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
  30 == Changes since 1.7 ==
  31
  32 * (bug 6562) Removed unmaintained ParserXml.php for now
  33 * History paging overlap bug fixed
  34 * (bug 6586) Regression in "unblocked" subtitle
  35 * Don't put empty-page message into view-source when page text is blank
  36 * (bug 6587) Remove redundant "allnonarticles" message
  37 * Block improvements: Allow blocks on anonymous users only. Optionally allow
  38   or disallow account creation from blocked IP addresses. Prevent duplicate
  39   blocks. Fixed the problem of expiry and unblocking erroneously affecting
  40   multiple blocks. Fixed confusing lack of error message when a blocked user
  41   attempts to create an account. Fixed inefficiency of Special:Ipblocklist in
  42   the presence of large numbers of blocks; added indexes and implemented an
  43   indexed pager.
  44 * (bug 6448) Allow filtering of Special:Newpages according to username
  45 * (bug 6618) Improve permissions/error detection in Special:Lockdb
  46 * Quick hack for extension testing: parser test doesn't create new message
  47   cache object.
  48 * (bug 6299) Maintain parser's revision ID across recursive calls to fix
  49   {{REVISIONID}} when Cite extension is used
  50 * (bug 6622) Removed deprecated function Image::newFromTitle
  51 * (bug 6627) Fix regression in Special:Ipblocklist with table prefix
  52 * Removed forced dereferencements (new() returns a reference in PHP5)
  53 * Note about $wgUploadSizeWarning using byte
  54 * (bug 6592) Add most viewed pages summary to Special:Statistics
  55 * Pre-strip characters ignored in IDNs from URLs so they can't be used
  56   to break the blacklists for regular URLs
  57 * Fix regression in blocking of user accounts
  58 * (bug 6635) Fix regression searching for range blocks on Ipblocklist
  59 * Fix regression searching Ipblocklist with ugly URLs
  60 * (bug 6639) Use a consistent default for upload directories
  61 * Preserve entered reason when reporting unconfirmed lock on Special:Lockdb
  62 * (bug 6642) Don't offer to unlock the database when it isn't locked
  63 * cleanupTitles.php changed from --dry-run option to --fix, so default
  64   behavior is now a non-invasive check as with namespaceDupes.php
  65 * (bug 6660) Fix behaviour of EditPage::blockedPage() when the article does
  66   not exist; now doesn't show the source box if the user hasn't provided it
  67   (blocked mid-edit) and the page doesn't exist
  68 * Improve default value of "blockedtext"
  69 * (bug 6680) Added localisation for Dutch bookstore list (nl)
  70 * Renamed maintainace script redundanttrans.php to unusedMessages.php - clearer usage
  71 * Fix regression which allowed some blocked users to create additional accounts
  72 * (bug 6657) Fix Hungarian linktrail
  73 * (bug 6751) Fix preview of blanked section with edit on first preview option
  74 * (bug 5456) Separate MediaWiki:Search into messages for both noun and verb,
  75   introduced 'MediaWiki:Searchbutton'
  76 * Made lines from initialiseMessages() appear as list items during installation
  77 * Moved the bulk of the localisation data from the Language*.php files to the
  78   Messages*.php files. Deleted most of the Languages*.php files.
  79 * Introduced "stub global" framework to provide deferred initialisation of core
  80   modules.
  81 * Removed placeholder values for $wgTitle and $wgArticle, these variables will
  82   now be null during the initialisation process, until they are set by index.php
  83   or another entry point.
  84 * Added DBA cache type, for BDB-style caches.
  85 * Removed custom date format functions, replacing them with a format string in
  86   the style of PHP's date(). Used string identifiers instead of integer
  87   identifiers, in both the language files and user preferences. Migration should
  88   be transparent in most cases.
  89 * Simplified the initialisation API for LoadBalancer objects.
  90 * Removed the broken altencoding feature.
  91 * Moved default user options and toggles from Language to User. Language objects
  92   are still able to define default preference overrides and extra user toggles,
  93   via a slightly different interface.
  94 * Don't include the date option in the parser cache rendering hash unless
  95   $wgUseDynamicDates is enabled.
  96 * Merged LanguageUtf8 with Language. Removed LanguageUtf8.php.
  97 * Removed inclusion of language files from the bottom of Language.php. This is
  98   now consistently done from Language::factory().
  99 * Add the name of the executing maintenance script to the debug log. Start the
 100   profiler during maintenance scripts.
 101 * Added "serialized" directory, for storing precompiled data in serialized form.
 102 * Fix regression in auto-set NS_PROJECT_TALK namespace
 103 * Fix regression in ordering of namespaces
 104 * (bug 6806, 6030) Added several global JS variables for article path, user name,
 105   page title, etc.
 106 * hooks registered with addOnloadHook are now called at the one of the html body
 107   by all skins.
 108 * Split ajax aided search from core ajax framework. Use wgUseAjax to enable the
 109   framework and wgAjaxSearch to enable the suggest feature for the search box.
 110 * Added experimental installer for extensions.
 111   See maintenance/installExtension.php
 112 * Added Tajic (tg) language file.
 113
 114 == Languages updated ==
 115
 116 * Albanian (sq)
 117 * Belarusian (be)
 118 * Bishnupriya (bpy) stub file
 119 * Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br)
 120 * Catalan (ca)
 121 * Dutch (nl)
 122 * English (en)
 123 * French (fr)
 124 * German (de)
 125 * Hebrew (he)
 126 * Hungarian (hu)
 127 * Indonesian (id)
 128 * Korean (ko)
 129 * Polish (pl)
 130 * Romani (rmy)
 131 * Russian (ru)
 132 * Tajic (tg)
 133 * Telugu (te)
 134
 135 == Compatibility ==
 136
 137 MediaWiki 1.8 requires PHP 5 (5.1 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
 138
 139 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 140 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 141
 142
 143 == Upgrading ==
 144
 145 Several changes to the database have been made from 1.6:
 146
 147 * A new "langlinks" table tracks interlanguage links
 148 * A new "filearchive" table stores information on deleted files
 149 * A new "querycache_info" table stores information on query page updates
 150
 151 To ensure that these tables are filled with data, run refreshLinks.php after
 152 the upgrade.
 153
 154 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 155 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 156 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 157
 158 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 159
 160
 161
 162 === Caveats ===
 163
 164 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 165 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 166 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 167 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 168 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 169
 170
 171 For notes on 1.5.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 172
 173
 174 === Online documentation ===
 175
 176 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 177 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 178 License:
 179
 180   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 181
 182
 183 === Mailing list ===
 184
 185 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 186 wikitech-l list:
 187
 188   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 189
 190 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 191
 192   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 193
 194 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 195 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 196
 197
 198 === IRC help ===
 199
 200 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net