RELEASE-NOTES-1.21

   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 1.21 ==
   5
   6 THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET
   7
   8 MediaWiki 1.21 is an alpha-quality branch and is not recommended for use in
   9 production.
  10
  11 === Configuration changes in 1.21 ===
  12 * (bug 29374) $wgVectorUseSimpleSearch is now enabled by default.
  13 * Deprecated $wgAllowRealName is removed. Use $wgHiddenPrefs[] = 'realname'
  14   instead.
  15 * (bug 39957) Added $wgUnwatchedPageThreshold, specifying minimum count
  16   of page watchers required for the number to be accessible to users
  17   without the unwatchedpages permission.
  18 * $wgBug34832TransitionalRollback has been removed.
  19 * (bug 29472) $wgUseDynamicDates has been removed and its functionality
  20   disabled.
  21
  22 === New features in 1.21 ===
  23 * (bug 38110) Schema changes (adding or dropping tables, indicies and
  24   fields) can be now be done separately from from other changes that
  25   update.php makes.  This is useful in environments that use database
  26   permissions to restrict schema changes but allow the DB user that
  27   MediaWiki normally runs as to perform other changes that update.php
  28   makes.  Schema changes can be run seperately.  See the file UPGRADE
  29   for more information.
  30 * (bug 34876) jquery.makeCollapsible has been improved in performance.
  31 * Added ContentHandler facility to allow extensions to support other content
  32   than wikitext. See docs/contenthandler.txt for details.
  33 * New feature was developed for showing high-DPI thumbnails for high-DPI mobile
  34   and desktop displays (configurable with $wgResponsiveImages).
  35 * Added new backend to represent and store information about sites and site
  36   specific configuration.
  37 * jQuery upgraded from 1.8.2 to 1.8.3.
  38 * jQuery UI upgraded from 1.8.23 to 1.8.24.
  39 * Added separate fa_sha1 field to filearchive table. This allows sha1
  40   searches with the api in miser mode for deleted files.
  41 * Add initial and programmatic sorting for tablesorter.
  42 * Add the event "sortEnd.tablesorter", triggered after sorting has completed.
  43 * The Job system was refactored to allow for different backing stores for
  44   queues as well as cross-wiki access to queues, among other things. The schema
  45   for the DB queue was changed to support better concurrency and reduce
  46   deadlock errors.
  47 * Added ApiQueryORM class to facilitate creation of query API modules based on
  48   tables that have a corresponding ORMTable class.
  49 * (bug 40876) Icon for PSD (Adobe Photoshop) file types.
  50 * (bug 40641) Implemented Special:Version/Credits with a list of contributors.
  51 * (bug 7851) Implemented one-click AJAX patrolling.
  52 * The <data>, <time>, <meta>, and <link> elements are allowed within WikiText
  53   for use with Microdata.
  54 * The HTML5 <mark> tag has been whitelisted.
  55 * Added ParserCloned hook for when the Parser object is cloned.
  56 * Added AlternateEditPreview hook to allow extensions to replace the page
  57   preview from the edit page.
  58 * Added EditPage::showStandardInputs:options hook to allow extensions to add
  59   new fields to the "editOptions" area of the edit form.
  60 * Upload stash DB schema altered to improve upload performance.
  61 * The following global functions are now reporting deprecated warnings in
  62   debug mode: wfMsg, wfMsgNoTrans, wfMsgForContent, wfMsgForContentNoTrans,
  63   wfMsgReal, wfMsgGetKey, wfMsgHtml, wfMsgWikiHtml, wfMsgExt, wfEmptyMsg. Use
  64   the Message class, or the global method wfMessage.
  65 * Added $wgEnableCanonicalServerLink, off by default. If enabled, a
  66   <link rel=canonical> tag is added to every page indicating the correct server
  67   to use.
  68 * Debug message emitted by wfDebugLog() will now be prefixed with the group
  69   name when its logged to the default log file. That is the case whenever the
  70   group has no key in wgDebugLogGroups, that will help triage the default log.
  71 * (bug 24620) Add types to LogFormatter.
  72 * jQuery JSON upgraded from 2.3 to 2.4.0.
  73 * Added GetDoubleUnderscoreIDs hook, for modifying the list of magic words.
  74 * DatabaseUpdater class has two new methods to ease extensions schema changes:
  75   dropExtensionIndex and renameExtensionIndex.
  76 * New preference type - 'api'. Preferences of this type are not shown on
  77   Special:Preferences, but are still available via the action=options API.
  78 * (bug 39397) Hide rollback link if a user is the only contributor of the page.
  79 * $wgPageInfoTransclusionLimit limits the list size of transcluded articles
  80   on the info action. Default is 50.
  81 * Added action=createaccount to allow user account creation.
  82 * (bug 40124) action=options API also allows for setting of arbitrary
  83   preferences, provided that their names are prefixed with 'userjs-'. This
  84   officially reenables the feature that was undocumented and defective
  85   in MW 1.20 (saving preferences using Special:Preferences cleared any
  86   additional fields) and which has been disabled in 1.20.1 as a part of
  87   a security fix (bug 42202).
  88 * Added the ability to limit the wall clock time used by shell processes,
  89   as well as the CPU time. Configurable with $wgMaxShellWallClockTime.
  90 * Allow memory of shell subprocesses to be limited using Linux cgroups
  91   instead of ulimit -v, which tends to cause deadlocks in recent versions
  92   of ImageMagick. Configurable with $wgShellCgroup.
  93 * Added $wgWhitelistReadRegexp for regex whitelisting.
  94 * (bug 5346) Categories that are redirects will be displayed italic in
  95   the category links section at the bottom of a page.
  96 * (bug 43915) New maintenance script deleteEqualMessages.php.
  97 * New collation uppercase-sv, which is like uppercase, but adapted
  98   to Swedish sort order.
  99 * WikiText now permits the use of WAI-ARIA's role="presentation" inside of
 100   html elements and tables. This allows presentational markup, especially
 101   tables. To be marked up as such.
 102
 103 === Bug fixes in 1.21 ===
 104 * (bug 40353) SpecialDoubleRedirect should support interwiki redirects.
 105 * (bug 40352) fixDoubleRedirects.php should support interwiki redirects.
 106 * (bug 9237) SpecialBrokenRedirect should not list interwiki redirects.
 107 * (bug 34960) Drop unused fields rc_moved_to_ns and rc_moved_to_title from
 108   recentchanges table.
 109 * (bug 32951) Do not register internal externals with absolute protocol,
 110   when server has relative protocol.
 111 * (bug 39005) When purging proxies listed in $wgSquidServers using HTTP PURGE
 112   method requests, we now send a Host header by default, for Varnish
 113   compatibility. This also works with Squid in reverse-proxy mode. If you wish
 114   to support Squid configured in forward-proxy mode, set
 115   $wgSquidPurgeUseHostHeader to false.
 116 * (bug 37020) sql.php with readline eats semicolon.
 117 * (bug 11748) Properly handle optionally-closed HTML tags when Tidy is
 118   disabled, and don't wrap HTML-syntax definition lists in paragraphs.
 119 * (bug 41409) Diffs while editing an old revision should again diff against the
 120   current revision.
 121 * (bug 41494) Honor $wgLogExceptionBacktrace when logging non-API exceptions
 122   caught during API execution.
 123 * (bug 37963) Fixed loading process for user options.
 124 * (bug 26995) Update filename field on Upload page after having sanitized it.
 125 * (bug 41793) Contribution links to users with 0 edits on Special:ListUsers
 126   didn't show up red.
 127 * (bug 41899) A PHP notice no longer occurs when using the "rvcontinue" API
 128   parameter.
 129 * (bug 42036) Account creation emails now contain canonical (not
 130   protocol-relative) URLs.
 131 * (bug 41990) Fix regression: API edit with redirect=true and lacking
 132   starttimestamp and basetimestamp should not cause an edit conflict.
 133 * (bug 41706) EditPage: Preloaded page should be converted if possible and
 134   needed.
 135 * (bug 41886) Rowspans are no longer exploded by tablesorter until the table is
 136   actually sorted.
 137 * (bug 2865)  User interface HTML elements don't use lang attribute.
 138   (completed the fix by adding the lang attribute to firstHeading).
 139 * (bug 42173) Removed namespace prefixes on Special:UncategorizedCategories.
 140 * (bug 36053) Log in "returnto" feature forgets query parameters if no
 141   title parameter was specified.
 142 * (bug 42410) API action=edit now returns correct timestamp for the new edit.
 143 * (bug 14901) Email notification mistakes log action for new page creation.
 144   Enotif no longer sends "page has been created" notifications for some log
 145   actions. The following events now have a correct message: page creation,
 146   deletion, move, restore (undeletion), change (edit). Parameter
 147   $CHANGEDORCREATED is deprecated in 'enotif_body' and scheduled for removal in
 148   MediaWiki 1.23.
 149 * (bug 457) In the sidebar of Vector, CologneBlue, Monobook, and Monobook-based
 150   skins, the heading levels have been changed from (variously per skin)
 151   <h4>, <h5> or <h6> to only <h3>s, with a <h2> hidden heading above them.
 152   If you are styling or scripting the headings in a custom way, this change
 153   will require updates to your site's CSS or JS.
 154 * (bug 41342) jquery.suggestions should cancel any active (async) fetches
 155   before it triggers another fetch.
 156 * (bug 42184) $wgUploadSizeWarning missing second variable.
 157 * (bug 34581) removeUnusedAccounts.php maintenance script now ignores newuser
 158   log when determining whether an account is used.
 159 * (bug 43379) Gracefully fail if rev_len is unavailable for a revision on the
 160   History page.
 161 * (bug 42949) API no longer assumes all exceptions are MWException.
 162 * (bug 41733) Hide "New user message" (.usermessage) element from printable view.
 163 * (bug 39062) Special:Contributions will display changes that don't have
 164   a parent id instead of just an empty bullet item.
 165 * (bug 37209) "LinkCache doesn't currently know about this title" error fixed.
 166 * wfMerge() now works if $wgDiff3 contains spaces
 167 * (bug 43052) mediawiki.action.view.dblClickEdit.dblClickEdit should trigger
 168   ca-edit click instead opening URL directly.
 169 * (bug 43964) Invalid value of "link" parameter in <gallery> no longer produces
 170   a fatal error.
 171 * (bug 44775) The username field is not pre-filled when creating an account.
 172
 173 === API changes in 1.21 ===
 174 * prop=revisions can now report the contentmodel and contentformat.
 175   See docs/contenthandler.txt.
 176 * action=edit and action=parse now support contentmodel and contentformat
 177   parameters to control the interpretation of page content.
 178   See docs/contenthandler.txt for details.
 179 * (bug 35693) ApiQueryImageInfo now suppresses errors when unserializing metadata.
 180 * (bug 40111) Disable minor edit for page/section creation by API.
 181 * (bug 41042) Revert change to action=parse&page=... behavior when the page
 182   does not exist.
 183 * (bug 27202) Add timestamp sort to list=allimages.
 184 * (bug 43137) Don't return the sha1 of revisions through the API if the content is
 185   revision-deleted.
 186 * ApiQueryImageInfo now also returns imageinfo for redirects.
 187 * list=alltransclusions added to enumerate every instance of page embedding
 188 * list=alllinks & alltransclusions now allow both 'from' and 'continue' in
 189   the same query. When both are present, 'from' is simply ignored.
 190 * list=alllinks & alltransclusions now allow 'unique' in generators, to yield
 191   a list of all link/template target pages instead of source pages.
 192 * BREAKING CHANGE: list=logevents output format changed for details of some log
 193   types. Specifically, details that were formerly reported under a key like
 194   "4::foo" will now be reported under a key of simply "foo".
 195 * BREAKING CHANGE: '??_badcontinue' error code was changed to '??badcontinue'
 196   for all query modules.
 197 * ApiQueryBase adds 'badcontinue' error code if module has 'continue' parameter.
 198 * (bug 35885) Removed version parameter and all getVersion() methods.
 199 * action=options now takes a "resetkinds" option, which allows only resetting
 200   certain types of preferences when the "reset" option is set.
 201 * (bug 36751) ApiQueryImageInfo now returns imageinfo for the redirect target
 202   when queried with &redirects=.
 203 * (bug 31849) ApiQueryImageInfo no longer gets confused when asked for info on
 204   a redirect and its target.
 205 * (bug 43849) ApiQueryImageInfo no longer throws exceptions with ForeignDBRepo
 206   redirects.
 207 * On error, any warnings generated before that error will be shown in the result.
 208 * action=help suports generalized submodules (modules=query+value), querymodules obsolete
 209 * ApiQueryImageInfo continuation is more reliable. The only major change is
 210   that the imagerepository property will no longer be set on page objects not
 211   processed in the current query (i.e. non-images or those skipped due to
 212   iicontinue).
 213 * Add supports for all pageset capabilities - generators, redirects, converttitles to
 214   action=purge and action=setnotificationtimestamp.
 215
 216 === API internal changes in 1.21 ===
 217 * For debugging only, a new global $wgDebugAPI removes many API restrictions when true.
 218   Never use on the production servers, as this flag introduces security holes.
 219   Whenever enabled, a warning will also be added to all output.
 220 * ApiModuleManager now handles all submodules (actions,props,lists) and instantiation
 221 * Query stores prop/list/meta as submodules
 222 * ApiPageSet can now be used in any action to process titles/pageids/revids or any generator.
 223 * BREAKING CHANGE: ApiPageSet constructor now has two params instead of three, with only the
 224   first one keeping its meaning. ApiPageSet is now derived from ApiBase.
 225 * BREAKING CHANGE: ApiQuery::newGenerator() and executeGeneratorModule() were deleted.
 226 * ApiQueryGeneratorBase::setGeneratorMode() now requires a pageset param.
 227
 228 === Languages updated in 1.21 ===
 229
 230 MediaWiki supports over 350 languages. Many localisations are updated
 231 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 232 changes to languages because of Bugzilla reports.
 233
 234 * South Azerbaijani (azb) added.
 235 * (bug 30040) Autonym for nds-nl is now 'Nedersaksies' (was 'Nedersaksisch').
 236 * (bug 34977) Now formatted numbers in Spanish use space as separator
 237   for thousands, as mandated by the Real Academia Española.
 238 * (bug 35031) Kurdish formatted numbers now use period and comma
 239   as separators for thousands and decimals respectively.
 240
 241 === Other changes in 1.21 ===
 242 * BREAKING CHANGE: (bug 44385) Removed the jquery.collapsibleTabs module and
 243   moved it to the Vector extension. It was entirely Vector-extension-specific,
 244   deeply interconnected with the extension, and this functionality really
 245   belongs to the extension instead of the skin anyway. In the unlikely case you
 246   were using it, you have to either copy it to your extension, or install the
 247   Vector extension (and possibly disable its features using config settings if
 248   you don't want them).
 249
 250 == Compatibility ==
 251
 252 MediaWiki 1.21 requires PHP 5.3.2 or later.
 253
 254 MySQL is the recommended DBMS. PostgreSQL or SQLite can also be used, but
 255 support for them is somewhat less mature. There is experimental support for IBM
 256 DB2 and Oracle.
 257
 258 The supported versions are:
 259
 260 * MySQL 5.0.2 or later
 261 * PostgreSQL 8.3 or later
 262 * SQLite 3.3.7 or later
 263 * Oracle 9.0.1 or later
 264
 265 == Upgrading ==
 266
 267 1.21 has several database changes since 1.20, and will not work without schema
 268 updates. Note that due to changes to some very large tables like the revision
 269 table, the schema update may take quite long (minutes on a medium sized site,
 270 many hours on a large site).
 271
 272 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons
 273 repository, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise
 274 due to database schema changes.
 275
 276 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 277 new database fields are filled with data.
 278
 279 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, you should upgrade to
 280 1.5 first. The upgrade script maintenance/upgrade1_5.php has been removed
 281 with MediaWiki 1.21.
 282
 283 Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 284
 285 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 286
 287 For notes on 1.19.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 288
 289 == Online documentation ==
 290
 291 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is available on
 292 MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation License (except
 293 for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in the public domain):
 294
 295         https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 296
 297 == Mailing list ==
 298
 299 A mailing list is available for MediaWiki user support and discussion:
 300
 301         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 302
 303 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 304
 305         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 306
 307 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 308 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 309
 310 == IRC help ==
 311
 312 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net.