable uploads by putting:
 256
 257   $wgDisableUploads = false;
 258
 259 into LocalSettings.php.
 260
 261 Earlier versions of MediaWiki included a bug that potentially allows logged-
 262 in users to delete arbitrary files in directories writable by the web server
 263 user by manually feeding false form data; this is now fixed.
 264
 265 As a reminder, disable PHP script execution in the upload directory!
 266 You may also wish to serve HTML pages as plaintext to prevent cookie-
 267 stealing JavaScript attacks. Example Apache config fragment:
 268
 269   <Directory "/Library/MediaWiki/web/upload">
 270      # Ignore .htaccess files
 271      AllowOverride None
 272
 273      # Serve HTML as plaintext
 274      AddType text/plain .html .htm .shtml
 275
 276      # Don't run arbitrary PHP code.
 277      php_admin_flag engine off
 278
 279      # If you've other scripting languages, disable them too.
 280   </Directory>
 281
 282
 283 === Database updates ===
 284
 285 If you're using update.php, the necessary database changes should
 286 be made automatically.
 287
 288 To manually upgrade your database from the 2003-08-29 release, run the
 289 following SQL scripts from the maintenance subdirectory:
 290
 291   archives/patch-ipblocks.sql
 292   archives/patch-interwiki.sql
 293   archives/patch-indexes.sql
 294   interwiki.sql
 295
 296 To copy in the Wikipedia language-prefix interwikis as well, add:
 297
 298   wikipedia-interwiki.sql
 299
 300
 301 === Translations ===
 302
 303 New interface localization files are included for:
 304   fy Frisian
 305   ro Romanian
 306   sl Slovene
 307   sq Albanian
 308   sr Serbian
 309
 310
 311 === Memcached ===
 312
 313 Memcached is a distributed cache system. See http://www.danga.com/memcached/
 314 MediaWiki can optionally use memcached to store some data between calls
 315 to reduce load on the database. Currently this is limited to user and
 316 talk page notification data, interwiki prefix/URL matches, and the
 317 UTF-8 conversion tables.
 318
 319 MediaWiki includes version 1.0.10 of the (GPL'd) PHP memcached client by
 320 Ryan Gilfether; if memcached is disabled it acts as a dummy object with
 321 minimal overhead.
 322
 323 To use memcached you'll need PHP installed with sockets support (this is not
 324 in the default configure options). See docs/memcached for some more details.
 325
 326 Additionally, you can store login session data in memcached instead of the
 327 local filesystem, which can help to enable load-balancing by letting login
 328 sessions transparently work on multiple front-end web servers. (The primary
 329 other issue is with uploads, which requires some care in handling.)
 330
 331 To enable this, set $wgSessionsInMemcached = true; and set $wgCookieDomain
 332 appropriately if exposing multiple hostnames. This system is new and may be
 333 volatile; login sessions will fail dramatically if memcached is unavailable
 334 when this option is turned on.
 335
 336
 337 === Online documentation ===
 338
 339 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 340 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 341 License:
 342
 343   http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User%27s_Guide
 344
 345
 346 === Mailing list ===
 347
 348 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 349 wikitech-l list:
 350
 351   http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 352
 353
 354 === UseModWiki import script ===
 355
 356 A stripped-down UseModWiki import script is available in the maintenance
 357 subdirectory. It is incomplete and requires a lot of manual clean-up, but
 358 does function for the brave and pure of heart.
 359
 360
 361 === Test suite removed ===
 362
 363 The unmaintained Java-based test suite has been removed from the tarball
 364 release. If you really want it you can check it out from CVS.
 365
 366
 367 == mediawiki-20030829 ==
 368
 369 First release under MediaWiki name.