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