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
  88 === Bug fixes in 1.23 ===
  89 * (bug 41759) The "updated since last visit" markers (on history pages, recent
  90   changes and watchlist) and the talk page message indicator are now correctly
  91   updated when the user is viewing old revisions of pages, instead of always
  92   acting as if the latest revision was being viewed.
  93 * (bug 56443) Special:ConfirmEmail no longer shows a "Mail a confirmation code"
  94   when the email address is already confirmed. Also, consistently use
  95   "confirmed", rather than "authenticated", when messaging whether or not the
  96   user has confirmed an email address.
  97 * (bug 56912) Show correct link color on cached result of Special:DeadendPages.
  98 * Classes TitleListDependency and TitleDependency have been removed, as they
  99   have been found unused in core and extensions for a long time.
 100 * (bug 57098) SpecialPasswordReset now obeys returnto parameter
 101 * (bug 37812) ResourceLoader will notice when a module's definition changes and
 102   recompile it accordingly.
 103 * (bug 57201) SpecialRecentChangesFilters hook is now executed for feeds.
 104 * (bug 58640) Fixed a compatibility issue with PCRE 8.34 that caused pages
 105   to appear blank or with missing text.
 106 * (bug 56931) Updated the plural rules to CLDR 24. They are in new format
 107   which is detailed in UTS 35 Rev 33. The PHP parser and evaluator as well as
 108   the JavaScript evaluator were updated to support the new format. Plural rules
 109   for some languages have changed, most notably Russian. Affected software
 110   messages have been updated and marked for review at translatewiki.net.
 111 * (bug 14323) Redirect pages, when viewed with redirect=no, no longer hide the
 112   remaining page content.
 113 * (bug 23542) imagelinks now stores both the redirect and target (as
 114   templatelinks does).
 115 * (bug 58167) The web installer no longer throws an exception when PHP is
 116   compiled without support for MySQL yet with support for another DBMS.
 117 * (bug 56199) Raw option of parser functions must now match complete word,
 118   to take effect.
 119 * (bug 60543) Special:PrefixIndex forgot stripprefix=1 for "Next page" link
 120
 121 === Web API changes in 1.23 ===
 122 * (bug 54884) action=parse&prop=categories now indicates hidden and missing
 123   categories.
 124 * action=query&meta=filerepoinfo now returns additional information for each
 125   repo.
 126 * action=parse&prop=languageshtml was deprecated in 1.18 and will be removed in
 127   MediaWiki 1.24.
 128 * action=parse now has disabletoc flag to disable table of contents in output.
 129 * (bug 25702) list=allcategories, list=allimages, list=alllinks, list=allpages,
 130   list=deletedrevs and list=filearchive did not handle case-sensitivity
 131   properly for all parameters.
 132 * ApiQueryBase::titlePartToKey allows an extra parameter that indicates the
 133   namespace in order to properly capitalize the title part.
 134 * (bug 57874) action=feedcontributions no longer has one item more than limit.
 135 * All API modules now support an assert parameter. See the new features section
 136   for more details.
 137 * Added prop=contributors to fetch the list of contributors to the page.
 138 * The following API modules will now return entries where fields have been
 139   revision-deleted: list=deletedrevs, list=filearchive, list=recentchanges,
 140   list=watchlist. "hidden" indicators will be included, in the same style as is
 141   already done for prop=revisions.
 142 * The following API modules will now return the content of revision-deleted
 143   fields, in addition to the "hidden" indicators, if the querying user has the
 144   necessary rights: list=logevents, list=usercontribs, prop=imageinfo,
 145   prop=revisions.
 146 * The above modules, where applicable, will now return entries filtered by
 147   revision-deleted fields if the querying user has the necessary rights. For
 148   example, prop=revisions with rvuser or rvexcludeuser will no longer skip
 149   revisions where the user was revision-deleted if the current user has the
 150   deletedhistory right.
 151 * The 'hideuser' right, used when blocking, is no longer necessary or
 152   sufficient for seeing contributions with revision-deleted in
 153   list=usercontribs.
 154 * list=watchlist now uses the querying user's rights rather than the wlowner's
 155   rights when checking whether wlprop=patrol is allowed.
 156
 157 === Languages updated in 1.23 ===
 158
 159 MediaWiki supports over 350 languages. Many localisations are updated
 160 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 161 changes to languages because of Bugzilla reports.
 162
 163 * Support was added for Northern Luri (lrc).
 164
 165 === Other changes in 1.23 ===
 166 * The rc_type field in the recentchanges table has been superseded by a new
 167   rc_source field.  The rc_source field is a string representation of the
 168   change type where rc_type was a numeric constant.  This field is not yet
 169   queried but will be in a future point release of 1.22.
 170 ** Utilize update.php to create and populate this new field.  On larger wiki's
 171    which do not wish to update recentchanges table in one large update please
 172    review the sql and comments in maintenance/archives/patch-rc_source.sql.
 173 ** The rc_type field of recentchanges will be deprecated in a future point
 174    release.
 175 * The global variable $wgArticle has been removed after a lengthy deprecation.
 176 * The global functions addButton and insertTags (for mw.toolbar.addButton and
 177   mw.toolbar.insertTags) now emits mw.log.warn when accessed.
 178 * The ExpandTemplates extension has been moved into MediaWiki core.
 179 * (bug 52812) Removed "Disable search suggestions" from Preference.
 180 * (bug 52809) Removed "Disable browser page caching" from Preference.
 181 * Three new modules intended for use by custom skins were added:
 182   'skins.common.elements', 'skins.common.content', and 'skins.common.interface',
 183   representing three levels of standard MediaWiki styling. Previously skin
 184   creators wishing to use them had to refer to the file names of appropriate
 185   files directly, which is now discouraged.
 186 * The modules 'skins.vector' and 'skins.monobook' have been renamed to
 187   'skins.vector.styles' and 'skins.monobook.styles', respectively,
 188   and their definition was changed not to include the common*.css files;
 189   the two skins now load the 'skins.common.interface' module instead.
 190 * A page_links_updated field has been added to the page table.
 191 * SpecialPage::getTitle has been deprecated in favor of
 192   SpecialPage::getPageTitle.
 193 * BREAKING CHANGE: Two potentially backwards-incompatible changes have been made
 194   to the 'SpecialWatchlistQuery' hook's last parameter (array $values) to make
 195   the hook more consistent with the 'SpecialRecentChangesQuery' one:
 196 ** Several array keys have been renamed: hideMinor → hideminor,
 197    hideBots → hidebots, hideAnons → hideanons, hideLiu → hideliu,
 198    hidePatrolled → hidepatrolled, hideOwn → hidemyself.
 199 ** The parameter value is now a FormOptions object, not a plain array (array
 200    access operators should continue to work, as it implements the ArrayAccess
 201    interface).
 202 * Option to mark hooks as deprecated has been added.
 203 * (bug 52811) Preference "Enable section editing via [edit] links" was removed.
 204 * (bug 52813) Preference "Show table of contents (for pages with more than
 205   3 headings)" was removed.
 206 * (bug 52810) Preference "Justify paragraphs" was removed.
 207 * OutputPage::showErrorPage raises a notice if arguments are incoherent.
 208
 209 ==== Removed classes ====
 210 * FakeMemCachedClient (deprecated in 1.18)
 211 * RdfMetaData (unused)
 212 * TitleDependency (unused)
 213 * TitleListDependency (unused)
 214 * WikiError (deprecated in 1.17)
 215 * WikiXmlError (deprecated in 1.17)
 216 * WikiErrorMsg (deprecated in 1.17)
 217
 218 ==== Renamed classes ====
 219 * CdbReader_DBA to CdbReaderDBA
 220 * CdbReader_PHP to CdbReaderPHP
 221 * CdbWriter_DBA to CdbWriterDBA
 222 * CdbWriter_PHP to CdbWriterPHP
 223 * DiffOp_Add to DiffOpAdd
 224 * DiffOp_Change to DiffOpChange
 225 * DiffOp_Copy to DiffOpCopy
 226 * DiffOp_Delete to DiffOpDelete
 227 * HWLDF_WordAccumulator to HWLDFWordAccumulator
 228 * LBFactory_Fake to LBFactoryFake
 229 * LBFactory_Multi to LBFactoryMulti
 230 * LBFactory_Simple to LBFactorySimple
 231 * LBFactory_Single to LBFactorySingle
 232 * LCStore_Accel to LCStoreAccel
 233 * LCStore_CDB to LCStoreCDB
 234 * LCStore_DB to LCStoreDB
 235 * LCStore_Null to LCStoreNull
 236 * LoadBalancer_Single to LoadBalancerSingle
 237 * LoadMonitor_MySQL to LoadMonitorMySQL
 238 * LoadMonitor_Null to LoadMonitorNull
 239 * LocalisationCache_BulkLoad to LocalisationCacheBulkLoad
 240 * csvStatsOutput to CsvStatsOutput
 241 * extensionLanguages to ExtensionLanguages
 242 * languages to Languages
 243 * statsOutput to StatsOutput
 244 * textStatsOutput to TextStatsOutput
 245 * wikiStatsOutput to WikiStatsOutput
 246
 247 ==== Removed methods ====
 248 * ApiBase::getValidNamespaces() (deprecated in 1.17)
 249 * ApiMain::setCachePrivate() (deprecated in 1.17)
 250 * ApiMain::setVaryCookie (deprecated in 1.17)
 251 * Article::doRedirect() (deprecated in 1.18)
 252 * Article::doUnwatch() (deprecated in 1.18)
 253 * Article::doWatch() (deprecated in 1.18)
 254 * Article::forUpdate() (deprecated in 1.18)
 255 * Article::markpatrolled() (deprecated in 1.18)
 256 * Article::unwatch() (deprecated in 1.18)
 257 * Article::watch() (deprecated in 1.18)
 258 * Block::clear() (deprecated in 1.18)
 259 * Block::decodeExpiry() (deprecated in 1.18)
 260 * Block::encodeExpiry() (deprecated in 1.18)
 261 * Block::forUpdate() (deprecated in 1.18)
 262 * Block::infinity() (deprecated in 1.18)
 263 * Block::load() (deprecated in 1.18)
 264 * Block::newFromDB() (deprecated in 1.18)
 265 * Block::normaliseRange() (deprecated in 1.18)
 266 * Block::parseExpiryInput() (deprecated in 1.18)
 267 * CategoryViewer::addSubcategory() (deprecated in 1.17)
 268 * EditPage::spamPage() (deprecated since 1.17)
 269 * Exif::getFormattedData() (deprecated in 1.18)
 270 * Exif::makeFormattedData() (deprecated in 1.18)
 271 * in_string (deprecated in 1.21)
 272 * Language::convertLinkToAllVariants() (deprecated in 1.17)
 273 * LanguageConverter::convertLinkToAllVariants() (deprecated in 1.17)
 274 * Linker::makeBrokenLink() (deprecated in 1.16)
 275 * Linker::makeBrokenLinkObj() (deprecated in 1.16)
 276 * Linker::makeColouredLinkObj() (deprecated in 1.16)
 277 * Linker::makeSizeLinkObj() (deprecated in 1.17)
 278 * MediaWiki::articleFromTitle() (deprecated in 1.18)
 279 * ParserOptions::getkin() (deprecated 1.18)
 280 * ProfilerSimple::getCpuTime (deprecated in 1.20)
 281 * Revision::revText() (deprecated in 1.17)
 282 * SkinTemplate::jstext() (deprecated in 1.21)
 283 * SpecialPage::__call() (deprecated in 1.17)
 284 * SpecialPage::executePath() (deprecated in 1.18)
 285 * SpecialPage::exists() (deprecated in 1.18)
 286 * SpecialPage::file() (deprecated in 1.18)
 287 * SpecialPage::func() (deprecated in 1.18)
 288 * SpecialPage::getGroup() (deprecated in 1.18)
 289 * SpecialPage::getPage() (deprecated in 1.18)
 290 * SpecialPage::getPageByAlias() (deprecated in 1.18)
 291 * SpecialPage::getLocalNameFor() (deprecated in 1.18)
 292 * SpecialPage::getRegularPages() (deprecated in 1.18)
 293 * SpecialPage::getRestrictedPages() (deprecated in 1.18)
 294 * SpecialPage::getTitleForAlias() (deprecated in 1.18)
 295 * SpecialPage::getUsablePages() (deprecated in 1.18)
 296 * SpecialPage::includable() (deprecated in 1.18)
 297 * SpecialPage::init()
 298 * SpecialPage::initAliasList() (deprecated in 1.18)
 299 * SpecialPage::initList() (deprecated in 1.18)
 300 * SpecialPage::name() (deprecated in 1.18)
 301 * SpecialPage::removePage() (deprecated in 1.18)
 302 * SpecialPage::resolveAlias() (deprecated in 1.18)
 303 * SpecialPage::resolveAliasWithSubpage() (deprecated in 1.18)
 304 * SpecialPage::restriction() (deprecated in 1.18)
 305 * SpecialPage::setGroup() (deprecated in 1.18)
 306 * SpecialRecentChanges::feedSetup()
 307 * SpecialRevisionDelete::extractBitField() (deprecated in 1.22)
 308 * User::getPageRenderingHash() (deprecated in 1.17)
 309 * WebRequest::getFileSize() (deprecated in 1.17)
 310 * WebRequest::isPathInfoBad() (deprecated in 1.17)
 311 * wfGenerateToken (deprecated in 1.20)
 312 * wfStreamFile (deprecated in 1.19)
 313 * wfUILang (deprecated in 1.18)
 314 * WikiPage::createUpdates() (deprecated in 1.18)
 315 * WikiPage::quickEdit() (deprecated in 1.18)
 316 * WikiPage::useParserCache() (deprecated in 1.18)
 317 * WikiPage::viewUpdates() (deprecated in 1.18)
 318
 319 ==== Removed globals ====
 320 * $wgBetterDirectionality (deprecated in 1.18)
 321
 322 == Compatibility ==
 323
 324 MediaWiki 1.23 requires PHP 5.3.2 or later.
 325
 326 MySQL is the recommended DBMS. PostgreSQL or SQLite can also be used, but
 327 support for them is somewhat less mature. There is experimental support for
 328 Oracle.
 329
 330 The supported versions are:
 331
 332 * MySQL 5.0.2 or later
 333 * PostgreSQL 8.3 or later
 334 * SQLite 3.3.7 or later
 335 * Oracle 9.0.1 or later
 336
 337 == Upgrading ==
 338
 339 1.23 has several database changes since 1.22, and will not work without schema
 340 updates. Note that due to changes to some very large tables like the revision
 341 table, the schema update may take quite long (minutes on a medium sized site,
 342 many hours on a large site).
 343
 344 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons
 345 repository, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise
 346 due to database schema changes.
 347
 348 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 349 new database fields are filled with data.
 350
 351 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, you should upgrade to
 352 1.5 first. The upgrade script maintenance/upgrade1_5.php has been removed
 353 with MediaWiki 1.21.
 354
 355 Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 356
 357 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 358
 359 For notes on 1.21.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 360
 361 == Online documentation ==
 362
 363 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is available on
 364 MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation License (except
 365 for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in the public domain):
 366
 367         https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 368
 369 == Mailing list ==
 370
 371 A mailing list is available for MediaWiki user support and discussion:
 372
 373         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 374
 375 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 376
 377         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 378
 379 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 380 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 381
 382 == IRC help ==
 383
 384 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net.