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 * BREAKING CHANGE: Profiling was restructured and $wgProfiler will require
  23   reconfiguration. Notably, it now needs an 'output' parameter. Using normal
  24   MediaWiki profiling requires setting the class to 'ProfilerStandard.'
  25   Xhprof-backed profiling is also now available.
  26   See StartProfiler.sample for details.
  27 * BREAKING CHANGE: $wgProfilePerHost, $wgUDPProfilerHost, $wgUDPProfilerPort
  28   and $wgUDPProfilerFormatString have been removed in favor of similar parameters
  29   to $wgProfiler. See StartProfiler.sample for details.
  30 * $wgProfileOnly was removed, deprecated in 1.23
  31 * $wgMangleFlashPolicy was added to make MediaWiki's mangling of anything that
  32   might be a flash policy directive configurable.
  33 * ApiOpenSearch now supports XML output. The OpenSearchXml extension should no
  34   longer be used. If extracts and page images are desired, the TextExtracts and
  35   PageImages extensions are required.
  36 * $wgOpenSearchTemplate is deprecated in favor of $wgOpenSearchTemplates.
  37 * Edits are now prepared via AJAX as users type edit summaries. This behavior
  38   can be disabled via $wgAjaxEditStash.
  39
  40 === New features in 1.25 ===
  41 * (T64861) Updated plural rules to CLDR 26. Includes incompatible changes
  42   for plural forms in Russian, Prussian, Tagalog, Manx and several languages
  43   that fall back to Russian.
  44 * (T60139) ResourceLoaderFileModule now supports language fallback
  45   for 'languageScripts'.
  46 * Added a new hook, "ContentAlterParserOutput", to allow extensions to modify the
  47   parser output for a content object before links update.
  48 * (T37785) Enhanced recent changes and extended watchlist are now default.
  49   Documentation: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Enhanced_recent_changes
  50   and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgDefaultUserOptions.
  51 * (T69341) SVG images will no longer be base64-encoded when being embedded
  52   in CSS. This results in slight size increase before gzip compression (due to
  53   percent-encoding), but up to 20% decrease after it.
  54 * Upgrade jStorage to v0.4.12.
  55 * MediaWiki now natively supports page status indicators: icons (or short text
  56   snippets) usually displayed in the top-right corner of the page. They have
  57   been in use on Wikipedia for a long time, implemented using templates and CSS
  58   absolute positioning.
  59   - Basic wikitext syntax: <indicator name="foo">[[File:Foo.svg|20px]]</indicator>
  60   - Usage instructions: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Page_status_indicators
  61   - Adjusting custom skins to support indicators:
  62     https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skinning#Page_status_indicators
  63 * Edit tokens may now be time-limited: passing a maximum age to
  64   User::matchEditToken will reject any older tokens.
  65 * The debug logging internals have been overhauled, and are now using the
  66   PSR-3 interfaces.
  67 * Update CSSJanus to v1.1.1.
  68 * Added a hook, "ApiOpenSearchSuggest", to allow extensions to provide extracts
  69   and images for ApiOpenSearch output. The semantics are identical to the
  70   "OpenSearchXml" hook provided by the OpenSearchXml extension.
  71 * PrefixSearchBackend hook now has an $offset parameter. Combined with $limit,
  72   this allows for pagination of prefix results. Extensions using this hook
  73   should implement supporting behavior. Not doing so can result in undefined
  74   behavior from API clients trying to continue through prefix results.
  75
  76 ==== External libraries ====
  77 * MediaWiki now requires certain external libraries to be installed. In the past
  78   these were bundled inside the git repository of MediaWiki core, but now they
  79   need to be installed separately. For users using the tarball, this will be taken
  80   care of and no action will be required. Users using git will either need to use
  81   composer to fetch dependencies or use the mediawiki/vendor repository which includes
  82   all dependencies for MediaWiki core and ones used in Wikimedia deployment. Detailed
  83   instructions can be found at <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_Git#Fetch_external_libraries>.
  84 * The following libraries are now required:
  85 ** psr/log 1.0.0
  86 *** This library provides the interfaces set by the PSR-3 standard (<http://www.php-fig.org/psr/psr-3/>)
  87     which are used by MediaWiki interally by the MWLogger class.
  88 *** See the structured logging RfC (<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Structured_logging>)
  89     for more background information.
  90 ** cssjanus/cssjanus 1.1.1
  91 *** This library was formerly bundled with MediaWiki core and has now been removed. It automatically
  92     flips CSS for RTL support.
  93 ** leafo/lessphp 0.5.0
  94 *** This library was formerly bundled with MediaWiki core and has now been removed. It compiles LESS
  95     files into CSS.
  96 ** cdb/cdb 1.0.0
  97 *** This library was formerly a part of MediaWiki core, and has now been split out into a separate library.
  98     It provides CDB functions which are used in the Interwiki and Localization caches. More information
  99     about the library can be found at <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/CDB>.
 100
 101 === Bug fixes in 1.25 ===
 102 * (T73003) No additional code will be generated to try to load CSS-embedded
 103   SVG images in Internet Explorer 6 and 7, as they don't support them anyway.
 104 * (T69021) On Special:BookSources, corrected validation of ISBNs (both
 105   10- and 13-digit forms) containing "X".
 106 * Page moving was refactored into a MovePage class. As part of that:
 107 ** The AbortMove hook was removed.
 108 ** MovePageIsValidMove is for extensions to specify whether a page
 109    cannot be moved for technical reasons, and should not be overriden.
 110 ** MovePageCheckPermissions is for checking whether the given user is
 111    allowed to make the move.
 112 ** Title::moveNoAuth() was deprecated. Use the MovePage class instead.
 113 ** Title::moveTo() was deprecated. Use the MovePage class instead.
 114 ** Title::isValidMoveOperation() broken down into MovePage::isValidMove()
 115    and MovePage::checkPermissions().
 116
 117 === Action API changes in 1.25 ===
 118 * (T67403) XML tag highlighting is now only performed for formats
 119   "xmlfm" and "wddxfm".
 120 * action=paraminfo supports generalized submodules (modules=query+value),
 121   querymodules and formatmodules are deprecated
 122 * action=paraminfo no longer outputs descriptions and other help text by
 123   default. If needed, it may be requested using the new 'helpformat' parameter.
 124 * action=help has been completely rewritten, and outputs help in HTML
 125   rather than plain text.
 126 * Hitting api.php without specifying an action now displays only the help for
 127   the main module, with links to submodule help.
 128 * API help is no longer displayed on errors.
 129 * 'uselang' is now a recognized API parameter; "uselang=user" may be used to
 130   explicitly select the language from the current user's preferences, and
 131   "uselang=content" may be used to select the wiki's content language.
 132 * Default output format for the API is now jsonfm.
 133 * Simplified continuation will return a "batchcomplete" property in the result
 134   when a batch of pages is complete.
 135 * Pretty-printed HTML output now has nicer formatting and (if available)
 136   better syntax highlighting.
 137 * Deprecated list=deletedrevs in favor of newly-added prop=deletedrevisions and
 138   list=alldeletedrevisions.
 139 * prop=revisions will gracefully continue when given too many revids or titles,
 140   rather than just ignoring the extras.
 141 * prop=revisions will no longer die if rvcontentformat doesn't match a
 142   revision's content model; it will instead warn and omit the content.
 143 * If the user has the 'deletedhistory' right, action=query's revids parameter
 144   will now recognize deleted revids.
 145 * prop=revisions may be used as a generator, generating revids.
 146 * (T68776) format=json results will no longer be corrupted when
 147   $wgMangleFlashPolicy is in effect. format=php results will cleanly return an
 148   error instead of returning invalid serialized data.
 149 * Generators may now return data for the generated pages when used with
 150   action=query.
 151 * Query page data for generator=search and generator=prefixsearch will now
 152   include an "index" field, which may be used by the client for sorting the
 153   search results.
 154 * ApiOpenSearch now supports XML output.
 155 * ApiOpenSearch will now output descriptions and URLs as array indexes 2 and 3
 156   in JSON format.
 157 * (T76051) list=tags will now continue correctly.
 158 * (T76052) list=tags can now indicate whether a tag is defined.
 159 * (T75522) list=prefixsearch now supports continuation
 160
 161 === Action API internal changes in 1.25 ===
 162 * ApiHelp has been rewritten to support i18n and paginated HTML output.
 163   Most existing modules should continue working without changes, but should do
 164   the following:
 165   * Add an i18n message "apihelp-{$moduleName}-description" to replace getDescription().
 166   * Add i18n messages "apihelp-{$moduleName}-param-{$param}" for each parameter
 167     to replace getParamDescription(). If necessary, the settings array returned
 168     by getParams() can use the new ApiBase::PARAM_HELP_MSG key to override the
 169     message.
 170   * Implement getExamplesMessages() to replace getExamples().
 171 * Modules with submodules (like action=query) must have their submodules
 172   override ApiBase::getParent() to return the correct parent object.
 173 * The 'APIGetDescription' and 'APIGetParamDescription' hooks are deprecated,
 174   and will have no effect for modules using i18n messages. Use
 175   'APIGetDescriptionMessages' and 'APIGetParamDescriptionMessages' instead.
 176 * Api formatters will no longer be asked to display the help screen on errors.
 177 * ApiMain::getCredits() was removed. The credits are available in the
 178   'api-credits' i18n message.
 179 * ApiFormatBase has been changed to support i18n and syntax highlighting via
 180   extensions with the new 'ApiFormatHighlight' hook. Core syntax highlighting
 181   has been removed.
 182 * ApiFormatBase now always buffers. Output is done when
 183   ApiFormatBase::closePrinter is called.
 184 * Much of the logic in ApiQueryRevisions has been split into ApiQueryRevisionsBase.
 185 * The 'revids' parameter supplied by ApiPageSet will now count deleted
 186   revisions as "good" if the user has the 'deletedhistory' right. New methods
 187   ApiPageSet::getLiveRevisionIDs() and ApiPageSet::getDeletedRevisionIDs() are
 188   provided to access just the live or just the deleted revids.
 189 * Added ApiPageSet::setGeneratorData() and ApiPageSet::populateGeneratorData()
 190   to allow generators to include data in the action=query result.
 191 * The following methods have been deprecated and may be removed in a future
 192   release:
 193   * ApiBase::getDescription
 194   * ApiBase::getParamDescription
 195   * ApiBase::getExamples
 196   * ApiBase::makeHelpMsg
 197   * ApiBase::makeHelpArrayToString
 198   * ApiBase::makeHelpMsgParameters
 199   * ApiFormatBase::setUnescapeAmps
 200   * ApiFormatBase::getWantsHelp
 201   * ApiFormatBase::setHelp
 202   * ApiFormatBase::formatHTML
 203   * ApiFormatBase::setBufferResult
 204   * ApiFormatBase::getDescription
 205   * ApiMain::setHelp
 206   * ApiMain::reallyMakeHelpMsg
 207   * ApiMain::makeHelpMsgHeader
 208   * ApiQueryImageInfo::getPropertyDescriptions
 209 * The following classes have been deprecated and may be removed in a future
 210   release:
 211   * ApiQueryDeletedrevs
 212
 213 === Languages updated in 1.25 ===
 214
 215 MediaWiki supports over 350 languages. Many localisations are updated
 216 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 217 changes to languages because of Bugzilla reports.
 218
 219 * (T66440) Kazakh (kk) wikis should no longer forcefully reset the user's
 220   interface language to kk where unexpected.
 221
 222 === Other changes in 1.25 ===
 223 * The skin autodiscovery mechanism, deprecated in MediaWiki 1.23, has been
 224   removed. See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skin_autodiscovery for
 225   migration guide for creators and users of custom skins that relied on it.
 226 * Javascript variable 'wgFileCanRotate' now only available on Special:Upload.
 227 * (T58257) Set site logo from mediawiki.skinning.interface module instead of
 228   inline styles in the HTML.
 229 * Removed ApiQueryUsers::getAutoGroups(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 230 * Removed XmlDumpWriter::schemaVersion(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 231 * Removed LogEventsList::getDisplayTitle(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 232 * Removed Preferences::trySetUserEmail(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 233 * Removed mw.user.name() and mw.user.anonymous() methods. (deprecated since 1.20)
 234 * Removed 'ok' and 'err' parameters in the mediawiki.api modules. (deprecated
 235   since 1.20)
 236 * Removed 'async' parameter from the  mw.Api#getCategories() method. (deprecated
 237   since 1.20)
 238 * Removed 'jquery.json' module. (deprecated since 1.24)
 239   Use the 'json' module and global JSON object instead.
 240 * Deprecated OutputPage::readOnlyPage() and OutputPage::rateLimited().
 241   Also, the former will now throw an MWException if called with one or more
 242   arguments.
 243 * Removed hitcounters and associated code.
 244 * The "temp" zone of the upload respository is now considered private. If it
 245   already exists (such as under the images/ directory), please make sure that
 246   the directory is not web readable (e.g. via a .htaccess file).
 247 * BREAKING CHANGE: In the XML dump format used by Special:Export and
 248   dumpBackup.php, the <model> and <format> tags now apprear before the <text>
 249   tag, instead of after the <text> and <sha1> tags.
 250   The new schema version is 0.10, the new schema URI is
 251   <https://www.mediawiki.org/xml/export-0.10.xsd>.
 252 * MWFunction::call() and MWFunction::callArray() were removed, having being
 253   deprecated in 1.22.
 254 * Deprecated the getInternalLinkAttributes, getInternalLinkAttributesObj,
 255   and getInternalLinkAttributes methods in Linker, and removed
 256   getExternalLinkAttributes method, which was deprecated in MediaWiki 1.18.
 257 * Removed Sites class, which was deprecated in 1.21 and replaced by SiteSQLStore.
 258 * The mw.api.getToken() method now uses action=query?meta=tokens. This will now
 259   fail for custom tokens registered only via the deprecated ApiTokensGetTokenTypes
 260   hook. The ApiQueryTokensRegisterTypes hook should be used for this to work.
 261 * Added wgRelevantArticleId to the client-side config, for use on special pages.
 262 * Deprecated the TitleIsCssOrJsPage hook. Superseded by the
 263   ContentHandlerDefaultModelFor hook since MediaWiki 1.21.
 264 * Deprecated the TitleIsWikitextPage hook. Superseded by the
 265   ContentHandlerDefaultModelFor hook since MediaWiki 1.21.
 266 * Changed parsing of variables in schema (.sql) files:
 267 ** The substituted values are no longer parsed. (Formerly, several passes
 268    were made for each variable, so depending on the order in which variables
 269    were defined, variables might have been found inside encoded values. This
 270    is no longer the case.)
 271 ** Variables are no longer string encoded when the /*$var*/ syntax is used.
 272    If string encoding is necessary, use the '{$var}' syntax instead.
 273 ** Variable names must only consist of one or more of the characters
 274    "A-Za-z0-9_".
 275 ** In source text of the form '{$A}'{$B}' or `{$A}`{$B}`, where variable A
 276    does not exist yet variable B does, the latter may not be replaced.
 277    However, this difference is unlikely to arise in practice.
 278
 279 == Compatibility ==
 280
 281 MediaWiki 1.25 requires PHP 5.3.3 or later. There is experimental support for
 282 HHVM 3.3.0.
 283
 284 MySQL is the recommended DBMS. PostgreSQL or SQLite can also be used, but
 285 support for them is somewhat less mature. There is experimental support for
 286 Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.
 287
 288 The supported versions are:
 289
 290 * MySQL 5.0.2 or later
 291 * PostgreSQL 8.3 or later
 292 * SQLite 3.3.7 or later
 293 * Oracle 9.0.1 or later
 294 * Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (9.00.1399)
 295
 296 == Upgrading ==
 297
 298 1.25 has several database changes since 1.24, and will not work without schema
 299 updates. Note that due to changes to some very large tables like the revision
 300 table, the schema update may take quite long (minutes on a medium sized site,
 301 many hours on a large site).
 302
 303 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons
 304 repository, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise
 305 due to database schema changes.
 306
 307 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 308 new database fields are filled with data.
 309
 310 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, you should upgrade to
 311 1.5 first. The upgrade script maintenance/upgrade1_5.php has been removed
 312 with MediaWiki 1.21.
 313
 314 Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 315
 316 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 317
 318 For notes on 1.24.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 319
 320 == Online documentation ==
 321
 322 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is available on
 323 MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation License (except
 324 for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in the public domain):
 325
 326         https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 327
 328 == Mailing list ==
 329
 330 A mailing list is available for MediaWiki user support and discussion:
 331
 332         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 333
 334 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 335
 336         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 337
 338 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 339 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 340
 341 == IRC help ==
 342
 343 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net.