RELEASE-NOTES-1.25

   1 Security reminder: If you have PHP's register_globals option set, you must
   2 turn it off. MediaWiki will not work with it enabled.
   3
   4 == MediaWiki 1.25 ==
   5
   6 THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET
   7
   8 MediaWiki 1.25 is an alpha-quality branch and is not recommended for use in
   9 production.
  10
  11 === Configuration changes in 1.25 ===
  12 * $wgPageShowWatchingUsers was removed.
  13 * $wgLocalVirtualHosts has been added to replace $wgConf->localVHosts.
  14 * $wgAntiLockFlags was removed.
  15 * Edit tokens returned from User::getEditToken may change on every call. Token
  16   validity must be checked by passing the user-supplied token to
  17   User::matchEditToken rather than by testing for equality with a
  18   newly-generated token.
  19 * (T74951) The UserGetLanguageObject hook may be passed any IContextSource
  20   for its $context parameter. Formerly it was documented as receiving a
  21   RequestContext specifically.
  22 * Profiling was restructured and $wgProfiler now requires an 'output' parameter.
  23   See StartProfiler.sample for details.
  24 * $wgMangleFlashPolicy was added to make MediaWiki's mangling of anything that
  25   might be a flash policy directive configurable.
  26 * ApiOpenSearch now supports XML output. The OpenSearchXml extension should no
  27   longer be used. If extracts and page images are desired, the TextExtracts and
  28   PageImages extensions are required.
  29 * $wgOpenSearchTemplate is deprecated in favor of $wgOpenSearchTemplates.
  30 * Edits are now prepared via AJAX as users type edit summaries. This behavior
  31   can be disabled via $wgAjaxEditStash.
  32
  33 === New features in 1.25 ===
  34 * (T64861) Updated plural rules to CLDR 26. Includes incompatible changes
  35   for plural forms in Russian, Prussian, Tagalog, Manx and several languages
  36   that fall back to Russian.
  37 * (T60139) ResourceLoaderFileModule now supports language fallback
  38   for 'languageScripts'.
  39 * Added a new hook, "ContentAlterParserOutput", to allow extensions to modify the
  40   parser output for a content object before links update.
  41 * (T37785) Enhanced recent changes and extended watchlist are now default.
  42   Documentation: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Enhanced_recent_changes
  43   and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgDefaultUserOptions.
  44 * (T69341) SVG images will no longer be base64-encoded when being embedded
  45   in CSS. This results in slight size increase before gzip compression (due to
  46   percent-encoding), but up to 20% decrease after it.
  47 * Upgrade jStorage to v0.4.12.
  48 * MediaWiki now natively supports page status indicators: icons (or short text
  49   snippets) usually displayed in the top-right corner of the page. They have
  50   been in use on Wikipedia for a long time, implemented using templates and CSS
  51   absolute positioning.
  52   - Basic wikitext syntax: <indicator name="foo">[[File:Foo.svg|20px]]</indicator>
  53   - Usage instructions: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Page_status_indicators
  54   - Adjusting custom skins to support indicators:
  55     https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skinning#Page_status_indicators
  56 * Edit tokens may now be time-limited: passing a maximum age to
  57   User::matchEditToken will reject any older tokens.
  58 * The debug logging internals have been overhauled, and are now using the
  59   PSR-3 interfaces.
  60 * Update CSSJanus to v1.1.1.
  61 * Added a hook, "ApiOpenSearchSuggest", to allow extensions to provide extracts
  62   and images for ApiOpenSearch output. The semantics are identical to the
  63   "OpenSearchXml" hook provided by the OpenSearchXml extension.
  64 * PrefixSearchBackend hook now has an $offset parameter. Combined with $limit,
  65   this allows for pagination of prefix results. Extensions using this hook
  66   should implement supporting behavior. Not doing so can result in undefined
  67   behavior from API clients trying to continue through prefix results.
  68
  69 ==== External libraries ====
  70 * MediaWiki now requires certain external libraries to be installed. In the past
  71   these were bundled inside the git repository of MediaWiki core, but now they
  72   need to be installed separately. For users using the tarball, this will be taken
  73   care of and no action will be required. Users using git will either need to use
  74   composer to fetch dependencies or use the mediawiki/vendor repository which includes
  75   all dependencies for MediaWiki core and ones used in Wikimedia deployment. Detailed
  76   instructions can be found at <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_Git#Fetch_external_libraries>.
  77 * The following libraries are now required:
  78 ** psr/log 1.0.0
  79 *** This library provides the interfaces set by the PSR-3 standard (<http://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-3/>)
  80     which are used by MediaWiki interally by the MWLogger class.
  81 *** See the structured logging RfC (<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Structured_logging>)
  82     for more background information.
  83 ** cssjanus/cssjanus 1.1.1
  84 *** This library was formerly bundled with MediaWiki core and has now been removed. It automatically
  85     flips CSS for RTL support.
  86 ** leafo/lessphp 0.5.0
  87 *** This library was formerly bundled with MediaWiki core and has now been removed. It compiles LESS
  88     files into CSS.
  89 ** cdb/cdb 1.0.0
  90 *** This library was formerly a part of MediaWiki core, and has now been split out into a separate library.
  91     It provides CDB functions which are used in the Interwiki and Localization caches. More information
  92     about the library can be found at <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/CDB>.
  93
  94 === Bug fixes in 1.25 ===
  95 * (T73003) No additional code will be generated to try to load CSS-embedded
  96   SVG images in Internet Explorer 6 and 7, as they don't support them anyway.
  97 * (T69021) On Special:BookSources, corrected validation of ISBNs (both
  98   10- and 13-digit forms) containing "X".
  99 * Page moving was refactored into a MovePage class. As part of that:
 100 ** The AbortMove hook was removed.
 101 ** MovePageIsValidMove is for extensions to specify whether a page
 102    cannot be moved for technical reasons, and should not be overriden.
 103 ** MovePageCheckPermissions is for checking whether the given user is
 104    allowed to make the move.
 105 ** Title::moveNoAuth() was deprecated. Use the MovePage class instead.
 106 ** Title::moveTo() was deprecated. Use the MovePage class instead.
 107 ** Title::isValidMoveOperation() broken down into MovePage::isValidMove()
 108    and MovePage::checkPermissions().
 109
 110 === Action API changes in 1.25 ===
 111 * (T67403) XML tag highlighting is now only performed for formats
 112   "xmlfm" and "wddxfm".
 113 * action=paraminfo supports generalized submodules (modules=query+value),
 114   querymodules and formatmodules are deprecated
 115 * action=paraminfo no longer outputs descriptions and other help text by
 116   default. If needed, it may be requested using the new 'helpformat' parameter.
 117 * action=help has been completely rewritten, and outputs help in HTML
 118   rather than plain text.
 119 * Hitting api.php without specifying an action now displays only the help for
 120   the main module, with links to submodule help.
 121 * API help is no longer displayed on errors.
 122 * 'uselang' is now a recognized API parameter; "uselang=user" may be used to
 123   explicitly select the language from the current user's preferences, and
 124   "uselang=content" may be used to select the wiki's content language.
 125 * Default output format for the API is now jsonfm.
 126 * Simplified continuation will return a "batchcomplete" property in the result
 127   when a batch of pages is complete.
 128 * Pretty-printed HTML output now has nicer formatting and (if available)
 129   better syntax highlighting.
 130 * Deprecated list=deletedrevs in favor of newly-added prop=deletedrevisions and
 131   list=alldeletedrevisions.
 132 * prop=revisions will gracefully continue when given too many revids or titles,
 133   rather than just ignoring the extras.
 134 * prop=revisions will no longer die if rvcontentformat doesn't match a
 135   revision's content model; it will instead warn and omit the content.
 136 * If the user has the 'deletedhistory' right, action=query's revids parameter
 137   will now recognize deleted revids.
 138 * prop=revisions may be used as a generator, generating revids.
 139 * (T68776) format=json results will no longer be corrupted when
 140   $wgMangleFlashPolicy is in effect. format=php results will cleanly return an
 141   error instead of returning invalid serialized data.
 142 * Generators may now return data for the generated pages when used with
 143   action=query.
 144 * Query page data for generator=search and generator=prefixsearch will now
 145   include an "index" field, which may be used by the client for sorting the
 146   search results.
 147 * ApiOpenSearch now supports XML output.
 148 * ApiOpenSearch will now output descriptions and URLs as array indexes 2 and 3
 149   in JSON format.
 150 * (T76051) list=tags will now continue correctly.
 151 * (T76052) list=tags can now indicate whether a tag is defined.
 152 * (T75522) list=prefixsearch now supports continuation
 153
 154 === Action API internal changes in 1.25 ===
 155 * ApiHelp has been rewritten to support i18n and paginated HTML output.
 156   Most existing modules should continue working without changes, but should do
 157   the following:
 158   * Add an i18n message "apihelp-{$moduleName}-description" to replace getDescription().
 159   * Add i18n messages "apihelp-{$moduleName}-param-{$param}" for each parameter
 160     to replace getParamDescription(). If necessary, the settings array returned
 161     by getParams() can use the new ApiBase::PARAM_HELP_MSG key to override the
 162     message.
 163   * Implement getExamplesMessages() to replace getExamples().
 164 * Modules with submodules (like action=query) must have their submodules
 165   override ApiBase::getParent() to return the correct parent object.
 166 * The 'APIGetDescription' and 'APIGetParamDescription' hooks are deprecated,
 167   and will have no effect for modules using i18n messages. Use
 168   'APIGetDescriptionMessages' and 'APIGetParamDescriptionMessages' instead.
 169 * Api formatters will no longer be asked to display the help screen on errors.
 170 * ApiMain::getCredits() was removed. The credits are available in the
 171   'api-credits' i18n message.
 172 * ApiFormatBase has been changed to support i18n and syntax highlighting via
 173   extensions with the new 'ApiFormatHighlight' hook. Core syntax highlighting
 174   has been removed.
 175 * ApiFormatBase now always buffers. Output is done when
 176   ApiFormatBase::closePrinter is called.
 177 * Much of the logic in ApiQueryRevisions has been split into ApiQueryRevisionsBase.
 178 * The 'revids' parameter supplied by ApiPageSet will now count deleted
 179   revisions as "good" if the user has the 'deletedhistory' right. New methods
 180   ApiPageSet::getLiveRevisionIDs() and ApiPageSet::getDeletedRevisionIDs() are
 181   provided to access just the live or just the deleted revids.
 182 * Added ApiPageSet::setGeneratorData() and ApiPageSet::populateGeneratorData()
 183   to allow generators to include data in the action=query result.
 184 * The following methods have been deprecated and may be removed in a future
 185   release:
 186   * ApiBase::getDescription
 187   * ApiBase::getParamDescription
 188   * ApiBase::getExamples
 189   * ApiBase::makeHelpMsg
 190   * ApiBase::makeHelpArrayToString
 191   * ApiBase::makeHelpMsgParameters
 192   * ApiFormatBase::setUnescapeAmps
 193   * ApiFormatBase::getWantsHelp
 194   * ApiFormatBase::setHelp
 195   * ApiFormatBase::formatHTML
 196   * ApiFormatBase::setBufferResult
 197   * ApiFormatBase::getDescription
 198   * ApiMain::setHelp
 199   * ApiMain::reallyMakeHelpMsg
 200   * ApiMain::makeHelpMsgHeader
 201   * ApiQueryImageInfo::getPropertyDescriptions
 202 * The following classes have been deprecated and may be removed in a future
 203   release:
 204   * ApiQueryDeletedrevs
 205
 206 === Languages updated in 1.25 ===
 207
 208 MediaWiki supports over 350 languages. Many localisations are updated
 209 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 210 changes to languages because of Bugzilla reports.
 211
 212 * (T66440) Kazakh (kk) wikis should no longer forcefully reset the user's
 213   interface language to kk where unexpected.
 214
 215 === Other changes in 1.25 ===
 216 * The skin autodiscovery mechanism, deprecated in MediaWiki 1.23, has been
 217   removed. See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skin_autodiscovery for
 218   migration guide for creators and users of custom skins that relied on it.
 219 * Javascript variable 'wgFileCanRotate' now only available on Special:Upload.
 220 * (T58257) Set site logo from mediawiki.skinning.interface module instead of
 221   inline styles in the HTML.
 222 * Removed ApiQueryUsers::getAutoGroups(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 223 * Removed XmlDumpWriter::schemaVersion(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 224 * Removed LogEventsList::getDisplayTitle(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 225 * Removed Preferences::trySetUserEmail(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 226 * Removed mw.user.name() and mw.user.anonymous() methods. (deprecated since 1.20)
 227 * Removed 'ok' and 'err' parameters in the mediawiki.api modules. (deprecated
 228   since 1.20)
 229 * Removed 'async' parameter from the  mw.Api#getCategories() method. (deprecated
 230   since 1.20)
 231 * Removed 'jquery.json' module. (deprecated since 1.24)
 232   Use the 'json' module and global JSON object instead.
 233 * Deprecated OutputPage::readOnlyPage() and OutputPage::rateLimited().
 234   Also, the former will now throw an MWException if called with one or more
 235   arguments.
 236 * Removed hitcounters and associated code.
 237 * The "temp" zone of the upload respository is now considered private. If it
 238   already exists (such as under the images/ directory), please make sure that
 239   the directory is not web readable (e.g. via a .htaccess file).
 240 * BREAKING CHANGE: In the XML dump format used by Special:Export and
 241   dumpBackup.php, the <model> and <format> tags now apprear before the <text>
 242   tag, instead of after the <text> and <sha1> tags.
 243   The new schema version is 0.10, the new schema URI is
 244   <https://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.10.xsd>.
 245 * MWFunction::call() and MWFunction::callArray() were removed, having being
 246   deprecated in 1.22.
 247 * Deprecated the getInternalLinkAttributes, getInternalLinkAttributesObj,
 248   and getInternalLinkAttributes methods in Linker, and removed
 249   getExternalLinkAttributes method, which was deprecated in MediaWiki 1.18.
 250 * Removed Sites class, which was deprecated in 1.21 and replaced by SiteSQLStore.
 251 * The mw.api.getToken() method now uses action=query?meta=tokens. This will now
 252   fail for custom tokens registered only via the deprecated ApiTokensGetTokenTypes
 253   hook. The ApiQueryTokensRegisterTypes hook should be used for this to work.
 254 * Added wgRelevantArticleId to the client-side config, for use on special pages.
 255 * Deprecated the TitleIsCssOrJsPage hook. Superseded by the
 256   ContentHandlerDefaultModelFor hook since MediaWiki 1.21.
 257 * Deprecated the TitleIsWikitextPage hook. Superseded by the
 258   ContentHandlerDefaultModelFor hook since MediaWiki 1.21.
 259 * Changed parsing of variables in schema (.sql) files:
 260 ** The substituted values are no longer parsed. (Formerly, several passes
 261    were made for each variable, so depending on the order in which variables
 262    were defined, variables might have been found inside encoded values. This
 263    is no longer the case.)
 264 ** Variables are no longer string encoded when the /*$var*/ syntax is used.
 265    If string encoding is necessary, use the '{$var}' syntax instead.
 266 ** Variable names must only consist of one or more of the characters
 267    "A-Za-z0-9_".
 268 ** In source text of the form '{$A}'{$B}' or `{$A}`{$B}`, where variable A
 269    does not exist yet variable B does, the latter may not be replaced.
 270    However, this difference is unlikely to arise in practice.
 271
 272 == Compatibility ==
 273
 274 MediaWiki 1.25 requires PHP 5.3.3 or later. There is experimental support for
 275 HHVM 3.3.0.
 276
 277 MySQL is the recommended DBMS. PostgreSQL or SQLite can also be used, but
 278 support for them is somewhat less mature. There is experimental support for
 279 Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.
 280
 281 The supported versions are:
 282
 283 * MySQL 5.0.2 or later
 284 * PostgreSQL 8.3 or later
 285 * SQLite 3.3.7 or later
 286 * Oracle 9.0.1 or later
 287 * Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (9.00.1399)
 288
 289 == Upgrading ==
 290
 291 1.25 has several database changes since 1.24, and will not work without schema
 292 updates. Note that due to changes to some very large tables like the revision
 293 table, the schema update may take quite long (minutes on a medium sized site,
 294 many hours on a large site).
 295
 296 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons
 297 repository, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise
 298 due to database schema changes.
 299
 300 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 301 new database fields are filled with data.
 302
 303 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, you should upgrade to
 304 1.5 first. The upgrade script maintenance/upgrade1_5.php has been removed
 305 with MediaWiki 1.21.
 306
 307 Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 308
 309 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 310
 311 For notes on 1.24.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 312
 313 == Online documentation ==
 314
 315 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is available on
 316 MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation License (except
 317 for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in the public domain):
 318
 319         https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 320
 321 == Mailing list ==
 322
 323 A mailing list is available for MediaWiki user support and discussion:
 324
 325         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 326
 327 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 328
 329         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 330
 331 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 332 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 333
 334 == IRC help ==
 335
 336 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net.