RELEASE-NOTES-1.25

   1 Security reminder: If you have PHP's register_globals option set, you must
   2 turn it off. MediaWiki will not work with it enabled.
   3
   4 == MediaWiki 1.25 ==
   5
   6 THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET
   7
   8 MediaWiki 1.25 is an alpha-quality branch and is not recommended for use in
   9 production.
  10
  11 === Configuration changes in 1.25 ===
  12 * $wgPageShowWatchingUsers was removed.
  13 * $wgLocalVirtualHosts has been added to replace $wgConf->localVHosts.
  14 * $wgAntiLockFlags was removed.
  15 * Edit tokens returned from User::getEditToken may change on every call. Token
  16   validity must be checked by passing the user-supplied token to
  17   User::matchEditToken rather than by testing for equality with a
  18   newly-generated token.
  19
  20 === New features in 1.25 ===
  21 * (bug 58139) ResourceLoaderFileModule now supports language fallback
  22   for 'languageScripts'.
  23 * Added a new hook, "ContentAlterParserOutput", to allow extensions to modify the
  24   parser output for a content object before links update.
  25 * (bug 35785) Enhanced recent changes and extended watchlist are now default.
  26   Documentation: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Enhanced_recent_changes
  27   and https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgDefaultUserOptions.
  28 * (bug 67341) SVG images will no longer be base64-encoded when being embedded
  29   in CSS. This results in slight size increase before gzip compression (due to
  30   percent-encoding), but up to 20% decrease after it.
  31 * Upgrade jStorage to v0.4.12.
  32 * MediaWiki now natively supports page status indicators: icons (or short text
  33   snippets) usually displayed in the top-right corner of the page. They have
  34   been in use on Wikipedia for a long time, implemented using templates and CSS
  35   absolute positioning.
  36   - Basic wikitext syntax: <indicator name="foo">[[File:Foo.svg|20px]]</indicator>
  37   - Usage instructions: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Page_status_indicators
  38   - Adjusting custom skins to support indicators:
  39     https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skinning#Page_status_indicators
  40 * Edit tokens may now be time-limited: passing a maximum age to
  41   User::matchEditToken will reject any older tokens.
  42
  43 === Bug fixes in 1.25 ===
  44 * (bug 71003) No additional code will be generated to try to load CSS-embedded
  45   SVG images in Internet Explorer 6 and 7, as they don't support them anyway.
  46 * (bug 67021) On Special:BookSources, corrected validation of ISBNs (both
  47   10- and 13-digit forms) containing "X".
  48
  49 === Action API changes in 1.25 ===
  50 * (bug 65403) XML tag highlighting is now only performed for formats
  51   "xmlfm" and "wddxfm".
  52 * action=paraminfo supports generalized submodules (modules=query+value),
  53   querymodules and formatmodules are deprecated
  54 * action=paraminfo no longer outputs descriptions and other help text by
  55   default. If needed, it may be requested using the new 'helpformat' parameter.
  56 * action=help has been completely rewritten, and outputs help in HTML
  57   rather than plain text.
  58 * Hitting api.php without specifying an action now displays only the help for
  59   the main module, with links to submodule help.
  60 * API help is no longer displayed on errors.
  61 * Internationalized messages returned by the API will be in the wiki's content
  62   language by default. 'uselang' is now a recognized API parameter;
  63   "uselang=user" may be used to select the language from the current user's
  64   preferences.
  65 * Default output format for the API is now jsonfm.
  66 * Simplified continuation will return a "batchcomplete" property in the result
  67   when a batch of pages is complete.
  68 * Pretty-printed HTML output now has nicer formatting and (if available)
  69   better syntax highlighting.
  70
  71 === Action API internal changes in 1.25 ===
  72 * ApiHelp has been rewritten to support i18n and paginated HTML output.
  73   Most existing modules should continue working without changes, but should do
  74   the following:
  75   * Add an i18n message "apihelp-{$moduleName}-description" to replace getDescription().
  76   * Add i18n messages "apihelp-{$moduleName}-param-{$param}" for each parameter
  77     to replace getParamDescription(). If necessary, the settings array returned
  78     by getParams() can use the new ApiBase::PARAM_HELP_MSG key to override the
  79     message.
  80   * Implement getExamplesMessages() to replace getExamples().
  81 * Modules with submodules (like action=query) must have their submodules
  82   override ApiBase::getParent() to return the correct parent object.
  83 * The 'APIGetDescription' and 'APIGetParamDescription' hooks are deprecated,
  84   and will have no effect for modules using i18n messages. Use
  85   'APIGetDescriptionMessages' and 'APIGetParamDescriptionMessages' instead.
  86 * Api formatters will no longer be asked to display the help screen on errors.
  87 * ApiMain::getCredits() was removed. The credits are available in the
  88   'api-credits' i18n message.
  89 * ApiFormatBase has been changed to support i18n and syntax highlighting via
  90   extensions with the new 'ApiFormatHighlight' hook. Core syntax highlighting
  91   has been removed.
  92 * ApiFormatBase now always buffers. Output is done when
  93   ApiFormatBase::closePrinter is called.
  94 * The following methods have been deprecated and may be removed in a future
  95   release:
  96   * ApiBase::getDescription
  97   * ApiBase::getParamDescription
  98   * ApiBase::getExamples
  99   * ApiBase::makeHelpMsg
 100   * ApiBase::makeHelpArrayToString
 101   * ApiBase::makeHelpMsgParameters
 102   * ApiFormatBase::setUnescapeAmps
 103   * ApiFormatBase::getWantsHelp
 104   * ApiFormatBase::setHelp
 105   * ApiFormatBase::formatHTML
 106   * ApiFormatBase::setBufferResult
 107   * ApiFormatBase::getDescription
 108   * ApiMain::setHelp
 109   * ApiMain::reallyMakeHelpMsg
 110   * ApiMain::makeHelpMsgHeader
 111   * ApiQueryImageInfo::getPropertyDescriptions
 112
 113 === Languages updated in 1.25 ===
 114
 115 MediaWiki supports over 350 languages. Many localisations are updated
 116 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 117 changes to languages because of Bugzilla reports.
 118
 119 === Other changes in 1.25 ===
 120 * The skin autodiscovery mechanism, deprecated in MediaWiki 1.23, has been
 121   removed. See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Skin_autodiscovery for
 122   migration guide for creators and users of custom skins that relied on it.
 123 * Javascript variable 'wgFileCanRotate' now only available on Special:Upload.
 124 * (bug 56257) Set site logo from mediawiki.skinning.interface module instead of
 125   inline styles in the HTML.
 126 * Removed ApiQueryUsers::getAutoGroups(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 127 * Removed XmlDumpWriter::schemaVersion(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 128 * Removed LogEventsList::getDisplayTitle(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 129 * Removed Preferences::trySetUserEmail(). (deprecated since 1.20)
 130 * Removed mw.user.name() and mw.user.anonymous() methods. (deprecated since 1.20)
 131 * Removed 'ok' and 'err' parameters in the mediawiki.api modules. (deprecated
 132   since 1.20)
 133 * Removed 'async' parameter from the  mw.Api#getCategories() method. (deprecated
 134   since 1.20)
 135 * Removed 'jquery.json' module. (deprecated since 1.24)
 136   Use the 'json' module and global JSON object instead.
 137 * Deprecated OutputPage::readOnlyPage() and OutputPage::rateLimited().
 138   Also, the former will now throw an MWException if called with one or more
 139   arguments.
 140 * Removed hitcounters and associated code.
 141 * The "temp" zone of the upload respository is now considered private. If it
 142   already exists (such as under the images/ directory), please make sure that
 143   the directory is not web readable (e.g. via a .htaccess file).
 144
 145 == Compatibility ==
 146
 147 MediaWiki 1.25 requires PHP 5.3.2 or later. There is experimental support for
 148 HHVM 3.3.0.
 149
 150 MySQL is the recommended DBMS. PostgreSQL or SQLite can also be used, but
 151 support for them is somewhat less mature. There is experimental support for
 152 Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.
 153
 154 The supported versions are:
 155
 156 * MySQL 5.0.2 or later
 157 * PostgreSQL 8.3 or later
 158 * SQLite 3.3.7 or later
 159 * Oracle 9.0.1 or later
 160 * Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (9.00.1399)
 161
 162 == Upgrading ==
 163
 164 1.25 has several database changes since 1.24, and will not work without schema
 165 updates. Note that due to changes to some very large tables like the revision
 166 table, the schema update may take quite long (minutes on a medium sized site,
 167 many hours on a large site).
 168
 169 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons
 170 repository, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise
 171 due to database schema changes.
 172
 173 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 174 new database fields are filled with data.
 175
 176 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, you should upgrade to
 177 1.5 first. The upgrade script maintenance/upgrade1_5.php has been removed
 178 with MediaWiki 1.21.
 179
 180 Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 181
 182 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 183
 184 For notes on 1.23.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 185
 186 == Online documentation ==
 187
 188 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is available on
 189 MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation License (except
 190 for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in the public domain):
 191
 192         https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 193
 194 == Mailing list ==
 195
 196 A mailing list is available for MediaWiki user support and discussion:
 197
 198         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 199
 200 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 201
 202         https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 203
 204 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 205 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 206
 207 == IRC help ==
 208
 209 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net.