= MediaWiki release notes = Security reminder: MediaWiki does not require PHP's register_globals setting since version 1.2.0. If you have it on, turn it *off* if you can. == MediaWiki 1.8 == THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET. MediaWiki is now using a "continuous integration" development model with quarterly snapshot releases. The latest development code is always kept "ready to run", and in fact runs our own sites on Wikipedia. Release branches will continue to receive security updates for about a year from first release, but nonessential bugfixes and feature development happen will be made on the development trunk and appear in the next quarterly release. Those wishing to use the latest code instead of a branch release can obtain it from source control: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_SVN == Configuration changes == * None yet! == Major new features == * (bug 550) Allow blocks on anonymous users only. * (bug 6420) Render thumbnails for DJVU images, support multipage DJVU display on image pages. Added new 'page=' thumbnail option to select a page from a multipage djvu for thumbnail generation. == Changes since 1.7 == * (bug 6562) Removed unmaintained ParserXml.php for now * History paging overlap bug fixed * (bug 6586) Regression in "unblocked" subtitle * Don't put empty-page message into view-source when page text is blank * (bug 6587) Remove redundant "allnonarticles" message * Block improvements: Allow blocks on anonymous users only. Optionally allow or disallow account creation from blocked IP addresses. Prevent duplicate blocks. Fixed the problem of expiry and unblocking erroneously affecting multiple blocks. Fixed confusing lack of error message when a blocked user attempts to create an account. Fixed inefficiency of Special:Ipblocklist in the presence of large numbers of blocks; added indexes and implemented an indexed pager. * (bug 6448) Allow filtering of Special:Newpages according to username * (bug 6618) Improve permissions/error detection in Special:Lockdb * Quick hack for extension testing: parser test doesn't create new message cache object. * (bug 6299) Maintain parser's revision ID across recursive calls to fix {{REVISIONID}} when Cite extension is used * (bug 6622) Removed deprecated function Image::newFromTitle * (bug 6627) Fix regression in Special:Ipblocklist with table prefix * Removed forced dereferencements (new() returns a reference in PHP5) * Note about $wgUploadSizeWarning using byte * (bug 6592) Add most viewed pages summary to Special:Statistics * Pre-strip characters ignored in IDNs from URLs so they can't be used to break the blacklists for regular URLs * Fix regression in blocking of user accounts * (bug 6635) Fix regression searching for range blocks on Ipblocklist * Fix regression searching Ipblocklist with ugly URLs * (bug 6639) Use a consistent default for upload directories * Preserve entered reason when reporting unconfirmed lock on Special:Lockdb * (bug 6642) Don't offer to unlock the database when it isn't locked * cleanupTitles.php changed from --dry-run option to --fix, so default behavior is now a non-invasive check as with namespaceDupes.php * (bug 6660) Fix behaviour of EditPage::blockedPage() when the article does not exist; now doesn't show the source box if the user hasn't provided it (blocked mid-edit) and the page doesn't exist * Improve default value of "blockedtext" * (bug 6680) Added localisation for Dutch bookstore list (nl) * Renamed maintainace script redundanttrans.php to unusedMessages.php - clearer usage * Fix regression which allowed some blocked users to create additional accounts * (bug 6657) Fix Hungarian linktrail * (bug 6751) Fix preview of blanked section with edit on first preview option * (bug 5456) Separate MediaWiki:Search into messages for both noun and verb, introduced 'MediaWiki:Searchbutton' * Made lines from initialiseMessages() appear as list items during installation * Moved the bulk of the localisation data from the Language*.php files to the Messages*.php files. Deleted most of the Languages*.php files. * Introduced "stub global" framework to provide deferred initialisation of core modules. * Removed placeholder values for $wgTitle and $wgArticle, these variables will now be null during the initialisation process, until they are set by index.php or another entry point. * Added DBA cache type, for BDB-style caches. * Removed custom date format functions, replacing them with a format string in the style of PHP's date(). Used string identifiers instead of integer identifiers, in both the language files and user preferences. Migration should be transparent in most cases. * Simplified the initialisation API for LoadBalancer objects. * Removed the broken altencoding feature. * Moved default user options and toggles from Language to User. Language objects are still able to define default preference overrides and extra user toggles, via a slightly different interface. * Don't include the date option in the parser cache rendering hash unless $wgUseDynamicDates is enabled. * Merged LanguageUtf8 with Language. Removed LanguageUtf8.php. * Removed inclusion of language files from the bottom of Language.php. This is now consistently done from Language::factory(). * Add the name of the executing maintenance script to the debug log. Start the profiler during maintenance scripts. * Added "serialized" directory, for storing precompiled data in serialized form. * Fix regression in auto-set NS_PROJECT_TALK namespace * Fix regression in ordering of namespaces * (bug 6806, 6030) Added several global JS variables for article path, user name, page title, etc. * hooks registered with addOnloadHook are now called at the one of the html body by all skins. * Split ajax aided search from core ajax framework. Use wgUseAjax to enable the framework and wgAjaxSearch to enable the suggest feature for the search box. * Added experimental installer for extensions. See maintenance/installExtension.php * Added Tajic (tg) language file. * (bug 6903) Added Cantonese localisation (zh-yue) * Fix regression in Korean and Japanese date formatting (day of week) * (bug 6919) Add English alias magic words for Tatar (tt) language file. * (bug 6753) Fixed broken Kazakh linktrail (kk) * (bug 6700) Added Kazakh language variants to Names.php * (bug 6827) some i18n specific maintenance scripts fails after merge of localisation-work branch * Throwed an exception for the deprecated functions OutputPage::sysopRequired and OutputPage::developerRequired - use OutputPage::permissionRequired instead. * Removed the deprecated functions User::isSysop, User::isBureaucrat and User::isDeveloper - use User::isAllowed instead. * (bug 769) OutputPage::permissionRequired() should suggest groups with the needed permission * (bug 6971) Fix regression in Special:Export history view * Revamped Special:Imagelist * (bug 7000) updated MessagesPl.php * (bug 6946) Fix unexpected behavior change with GET hits to Special:Export * (bug 1866) Improve navigation on Special:Listusers; user now a starting point as with Special:Allpages, rather than a pure limit. == Languages updated == * Albanian (sq) * Belarusian (be) * Bishnupriya (bpy) stub file * Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br) * Catalan (ca) * Cantonese (zh-yue) * Dutch (nl) * English (en) * French (fr) * German (de) * Georgian (ka) * Hebrew (he) * Hungarian (hu) * Indonesian (id) * Korean (ko) * Polish (pl) * Romani (rmy) * Russian (ru) * Spanish (es) * Tajic (tg) * Tatar (tt) * Telugu (te) == Compatibility == MediaWiki 1.8 requires PHP 5 (5.1 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported. MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade. At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases. == Upgrading == Several changes to the database have been made from 1.6: * A new "langlinks" table tracks interlanguage links * A new "filearchive" table stores information on deleted files * A new "querycache_info" table stores information on query page updates To ensure that these tables are filled with data, run refreshLinks.php after the upgrade. If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading! See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions. === Caveats === Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for MathML to display properly in Mozilla.) For notes on 1.5.x and older releases, see HISTORY. === Online documentation === Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation License: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation === Mailing list === A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia wikitech-l list: http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available: http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes. === IRC help === There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net