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 1.8 ==
   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 development happen
  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 ==
  22
  23 * None yet!
  24
  25
  26 == Major new features ==
  27
  28 * (bug 550) Allow blocks on anonymous users only.
  29 * (bug 6420) Render thumbnails for DJVU images, support multipage DJVU display
  30   on image pages. Added new 'page=' thumbnail option to select a page from a
  31   multipage djvu for thumbnail generation.
  32 * Full Postgres support is now enabled. It requires version 8.0 or better, and
  33   needs to have both plpgsql and tsearch2 already installed.
  34
  35 == Changes since 1.7 ==
  36
  37 * (bug 6562) Removed unmaintained ParserXml.php for now
  38 * History paging overlap bug fixed
  39 * (bug 6586) Regression in "unblocked" subtitle
  40 * Don't put empty-page message into view-source when page text is blank
  41 * (bug 6587) Remove redundant "allnonarticles" message
  42 * Block improvements: Allow blocks on anonymous users only. Optionally allow
  43   or disallow account creation from blocked IP addresses. Prevent duplicate
  44   blocks. Fixed the problem of expiry and unblocking erroneously affecting
  45   multiple blocks. Fixed confusing lack of error message when a blocked user
  46   attempts to create an account. Fixed inefficiency of Special:Ipblocklist in
  47   the presence of large numbers of blocks; added indexes and implemented an
  48   indexed pager.
  49 * (bug 6448) Allow filtering of Special:Newpages according to username
  50 * (bug 6618) Improve permissions/error detection in Special:Lockdb
  51 * Quick hack for extension testing: parser test doesn't create new message
  52   cache object.
  53 * (bug 6299) Maintain parser's revision ID across recursive calls to fix
  54   {{REVISIONID}} when Cite extension is used
  55 * (bug 6622) Removed deprecated function Image::newFromTitle
  56 * (bug 6627) Fix regression in Special:Ipblocklist with table prefix
  57 * Removed forced dereferencements (new() returns a reference in PHP5)
  58 * Note about $wgUploadSizeWarning using byte
  59 * (bug 6592) Add most viewed pages summary to Special:Statistics
  60 * Pre-strip characters ignored in IDNs from URLs so they can't be used
  61   to break the blacklists for regular URLs
  62 * Fix regression in blocking of user accounts
  63 * (bug 6635) Fix regression searching for range blocks on Ipblocklist
  64 * Fix regression searching Ipblocklist with ugly URLs
  65 * (bug 6639) Use a consistent default for upload directories
  66 * Preserve entered reason when reporting unconfirmed lock on Special:Lockdb
  67 * (bug 6642) Don't offer to unlock the database when it isn't locked
  68 * cleanupTitles.php changed from --dry-run option to --fix, so default
  69   behavior is now a non-invasive check as with namespaceDupes.php
  70 * (bug 6660) Fix behaviour of EditPage::blockedPage() when the article does
  71   not exist; now doesn't show the source box if the user hasn't provided it
  72   (blocked mid-edit) and the page doesn't exist
  73 * Improve default value of "blockedtext"
  74 * (bug 6680) Added localisation for Dutch bookstore list (nl)
  75 * Renamed maintainace script redundanttrans.php to unusedMessages.php - clearer usage
  76 * Fix regression which allowed some blocked users to create additional accounts
  77 * (bug 6657) Fix Hungarian linktrail
  78 * (bug 6751) Fix preview of blanked section with edit on first preview option
  79 * (bug 5456) Separate MediaWiki:Search into messages for both noun and verb,
  80   introduced 'MediaWiki:Searchbutton'
  81 * Made lines from initialiseMessages() appear as list items during installation
  82 * Moved the bulk of the localisation data from the Language*.php files to the
  83   Messages*.php files. Deleted most of the Languages*.php files.
  84 * Introduced "stub global" framework to provide deferred initialisation of core
  85   modules.
  86 * Removed placeholder values for $wgTitle and $wgArticle, these variables will
  87   now be null during the initialisation process, until they are set by index.php
  88   or another entry point.
  89 * Added DBA cache type, for BDB-style caches.
  90 * Removed custom date format functions, replacing them with a format string in
  91   the style of PHP's date(). Used string identifiers instead of integer
  92   identifiers, in both the language files and user preferences. Migration should
  93   be transparent in most cases.
  94 * Simplified the initialisation API for LoadBalancer objects.
  95 * Removed the broken altencoding feature.
  96 * Moved default user options and toggles from Language to User. Language objects
  97   are still able to define default preference overrides and extra user toggles,
  98   via a slightly different interface.
  99 * Don't include the date option in the parser cache rendering hash unless
 100   $wgUseDynamicDates is enabled.
 101 * Merged LanguageUtf8 with Language. Removed LanguageUtf8.php.
 102 * Removed inclusion of language files from the bottom of Language.php. This is
 103   now consistently done from Language::factory().
 104 * Add the name of the executing maintenance script to the debug log. Start the
 105   profiler during maintenance scripts.
 106 * Added "serialized" directory, for storing precompiled data in serialized form.
 107 * Fix regression in auto-set NS_PROJECT_TALK namespace
 108 * Fix regression in ordering of namespaces
 109 * (bug 6806, 6030) Added several global JS variables for article path, user name,
 110   page title, etc.
 111 * hooks registered with addOnloadHook are now called at the one of the html body
 112   by all skins.
 113 * Split ajax aided search from core ajax framework. Use wgUseAjax to enable the
 114   framework and wgAjaxSearch to enable the suggest feature for the search box.
 115 * Added experimental installer for extensions.
 116   See maintenance/installExtension.php
 117 * Added Tajic (tg) language file.
 118 * (bug 6903) Added Cantonese localisation (zh-yue)
 119 * Fix regression in Korean and Japanese date formatting (day of week)
 120 * (bug 6919) Add English alias magic words for Tatar (tt) language file.
 121 * (bug 6753) Fixed broken Kazakh linktrail (kk)
 122 * (bug 6700) Added Kazakh language variants to Names.php
 123 * (bug 6827) some i18n specific maintenance scripts fails after merge of localisation-work branch
 124 * Throwed an exception for the deprecated functions OutputPage::sysopRequired and
 125   OutputPage::developerRequired - use OutputPage::permissionRequired instead.
 126 * Removed the deprecated functions User::isSysop, User::isBureaucrat and User::isDeveloper -
 127   use User::isAllowed instead.
 128 * (bug 769) OutputPage::permissionRequired() should suggest groups with the needed permission
 129 * (bug 6971) Fix regression in Special:Export history view
 130 * Revamped Special:Imagelist
 131 * (bug 7000) updated MessagesPl.php
 132 * (bug 6946) Fix unexpected behavior change with GET hits to Special:Export
 133 * (bug 1866) Improve navigation on Special:Listusers; user now a starting
 134   point as with Special:Allpages, rather than a pure limit.
 135 * Clean up tab order on Special:Blockip
 136 * (bug 5969) Clean up tab order on Special:Userlogin forms
 137 * (bug 3512) namespaceDupes now handles spaces and initial caps properly
 138 * (bug 7037) Fix regression in login tab order
 139 * (bug 7031) Report missing email on 'email password' instead of false success
 140 * (bug 7010) Don't send email notifications for watched talk pages when user
 141   has selected to receive only updates for their own talk page
 142 * Added {{CURRENTHOUR}}
 143 * Added [[:Image:Foo.png]] style links to the pagelinks table
 144 * Avoid duplicate revision imports with Special:Import
 145 * (bug 7054) Validate email address before sending email confirmation message
 146 * (bug 7061) Format title on "from (page)" links on Special:Allpages
 147 * (bug 7044) Introduce "padleft" and "padright" colon functions
 148 * Pass page title as parameters to "linkshere" and "nolinkshere" and update
 149   default message text
 150
 151 == Languages updated ==
 152
 153 * Albanian (sq)
 154 * Belarusian (be)
 155 * Bishnupriya (bpy) stub file
 156 * Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br)
 157 * Catalan (ca)
 158 * Cantonese (zh-yue)
 159 * Dutch (nl)
 160 * English (en)
 161 * French (fr)
 162 * German (de)
 163 * Georgian (ka)
 164 * Hebrew (he)
 165 * Hungarian (hu)
 166 * Indonesian (id)
 167 * Korean (ko)
 168 * Polish (pl)
 169 * Romani (rmy)
 170 * Russian (ru)
 171 * Spanish (es)
 172 * Tajic (tg)
 173 * Tatar (tt)
 174 * Telugu (te)
 175
 176 == Compatibility ==
 177
 178 MediaWiki 1.8 requires PHP 5 (5.1 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
 179
 180 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 181 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 182
 183
 184 == Upgrading ==
 185
 186 Several changes to the database have been made from 1.6:
 187
 188 * A new "langlinks" table tracks interlanguage links
 189 * A new "filearchive" table stores information on deleted files
 190 * A new "querycache_info" table stores information on query page updates
 191
 192 To ensure that these tables are filled with data, run refreshLinks.php after
 193 the upgrade.
 194
 195 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 196 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 197 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 198
 199 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 200
 201
 202
 203 === Caveats ===
 204
 205 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 206 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 207 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 208 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 209 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 210
 211
 212 For notes on 1.5.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 213
 214
 215 === Online documentation ===
 216
 217 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 218 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 219 License:
 220
 221   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 222
 223
 224 === Mailing list ===
 225
 226 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 227 wikitech-l list:
 228
 229   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 230
 231 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 232
 233   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 234
 235 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 236 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 237
 238
 239 === IRC help ===
 240
 241 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net