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 == MediaWiki 1.15 ==
   7
   8 THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET
   9
  10 MediaWiki is now using a "continuous integration" development model with
  11 quarterly snapshot releases. The latest development code is always kept
  12 "ready to run", and in fact runs our own sites on Wikipedia.
  13
  14 Release branches will continue to receive security updates for about a year
  15 from first release, but nonessential bugfixes and feature developments
  16 will be made on the development trunk and appear in the next quarterly release.
  17
  18 Those wishing to use the latest code instead of a branch release can obtain
  19 it from source control: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_SVN
  20
  21 === Configuration changes in 1.15 ===
  22
  23 * Added $wgNewPasswordExpiry, to specify an expiry time (in seconds) to
  24   temporary passwords
  25
  26 === New features in 1.15 ===
  27
  28 * (bug 2242) Add an expiry time to temporary passwords
  29 * Special:Upload can now have a custom upload message instead of uploadtext by
  30   passing "uploadmsg" parameter in the url
  31 * (bug 9947) Add PROTECTIONLEVEL parser function to return the protection level
  32   for the current page for a given action
  33 * (bug 17002) Add &minor= and &summary= as parameters in the url when editing,
  34   to automatically add a summary or a minor edit.
  35 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now accept multiletter pad characters
  36 * When using 'UserCreateForm' hook to add new checkboxes into
  37   Special:UserLogin/signup, the messages can now contain HTML to allow
  38   hyperlinking to the site's Terms of Service page, for example
  39 * Add new hook 'UserLoadFromDatabase' that is called while loading a user
  40   from the database.
  41 * (bug 17045) Options on the block form are prefilled with the options of the
  42   existing block when modifying an existing block.
  43 * (bug 17055) "(show/hide)" links to Special:RevisionDelete now use a CSS class
  44   rather than hardcoded HTML tags
  45 * Added new hook 'WantedPages::getSQL' into SpecialWantedpages.php to allow
  46   extensions to alter the SQL query which is used to get the list of wanted
  47   pages
  48 * (bugs 16957/16969) Add show/hide to preferences for RC patrol options on
  49   specialpages
  50 * (bug 11443) Auto-noindex user/user talk pages for blocked user
  51 * (bug 11644) Add $wgMaxRedirects variable to control how many redirects are recursed
  52   through until the "destination" page is reached.
  53 * Add $wgInvalidRedirectTargets variable to prevent redirects to certain special pages.
  54 * Use HTML5 rel attributes for some links, where appropriate
  55
  56 === Bug fixes in 1.15 ===
  57 * (bug 16968) Special:Upload no longer throws useless warnings.
  58 * (bug 17000) Special:RevisionDelete now checks if the database is locked before
  59   trying to delete the edit.
  60 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now handle multibyte characters correctly
  61 * (bug 17010) maintenance/namespaceDupes.php now add the suffix recursively if
  62   the destination page exists
  63 * (bug 17035) Special:Upload now fails gracefully if PHP's file_uploads has been
  64   disabled
  65 * Fixing the caching issue by using -{T|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  66   LanguageConverter class)
  67 * Improving the efficiency by using -{A|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  68   LanguageConverter class)
  69 * (bug 17054) Added more descriptive errors in Special:RevisionDelete
  70 * (bug 11527) Diff on page with one revision shows "Next" link to same diff
  71 * (bug 15936) New page's patrol button should always be visible
  72 * (bug 8065) Fix summary forcing for new pages
  73 * (bug 10569) redirects to Special:Mypage and Special:Mytalk are no longer allowed
  74   by default. Change $wgInvalidRedirectTargets to re-enable.
  75
  76 == API changes in 1.15 ==
  77 * (bug 16858) Revamped list=deletedrevs to make listing deleted contributions
  78   and listing all deleted pages possible
  79 * (bug 16844) Added clcategories parameter to prop=categories
  80 * (bug 17025) Add "fileextension" parameter to meta=siteinfo&siprop=
  81 * (bug 17048) Show the 'new' flag in list=usercontribs for the revision that
  82   created the page, even if it's not the top revision
  83 * (bug 17069) Added ucshow=patrolled|!patrolled to list=usercontribs
  84 * action=delete respects $wgDeleteRevisionsLimit and the bigdelete user right
  85
  86 === Languages updated in 1.15 ===
  87
  88 MediaWiki supports over 300 languages. Many localisations are updated
  89 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed.
  90
  91 * Literary Chinese (lzh) (new)
  92
  93 == Compatibility ==
  94
  95 MediaWiki 1.15 requires PHP 5 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
  96
  97 PHP 5.0.x fails on 64-bit systems due to serious bugs with array processing:
  98 http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34879
  99 Upgrade affected systems to PHP 5.1 or higher.
 100
 101 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 102 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 103
 104
 105 == Upgrading ==
 106
 107 1.15 has several database changes since 1.14, and will not work without schema
 108 updates.
 109
 110 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 111 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 112 database schema changes.
 113
 114 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 115 new database fields are filled with data.
 116
 117 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 118 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 119 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 120
 121 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 122
 123
 124 === Caveats ===
 125
 126 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 127 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 128 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 129 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 130 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 131
 132 For notes on 1.14.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 133
 134
 135 === Online documentation ===
 136
 137 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 138 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 139 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 140 the public domain) :
 141
 142   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 143
 144
 145 === Mailing list ===
 146
 147 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 148 wikitech-l list:
 149
 150   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 151
 152 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 153
 154   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 155
 156 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 157 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 158
 159
 160 === IRC help ===
 161
 162 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net