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 * Added $wgUseTwoButtonsSearchForm to choose the Search form behavior/look
  26 * Added $wgNoFollowDomainExceptions to allow exempting particular domain names
  27   from rel="nofollow" on external links
  28
  29 === New features in 1.15 ===
  30
  31 * (bug 2242) Add an expiry time to temporary passwords
  32 * Special:Upload can now have a custom upload message instead of uploadtext by
  33   passing "uploadmsg" parameter in the url
  34 * (bug 9947) Add PROTECTIONLEVEL parser function to return the protection level
  35   for the current page for a given action
  36 * (bug 17002) Add &minor= and &summary= as parameters in the url when editing,
  37   to automatically add a summary or a minor edit.
  38 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now accept multiletter pad characters
  39 * When using 'UserCreateForm' hook to add new checkboxes into
  40   Special:UserLogin/signup, the messages can now contain HTML to allow
  41   hyperlinking to the site's Terms of Service page, for example
  42 * Add new hook 'UserLoadFromDatabase' that is called while loading a user
  43   from the database.
  44 * (bug 17045) Options on the block form are prefilled with the options of the
  45   existing block when modifying an existing block.
  46 * (bug 17055) "(show/hide)" links to Special:RevisionDelete now use a CSS class
  47   rather than hardcoded HTML tags
  48 * Added new hook 'WantedPages::getSQL' into SpecialWantedpages.php to allow
  49   extensions to alter the SQL query which is used to get the list of wanted
  50   pages
  51 * (bugs 16957/16969) Add show/hide to preferences for RC patrol options on
  52   specialpages
  53 * (bug 11443) Auto-noindex user/user talk pages for blocked user
  54 * (bug 11644) Add $wgMaxRedirects variable to control how many redirects are
  55   recursed through until the "destination" page is reached.
  56 * Add $wgInvalidRedirectTargets variable to prevent redirects to certain
  57   special pages.
  58 * Use HTML5 rel attributes for some links, where appropriate
  59 * Added optional alternative Search form look - Go button & Advanced search
  60   link instead of Go button & Search button
  61 * (bug 2314) Add links to user custom CSS and JS to Special:Preferences
  62 * More helpful error message on raw page access if PHP_SELF isn't set
  63 * (bug 17145) Specific categories can be excluded from Special:UnusedCategories
  64   with __IGNOREUNUSED__
  65 * (bug 13040) Gender switch in user preferences
  66
  67 === Bug fixes in 1.15 ===
  68 * (bug 16968) Special:Upload no longer throws useless warnings.
  69 * (bug 17000) Special:RevisionDelete now checks if the database is locked
  70   before trying to delete the edit.
  71 * (bug 16852) padleft and padright now handle multibyte characters correctly
  72 * (bug 17010) maintenance/namespaceDupes.php now add the suffix recursively if
  73   the destination page exists
  74 * (bug 17035) Special:Upload now fails gracefully if PHP's file_uploads has
  75   been disabled
  76 * Fixing the caching issue by using -{T|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  77   LanguageConverter class)
  78 * Improving the efficiency by using -{A|xxx}- syntax (only applies on wiki with
  79   LanguageConverter class)
  80 * (bug 17054) Added more descriptive errors in Special:RevisionDelete
  81 * (bug 11527) Diff on page with one revision shows "Next" link to same diff
  82 * (bug 15936) New page's patrol button should always be visible
  83 * (bug 8065) Fix summary forcing for new pages
  84 * (bug 10569) redirects to Special:Mypage and Special:Mytalk are no longer
  85   allowed by default. Change $wgInvalidRedirectTargets to re-enable.
  86 * (bug 3043) Feed links of given page are now preceded by standard feed icon
  87 * (bug 17150) escapeLike now escapes literal \ properly
  88
  89 == API changes in 1.15 ==
  90 * (bug 16858) Revamped list=deletedrevs to make listing deleted contributions
  91   and listing all deleted pages possible
  92 * (bug 16844) Added clcategories parameter to prop=categories
  93 * (bug 17025) Add "fileextension" parameter to meta=siteinfo&siprop=
  94 * (bug 17048) Show the 'new' flag in list=usercontribs for the revision that
  95   created the page, even if it's not the top revision
  96 * (bug 17069) Added ucshow=patrolled|!patrolled to list=usercontribs
  97 * action=delete respects $wgDeleteRevisionsLimit and the bigdelete user right
  98 * (bug 17024) Added legaltitlechars field to meta=siteinfo&siprop=general output
  99
 100 === Languages updated in 1.15 ===
 101
 102 MediaWiki supports over 300 languages. Many localisations are updated
 103 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed.
 104
 105 * Literary Chinese (lzh) (new)
 106 * Võro (vro) (renamed from fiu-vro)
 107
 108 == Compatibility ==
 109
 110 MediaWiki 1.15 requires PHP 5 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
 111
 112 PHP 5.0.x fails on 64-bit systems due to serious bugs with array processing:
 113 http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=34879
 114 Upgrade affected systems to PHP 5.1 or higher.
 115
 116 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 117 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 118
 119
 120 == Upgrading ==
 121
 122 1.15 has several database changes since 1.14, and will not work without schema
 123 updates.
 124
 125 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 126 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 127 database schema changes.
 128
 129 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 130 new database fields are filled with data.
 131
 132 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 133 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 134 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 135
 136 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 137
 138
 139 === Caveats ===
 140
 141 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 142 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 143 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 144 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 145 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 146
 147 For notes on 1.14.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 148
 149
 150 === Online documentation ===
 151
 152 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 153 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 154 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 155 the public domain) :
 156
 157   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 158
 159
 160 === Mailing list ===
 161
 162 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 163 wikitech-l list:
 164
 165   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 166
 167 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 168
 169   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 170
 171 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 172 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 173
 174
 175 === IRC help ===
 176
 177 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net