RELEASE-NOTES-1.23

   1 Security reminder: MediaWiki does not require PHP's register_globals. If you
   2 have it on, turn it '''off''' if you can.
   3
   4 == MediaWiki 1.23 ==
   5
   6 THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET
   7
   8 MediaWiki 1.23 is an alpha-quality branch and is not recommended for use in
   9 production.
  10
  11 === Configuration changes in 1.23 ===
  12 * $wgDebugLogGroups values may be set to an associative array with a
  13   'destination' key specifying the log destination. The array may also contain
  14   a 'sample' key with a positive integer value N indicating that the log group
  15   should be sampled by dispatching one in every N messages on average. The
  16   sampling is random.
  17 * In addition to the current exception log format, MediaWiki now serializes
  18   exception metadata to JSON and logs it to the 'exception-json' log group.
  19   This makes MediaWiki easier to integrate with log aggregation and analysis
  20   tools.
  21 * $wgSquidServersNoPurge now supports the use of Classless Inter-Domain
  22   Routing (CIDR) notation to specify contiguous blocks of IPv4 and/or IPv6
  23   addresses that should be trusted to provide X-Forwarded-For headers.
  24 * Preferences 'watchcreations', 'watchdefault', 'enotifwatchlistpages' ("Add
  25   pages I create and files I upload to my watchlist", "Add pages and files I
  26   edit to my watchlist", "Email me when a page or file on my watchlist is
  27   changed") are now enabled by default. In addition new user accounts' personal
  28   and talk pages are now watched by them by default.
  29 * $wgLBFactoryConf: Class names have had underscores removed. The configuration
  30   should be updated if LBFactory_Simple or LBFactory_Multi is configured.
  31 * $wgPasswordSenderName has been deprecated. To set a custom mailer name,
  32   the system message 'emailsender' should be modified (default: "{{SITENAME}}").
  33 * $wgDBAhandler was removed as the only class using it was also removed
  34 * The 'max threads' setting was removed from $wgDBservers.
  35 * Support for AdminSettings.php has been completely removed. All configuration
  36   belongs in LocalSettings.php.
  37
  38 === New features in 1.23 ===
  39 * ResourceLoader can utilize the Web Storage API to cache modules client-side.
  40   Compared to the browser cache, caching in Web Storage allows ResourceLoader
  41   to be more granular about evicting stale modules from the cache while
  42   retaining the ability to retrieve multiple modules in a single HTTP request.
  43   This capability can be enabled by setting $wgResourceLoaderStorageEnabled to
  44   true. This feature is currently considered experimental and should only be
  45   enabled with care.
  46 * (bug 6092) Add expensive parser functions {{REVISIONID:}}, {{REVISIONUSER:}}
  47   and {{REVISIONTIMESTAMP:}} (with friends).
  48 * Add "wgRelevantUserName" to mw.config containing the current
  49   Skin::getRelevantUser value.
  50 * (bug 56033) Add content model to the page information.
  51 * Added Article::MissingArticleConditions hook to give extensions a chance to
  52   hide their (unrelated) log entries.
  53 * Added LonelyPagesQuery hook to let extensions modify the query used to
  54   generate Special:LonelyPages.
  55 * Added $wgOpenSearchDefaultLimit defining the default number of entries to show
  56   on action=opensearch API call.
  57 * For namespaces with $wgNamespaceProtection (including the MediaWiki
  58   namespace), the "protect" tab will be shown only if there are restriction
  59   levels available that would restrict editing beyond what
  60   $wgNamespaceProtection already applies. The protection form will offer only
  61   those protection levels.
  62 * Added $wgAPIFormatModules, allowing extensions to add additional output
  63   formatting modules for the API.
  64 * (bug 47812) The MediaWiki:Group-user.{css,js} pages can now be used to add
  65   custom CSS or JavaScript enabled only for registered users.
  66 * (bug 52005) Special pages RecentChanges, RecentChangesLinked and Watchlist
  67   now include a legend describing the symbols used in lists of changes.
  68 * Improved the accessibility of the tabs in Special:Preferences.
  69 * Added ApiBeforeMain hook, roughly equivalent to the BeforeInitialize hook:
  70   it's called after everything is set up but before any major processing
  71   happens.
  72 * The jquery.client module now performs a component-wise version comparison in
  73   its #test method when strings are used in the browser map: version '1.10' is
  74   now correctly considered larger than '1.2'. Using numbers in the version map
  75   is not affected.
  76 * All API modules now support an assert parameter, which can either be
  77   'user' or 'bot'. The API will throw an error if the user is not logged
  78   in (user) or does not have the 'bot' userright (bot). Based off of the
  79   AssertEdit extension by Steve Sanbeg.
  80 * WikitextContent will now render redirects with the expected "redirect"
  81   header, rather than as an ordered list. Code calling Article::viewRedirect
  82   can probably be changed to no longer special-case redirects.
  83 * [[Special:Diff]] was added, allowing users to create internal links to
  84   revision comparison pages using syntax such as [[Special:Diff/12345]],
  85   [[Special:Diff/12345/prev]] or [[Special:Diff/12345/98765]].
  86 * New user accounts' personal and talk pages are now watched by them by default.
  87 * Added SkinTemplateGetLanguageLink hook to allow changing the html of language
  88   links.
  89 * Added MessageCache::get hook as a new way to customize messages across
  90   multiple sites.
  91
  92 === Bug fixes in 1.23 ===
  93 * (bug 41759) The "updated since last visit" markers (on history pages, recent
  94   changes and watchlist) and the talk page message indicator are now correctly
  95   updated when the user is viewing old revisions of pages, instead of always
  96   acting as if the latest revision was being viewed.
  97 * (bug 56443) Special:ConfirmEmail no longer shows a "Mail a confirmation code"
  98   when the email address is already confirmed. Also, consistently use
  99   "confirmed", rather than "authenticated", when messaging whether or not the
 100   user has confirmed an email address.
 101 * (bug 56912) Show correct link color on cached result of Special:DeadendPages.
 102 * Classes TitleListDependency and TitleDependency have been removed, as they
 103   have been found unused in core and extensions for a long time.
 104 * (bug 57098) SpecialPasswordReset now obeys returnto parameter
 105 * (bug 37812) ResourceLoader will notice when a module's definition changes and
 106   recompile it accordingly.
 107 * (bug 57201) SpecialRecentChangesFilters hook is now executed for feeds.
 108 * (bug 58640) Fixed a compatibility issue with PCRE 8.34 that caused pages
 109   to appear blank or with missing text.
 110 * (bug 56931) Updated the plural rules to CLDR 24. They are in new format
 111   which is detailed in UTS 35 Rev 33. The PHP parser and evaluator as well as
 112   the JavaScript evaluator were updated to support the new format. Plural rules
 113   for some languages have changed, most notably Russian. Affected software
 114   messages have been updated and marked for review at translatewiki.net.
 115 * (bug 14323) Redirect pages, when viewed with redirect=no, no longer hide the
 116   remaining page content.
 117 * (bug 23542) imagelinks now stores both the redirect and target (as
 118   templatelinks does).
 119 * (bug 58167) The web installer no longer throws an exception when PHP is
 120   compiled without support for MySQL yet with support for another DBMS.
 121 * (bug 56199) Raw option of parser functions must now match complete word,
 122   to take effect.
 123 * (bug 60543) Special:PrefixIndex forgot stripprefix=1 for "Next page" link
 124 * (bug 29762) Undoing an already-undone edit will now display an appropriate
 125   message instead of leading the user to make a null edit.
 126
 127 === Web API changes in 1.23 ===
 128 * (bug 54884) action=parse&prop=categories now indicates hidden and missing
 129   categories.
 130 * action=query&meta=filerepoinfo now returns additional information for each
 131   repo.
 132 * action=parse&prop=languageshtml was deprecated in 1.18 and will be removed in
 133   MediaWiki 1.24.
 134 * action=parse now has disabletoc flag to disable table of contents in output.
 135 * (bug 25702) list=allcategories, list=allimages, list=alllinks, list=allpages,
 136   list=deletedrevs and list=filearchive did not handle case-sensitivity
 137   properly for all parameters.
 138 * ApiQueryBase::titlePartToKey allows an extra parameter that indicates the
 139   namespace in order to properly capitalize the title part.
 140 * (bug 57874) action=feedcontributions no longer has one item more than limit.
 141 * All API modules now support an assert parameter. See the new features section
 142   for more details.
 143 * Added prop=contributors to fetch the list of contributors to the page.
 144 * The following API modules will now return entries where fields have been
 145   revision-deleted: list=deletedrevs, list=filearchive, list=recentchanges,
 146   list=watchlist. "hidden" indicators will be included, in the same style as is
 147   already done for prop=revisions.
 148 * The following API modules will now return the content of revision-deleted
 149   fields, in addition to the "hidden" indicators, if the querying user has the
 150   necessary rights: list=logevents, list=usercontribs, prop=imageinfo,
 151   prop=revisions.
 152 * The above modules, where applicable, will now return entries filtered by
 153   revision-deleted fields if the querying user has the necessary rights. For
 154   example, prop=revisions with rvuser or rvexcludeuser will no longer skip
 155   revisions where the user was revision-deleted if the current user has the
 156   deletedhistory right.
 157 * The 'hideuser' right, used when blocking, is no longer necessary or
 158   sufficient for seeing contributions with revision-deleted in
 159   list=usercontribs.
 160 * list=watchlist now uses the querying user's rights rather than the wlowner's
 161   rights when checking whether wlprop=patrol is allowed.
 162 * (bug 32151) ApiWatch now has pageset capabilities (titles/pageids/generators).
 163   Title parameter is now deprecated.
 164 * (bug 23005) Added action=revisiondelete.
 165 * Added siprop=restrictions to API action=query&meta=siteinfo for querying
 166   possible page restriction (protection) levels and types.
 167 * Added prop 'limitreportdata' and 'limitreporthtml' to action=parse.
 168 * (bug 58627) Provide language names on action=parse&prop=langlinks.
 169 * Deprecated llurl= in favour of llprop=url for action=query&prop=langlinks.
 170 * Added llprop=langname and llprop=autonym for action=query&prop=langlinks.
 171
 172 === Languages updated in 1.23 ===
 173
 174 MediaWiki supports over 350 languages. Many localisations are updated
 175 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 176 changes to languages because of Bugzilla reports.
 177
 178 * Support was added for Northern Luri (lrc).
 179
 180 === Other changes in 1.23 ===
 181 * The rc_type field in the recentchanges table has been superseded by a new
 182   rc_source field.  The rc_source field is a string representation of the
 183   change type where rc_type was a numeric constant.  This field is not yet
 184   queried but will be in a future point release of 1.22.
 185 ** Utilize update.php to create and populate this new field.  On larger wiki's
 186    which do not wish to update recentchanges table in one large update please
 187    review the sql and comments in maintenance/archives/patch-rc_source.sql.
 188 ** The rc_type field of recentchanges will be deprecated in a future point
 189    release.
 190 * The global variable $wgArticle has been removed after a lengthy deprecation.
 191 * The global functions addButton and insertTags (for mw.toolbar.addButton and
 192   mw.toolbar.insertTags) now emits mw.log.warn when accessed.
 193 * The ExpandTemplates extension has been moved into MediaWiki core.
 194 * (bug 52812) Removed "Disable search suggestions" from Preference.
 195 * (bug 52809) Removed "Disable browser page caching" from Preference.
 196 * Three new modules intended for use by custom skins were added:
 197   'skins.common.elements', 'skins.common.content', and 'skins.common.interface',
 198   representing three levels of standard MediaWiki styling. Previously skin
 199   creators wishing to use them had to refer to the file names of appropriate
 200   files directly, which is now discouraged.
 201 * The modules 'skins.vector' and 'skins.monobook' have been renamed to
 202   'skins.vector.styles' and 'skins.monobook.styles', respectively,
 203   and their definition was changed not to include the common*.css files;
 204   the two skins now load the 'skins.common.interface' module instead.
 205 * A page_links_updated field has been added to the page table.
 206 * SpecialPage::getTitle has been deprecated in favor of
 207   SpecialPage::getPageTitle.
 208 * BREAKING CHANGE: Two potentially backwards-incompatible changes have been made
 209   to the 'SpecialWatchlistQuery' hook's last parameter (array $values) to make
 210   the hook more consistent with the 'SpecialRecentChangesQuery' one:
 211 ** Several array keys have been renamed: hideMinor → hideminor,
 212    hideBots → hidebots, hideAnons → hideanons, hideLiu → hideliu,
 213    hidePatrolled → hidepatrolled, hideOwn → hidemyself.
 214 ** The parameter value is now a FormOptions object, not a plain array (array
 215    access operators should continue to work, as it implements the ArrayAccess
 216    interface).
 217 * Option to mark hooks as deprecated has been added.
 218 * (bug 52811) Preference "Enable section editing via [edit] links" was removed.
 219 * (bug 52813) Preference "Show table of contents (for pages with more than
 220   3 headings)" was removed.
 221 * (bug 52810) Preference "Justify paragraphs" was removed.
 222 * OutputPage::showErrorPage raises a notice if arguments are incoherent.
 223
 224 ==== Removed classes ====
 225 * FakeMemCachedClient (deprecated in 1.18)
 226 * RdfMetaData (unused)
 227 * TitleDependency (unused)
 228 * TitleListDependency (unused)
 229 * WikiError (deprecated in 1.17)
 230 * WikiXmlError (deprecated in 1.17)
 231 * WikiErrorMsg (deprecated in 1.17)
 232
 233 ==== Renamed classes ====
 234 * CdbReader_DBA to CdbReaderDBA
 235 * CdbReader_PHP to CdbReaderPHP
 236 * CdbWriter_DBA to CdbWriterDBA
 237 * CdbWriter_PHP to CdbWriterPHP
 238 * DiffOp_Add to DiffOpAdd
 239 * DiffOp_Change to DiffOpChange
 240 * DiffOp_Copy to DiffOpCopy
 241 * DiffOp_Delete to DiffOpDelete
 242 * HWLDF_WordAccumulator to HWLDFWordAccumulator
 243 * LBFactory_Fake to LBFactoryFake
 244 * LBFactory_Multi to LBFactoryMulti
 245 * LBFactory_Simple to LBFactorySimple
 246 * LBFactory_Single to LBFactorySingle
 247 * LCStore_Accel to LCStoreAccel
 248 * LCStore_CDB to LCStoreCDB
 249 * LCStore_DB to LCStoreDB
 250 * LCStore_Null to LCStoreNull
 251 * LoadBalancer_Single to LoadBalancerSingle
 252 * LoadMonitor_MySQL to LoadMonitorMySQL
 253 * LoadMonitor_Null to LoadMonitorNull
 254 * LocalisationCache_BulkLoad to LocalisationCacheBulkLoad
 255 * csvStatsOutput to CsvStatsOutput
 256 * extensionLanguages to ExtensionLanguages
 257 * languages to Languages
 258 * statsOutput to StatsOutput
 259 * textStatsOutput to TextStatsOutput
 260 * wikiStatsOutput to WikiStatsOutput
 261
 262 ==== Removed methods ====
 263 * ApiBase::getValidNamespaces() (deprecated in 1.17)
 264 * ApiMain::setCachePrivate() (deprecated in 1.17)
 265 * ApiMain::setVaryCookie (deprecated in 1.17)
 266 * Article::doRedirect() (deprecated in 1.18)
 267 * Article::doUnwatch() (deprecated in 1.18)
 268 * Article::doWatch() (deprecated in 1.18)
 269 * Article::forUpdate() (deprecated in 1.18)
 270 * Article::markpatrolled() (deprecated in 1.18)
 271 * Article::unwatch() (deprecated in 1.18)
 272 * Article::watch() (deprecated in 1.18)
 273 * Block::clear() (deprecated in 1.18)
 274 * Block::decodeExpiry() (deprecated in 1.18)
 275 * Block::encodeExpiry() (deprecated in 1.18)
 276 * Block::forUpdate() (deprecated in 1.18)
 277 * Block::infinity() (deprecated in 1.18)
 278 * Block::load() (deprecated in 1.18)
 279 * Block::newFromDB() (deprecated in 1.18)
 280 * Block::normaliseRange() (deprecated in 1.18)
 281 * Block::parseExpiryInput() (deprecated in 1.18)
 282 * CategoryViewer::addSubcategory() (deprecated in 1.17)
 283 * EditPage::spamPage() (deprecated since 1.17)
 284 * Exif::getFormattedData() (deprecated in 1.18)
 285 * Exif::makeFormattedData() (deprecated in 1.18)
 286 * in_string (deprecated in 1.21)
 287 * Language::convertLinkToAllVariants() (deprecated in 1.17)
 288 * LanguageConverter::convertLinkToAllVariants() (deprecated in 1.17)
 289 * Linker::makeBrokenLink() (deprecated in 1.16)
 290 * Linker::makeBrokenLinkObj() (deprecated in 1.16)
 291 * Linker::makeColouredLinkObj() (deprecated in 1.16)
 292 * Linker::makeSizeLinkObj() (deprecated in 1.17)
 293 * MediaWiki::articleFromTitle() (deprecated in 1.18)
 294 * ParserOptions::getkin() (deprecated 1.18)
 295 * ProfilerSimple::getCpuTime (deprecated in 1.20)
 296 * Revision::revText() (deprecated in 1.17)
 297 * SkinTemplate::jstext() (deprecated in 1.21)
 298 * SpecialPage::__call() (deprecated in 1.17)
 299 * SpecialPage::executePath() (deprecated in 1.18)
 300 * SpecialPage::exists() (deprecated in 1.18)
 301 * SpecialPage::file() (deprecated in 1.18)
 302 * SpecialPage::func() (deprecated in 1.18)
 303 * SpecialPage::getGroup() (deprecated in 1.18)
 304 * SpecialPage::getPage() (deprecated in 1.18)
 305 * SpecialPage::getPageByAlias() (deprecated in 1.18)
 306 * SpecialPage::getLocalNameFor() (deprecated in 1.18)
 307 * SpecialPage::getRegularPages() (deprecated in 1.18)
 308 * SpecialPage::getRestrictedPages() (deprecated in 1.18)
 309 * SpecialPage::getTitleForAlias() (deprecated in 1.18)
 310 * SpecialPage::getUsablePages() (deprecated in 1.18)
 311 * SpecialPage::includable() (deprecated in 1.18)
 312 * SpecialPage::init()
 313 * SpecialPage::initAliasList() (deprecated in 1.18)
 314 * SpecialPage::initList() (deprecated in 1.18)
 315 * SpecialPage::name() (deprecated in 1.18)
 316 * SpecialPage::removePage() (deprecated in 1.18)
 317 * SpecialPage::resolveAlias() (deprecated in 1.18)
 318 * SpecialPage::resolveAliasWithSubpage() (deprecated in 1.18)
 319 * SpecialPage::restriction() (deprecated in 1.18)
 320 * SpecialPage::setGroup() (deprecated in 1.18)
 321 * SpecialRecentChanges::feedSetup()
 322 * SpecialRevisionDelete::extractBitField() (deprecated in 1.22)
 323 * User::getPageRenderingHash() (deprecated in 1.17)
 324 * WebRequest::getFileSize() (deprecated in 1.17)
 325 * WebRequest::isPathInfoBad() (deprecated in 1.17)
 326 * wfGenerateToken (deprecated in 1.20)
 327 * wfStreamFile (deprecated in 1.19)
 328 * wfUILang (deprecated in 1.18)
 329 * WikiPage::createUpdates() (deprecated in 1.18)
 330 * WikiPage::quickEdit() (deprecated in 1.18)
 331 * WikiPage::useParserCache() (deprecated in 1.18)
 332 * WikiPage::viewUpdates() (deprecated in 1.18)
 333
 334 ==== Removed globals ====
 335 * $wgBetterDirectionality (deprecated in 1.18)
 336
 337 == Compatibility ==
 338
 339 MediaWiki 1.23 requires PHP 5.3.2 or later.
 340
 341 MySQL is the recommended DBMS. PostgreSQL or SQLite can also be used, but
 342 support for them is somewhat less mature. There is experimental support for
 343 Oracle.
 344
 345 The supported versions are:
 346
 347 * MySQL 5.0.2 or later
 348 * PostgreSQL 8.3 or later
 349 * SQLite 3.3.7 or later
 350 * Oracle 9.0.1 or later
 351
 352 == Upgrading ==
 353
 354 1.23 has several database changes since 1.22, and will not work without schema
 355 updates. Note that due to changes to some very large tables like the revision
 356 table, the schema update may take quite long (minutes on a medium sized site,
 357 many hours on a large site).
 358
 359 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons
 360 repository, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise
 361 due to database schema changes.
 362
 363 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 364 new database fields are filled with data.
 365
 366 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, you should upgrade to
 367 1.5 first. The upgrade script maintenance/upgrade1_5.php has been removed
 368 with MediaWiki 1.21.
 369
 370 Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 371
 372 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 373
 374 For notes on 1.21.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 375
 376 == Online documentation ==
 377
 378 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is available on
 379 MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation License (except
 380 for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in the public domain):
 381
 382         https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 383
 384 == Mailing list ==
 385
 386 A mailing list is available for MediaWiki user support and discussion:
 387
 388         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 389
 390 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 391
 392         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 393
 394 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 395 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 396
 397 == IRC help ==
 398
 399 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net.