RELEASE-NOTES-1.27

   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 1.27 ==
   5
   6 THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET
   7
   8 MediaWiki 1.27 is an alpha-quality branch and is not recommended for use in
   9 production.
  10
  11 === PHP version requirement ===
  12 As of 1.27, MediaWiki now requires PHP 5.5.9 or higher. This corresponds with
  13 HHVM 3.1.
  14
  15 === Configuration changes in 1.27 ===
  16 * $wgUseLinkNamespaceDBFields was removed.
  17 * Deprecated $wgResourceLoaderMinifierStatementsOnOwnLine and
  18   $wgResourceLoaderMinifierMaxLineLength, because there was little value in
  19   making the behavior configurable. The default values (`false` for the former,
  20   1000 for the latter) are now hard-coded.
  21 * $wgDebugDumpSqlLength was removed (deprecated in 1.24).
  22 * $wgDebugDBTransactions was removed (deprecated in 1.20).
  23 * $wgUseXVO has been removed, as it provides functionality only used by
  24   custom Wikimedia patches against Squid 2.x that probably noone uses in
  25   production anymore. There is now $wgUseKeyHeader that provides similar
  26   functionality but instead of the MediaWiki-specific X-Vary-Options header,
  27   uses the draft Key header standard.
  28 * $wgScriptExtension (and support for '.php5' entry points) was removed. See the
  29   deprecation notice in the release notes for version 1.25 for advice on how to
  30   preserve support for '.php5' entry points via URL rewriting.
  31 * Password handling via the User object has been deprecated and partially
  32   removed, pending the future introduction of AuthManager. In particular:
  33 ** expirePassword(), getPasswordExpireDate(), resetPasswordExpiration(), and
  34    getPasswordExpired() have been removed. They were unused outside of core.
  35 ** The mPassword, mNewpassword, mNewpassTime, and mPasswordExpires fields are
  36    now private and will be removed in the future.
  37 ** The getPassword() and getTemporaryPassword() methods now throw
  38    BadMethodCallException and will be removed in the future.
  39 ** The ability to pass 'password' and 'newpassword' to createNew() has been
  40    removed. The only users of it seem to have been using it to set invalid
  41    passwords, and so shouldn't be greatly affected.
  42 ** setPassword(), setInternalPassword(), and setNewpassword() have been
  43    deprecated, pending the introduction of AuthManager.
  44 ** User::randomPassword() is deprecated in favor of a new method
  45    PasswordFactory::generateRandomPasswordString()
  46 ** User::getPasswordFactory() is deprecated, callers should just create a
  47    PasswordFactory themselves.
  48 ** A new constructor, User::newSystemUser(), has been added to simplify the
  49    creation of passwordless "system" users for logged actions.
  50 * $wgMaxSquidPurgeTitles was removed.
  51 * $wgAjaxWatch was removed. This is now enabled by default.
  52 * $wgUseInstantCommons now hotlinks Commons images by default instead of
  53   downloading originals and thumbnailing them locally. This allows wikis to save
  54   on CPU and bandwidth while reducing time to first byte for pages, even without
  55   a thumbnail handler. See $wgForeignFileRepos documentation for tweaks.
  56 * (T27397) WebP is enabled by default as an uploadable filetype.
  57 * (T48998) $wgArticlePath must now be either a full url, or start with a "/".
  58 * $wgRateLimitLog was removed; use $wgDebugLogGroups['ratelimit'] instead.
  59 * Deprecated API formats dbg, txt, and yaml have been removed.
  60 * CLDRPluralRule* classes have been replaced with
  61   wikimedia/cldr-plural-rule-parser.
  62 * Removed $wgProfilePerHost, $wgUDPProfilerHost, $wgUDPProfilerPort,
  63   $wgUDPProfilerFormatString, $wgStatsMethod, $wgAggregateStatsID,
  64   $wgStatsFormatString, and $wgProfileCallTree (deprecated since 1.20).
  65 * For proper operation of LocalIdLookup with shared user tables, ensure that
  66   $wgSharedDB and $wgSharedTables are properly set even on the "central" wiki
  67   that all others are sharing from and that $wgLocalDatabases is set to the
  68   full list of sharing wikis on all those wikis.
  69 * Massive overhaul to session handling:
  70 ** $wgSessionsInObjectCache is no longer supported and must be true, due to
  71    MediaWiki\Session\SessionManager. $wgSessionHandler is similarly no longer
  72    used.
  73 ** ObjectCacheSessionHandler is removed, replaced with
  74    MediaWiki\Session\PhpSessionHandler.
  75 ** PHP session handling in general ($_SESSION, session_id(), and so on) is
  76    deprecated. Use MediaWiki\Session\SessionManager instead. A new config
  77    variable, $wgPHPSessionHandling, is available to cause use of $_SESSION to
  78    issue a deprecation warning or to cause most PHP session handling to throw
  79    exceptions.
  80 ** Deprecated UserSetCookies hook. Session-handling extensions should generally
  81    be creating a custom subclass of CookieSessionProvider. Other extensions
  82    messing with cookies can no longer count on user data being saved in cookies
  83    versus other methods.
  84 ** Deprecated UserLoadFromSession hook, extensions should create a
  85    MediaWiki\Session\SessionProvider.
  86 ** The User cannot be loaded from session until after Setup.php completes.
  87    Attempts to do so will be ignored and the User will remain unloaded.
  88 ** CSRF tokens may be fetched from the MediaWiki\Session\Session, which uses
  89    the MediaWiki\Session\Token class.
  90 * MediaWiki will now auto-create users as necessary, removing the need for
  91   extensions to do so. An 'autocreateaccount' right is added to allow
  92   auto-creation when 'createaccount' is not granted to all users.
  93 * Deprecated AuthPluginAutoCreate hook in favor of LocalUserCreated.
  94 * Most cookie-handling methods in User are deprecated.
  95 * $wgAllowAsyncCopyUploads and $CopyUploadAsyncTimeout were removed. This was an
  96   experimental feature that has never worked.
  97 * Login and createaccount tokens now vary by timestamp.
  98 * LoginForm::getLoginToken() and LoginForm::getCreateaccountToken()
  99   return a MediaWiki\Session\Token, and tokens must be checked using that
 100   class's methods.
 101 * $wgEnotifUseJobQ was removed and the job queue is always used.
 102 * The functionality of the ApiSandbox extension has been merged into core. The
 103   extension should no longer be used.
 104
 105 === New features in 1.27 ===
 106 * $wgDataCenterUpdateStickTTL was also added. This decides how long a user
 107   sticks to the primary DC (via cookies) after they make changes to the site.
 108 * Added a new hook, 'UserMailerTransformContent', to transform the contents
 109   of an email. This is similar to the EmailUser hook but applies to all mail
 110   sent via UserMailer.
 111 * Added a new hook, 'UserMailerTransformMessage', to transform the contents
 112   of an emai after MIME encoding.
 113 * Added a new hook, 'UserMailerSplitTo', to control which users have to be
 114   emailed separately (ie. there is a single address in the To: field) so
 115   user-specific changes to the email can be applied safely.
 116 * $wgCdnMaxageLagged was added, which limits the CDN cache TTL
 117   when any load balancer uses a DB that is lagged beyond the 'max lag'
 118   setting in the relevant section of $wgLBFactoryConf.
 119 * User::newSystemUser() may be used to simplify the creation of passwordless
 120   "system" users for logged actions from scripts and extensions.
 121 * Extensions can now return detailed error information via the API when
 122   preventing user actions using 'getUserPermissionsErrors' and similar hooks
 123   by using ApiMessage instances instead of strings for the $result value.
 124 * $wgAPIMaxLagThreshold was added to limit bot changes when databases lag
 125   becomes too high.
 126 * Skins and extensions can now use FlexBox mixins (.flex-display(@display: flex)
 127   and .flex(@grow: 1, @shrink: 1, @width: auto, @order: 1)) in Less to create
 128   cross-browser-compatible FlexBox rules. Users will still need to add fallback
 129   float rules or the like for compatibility with IE9- separately.
 130 * Added MWTimestamp::getTimezoneString() which returns the localized timezone
 131   string, if available. To localize this string, see the comments of
 132   $wgLocaltimezone in includes/DefaultSettings.php.
 133 * Added CentralIdLookup, a service that allows extensions needing a concept of
 134   "central" users to get that without having to know about specific central
 135   authentication extensions.
 136 * $wgMaxUserDBWriteDuration added to limit huge user-generated transactions.
 137   Regular web request transactions that takes longer than this are aborted.
 138 * Added a new hook, 'TitleMoveCompleting', which runs before a page move is
 139   committed.
 140 * $wgCdnReboundPurgeDelay was added to provide secondary delayed purges of URLs
 141   from CDN to mitigate DB replication lag and WAN cache purge lag.
 142 * (T49162) Installer will default to setting CACHE_ACCEL as the main cache type
 143   if it is available.
 144 * It is now possible to patrol file uploads (both for new files and new versions
 145   of existing files). Special:NewFiles has gained an option to filter by patrol
 146   status. This functionality can be disabled using $wgUseFilePatrol.
 147 * MediaWiki\Session infrastructure allows for easier use of session mechanisms
 148   other than the usual cookies.
 149 ** SessionMetadata and SessionCheckInfo hooks allow for setting and checking
 150    custom session metadata.
 151 * Added MWGrants and associated configuration settings $wgGrantPermissions and
 152   $wgGrantPermissionGroups to hold configuration for authentication features
 153   such as OAuth that want to allow restricting the user rights a user may make
 154   use of.
 155 ** If you're already using the OAuth extension, these new variables are
 156    identical to (and will replace) $wgMWOAuthGrantPermissions and
 157    $wgMWOAuthGrantPermissionGroups.
 158 * Added MWRestrictions as a class to check restrictions on a WebRequest, e.g.
 159   to assert that the request comes from a particular IP range.
 160 * Added bot passwords, a rights-restricted login mechanism for API-using bots.
 161 * Whitelisted the following HTML attributes for all elements in wikitext:
 162   aria-describedby, aria-flowto, aria-label, aria-labelledby, aria-owns.
 163 * Removed "presentation" restriction on the HTML role attribute in wikitext.
 164   All values are now allowed for the role attribute.
 165 * $wgContentHandlers now also supports callbacks to create an instance of the
 166   appropriate ContentHandler subclass.
 167 * Added $wgAuthenticationTokenVersion, which if non-null prevents the
 168   user_token database field from being exposed in cookies. Setting this would
 169   be a good idea, but will log out all current sessions.
 170 * $wgEventRelayerConfig was added, for managing PubSub event relay configuration,
 171   specifically for reliable CDN url purges.
 172
 173 === External library changes in 1.27 ===
 174
 175 ==== Upgraded external libraries ====
 176 * Updated oojs/oojs-ui from v0.12.12 to v0.13.3.
 177 * Updated composer/semver from v1.0.0 to v1.2.0.
 178 * Update liuggio/statsd-php-client to 1.0.18.
 179
 180 ==== New external libraries ====
 181 * Added wikimedia/base-convert v1.0.1.
 182 * Added wikimedia/cldr-plural-rule-parser v1.0.0.
 183 * Added wikimedia/relpath v1.0.3.
 184 * Added wikimedia/running-stat v1.1.0.
 185 * Added wikimedia/php-session-serializer v1.0.3.
 186
 187 ==== Removed and replaced external libraries ====
 188
 189 === Bug fixes in 1.27 ===
 190 * Special:Upload will now display correct maximum allowed file size when running
 191   under HHVM (T116347).
 192
 193 === Action API changes in 1.27 ===
 194 * Added list=allrevisions.
 195 * generator=recentchanges now has the option to generate revids.
 196 * ApiPageSet::setRedirectMergePolicy() was added. This allows generator
 197   modules to define how generator data for a redirect source gets merged
 198   into the redirect destination.
 199 * prop=imageinfo&iiprop=uploadwarning will no longer include the possibility of
 200   "was-deleted" warning.
 201 * Added difftotextpst to query=revisions which preforms a pre-save transform on
 202   the text before diffing it.
 203 * Deprecated formats dbg, txt, and yaml have been removed.
 204 * (T47988) The protect log event details now use new-style formatting.
 205 * The following response properties from action=login are deprecated, and may
 206   be removed in the future: lgtoken, cookieprefix, sessionid. Clients should
 207   handle cookies to properly manage session state.
 208 * action=login transparently allows login using bot passwords. Clients should
 209   merely need to change the username and password used after setting up a bot
 210   password.
 211 * action=upload no longer understands statuskey, asyncdownload or leavemessage.
 212
 213 === Action API internal changes in 1.27 ===
 214 * ApiQueryORM removed.
 215 * The following classes have been removed:
 216 ** ApiFormatDbg
 217 ** ApiFormatTxt
 218 ** ApiFormatYaml
 219 * ApiQueryBase::titleToKey(), ApiQueryBase::keyToTitle() and
 220   ApiQueryBase::keyPartToTitle() all removed (deprecated since 1.24).
 221 * ApiQueryBase::checkRowCount() was removed (deprecated since 1.24).
 222 * ApiQueryBase::getDirectionDescription() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 223 * ApiQuery::getModules() was removed (deprecated since 1.21).
 224 * ApiMain::getModules() was removed (deprecated since 1.21).
 225 * ApiBase::getVersion() was removed (deprecated since 1.21).
 226
 227 === Languages updated in 1.27 ===
 228
 229 MediaWiki supports over 350 languages. Many localisations are updated
 230 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 231 changes to languages because of Phabricator reports.
 232
 233 * (T113688) Change default numerals from Gurmukhi to Arabic for Punjabi locale.
 234
 235 === Other changes in 1.27 ===
 236 * ProfilerOutputUdp was removed. Note that there is a ProfilerOutputStats class.
 237 * WikiPage::doDeleteArticleReal() and WikiPage::doDeleteArticle() now
 238   ignore the 2nd and 3rd arguments (formerly $id and $commit).
 239 * Removed "loaderScripts" option from ResourceLoaderFileModule class.
 240 * Removed ORM-like wrapper added in 1.20.
 241 * LinkCache::getGoodLinks and LinkCache::getBadLinks were removed
 242   (deprecated in 1.26).
 243 * WikiPage::doQuickEdit() was removed (deprecated since 1.21).
 244 * Removed SiteObject and SiteArray classes (deprecated in 1.21).
 245 * MessageBlobStore::getInstance() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 246 * (T84937) Free external links ("autolinked" urls) will now be terminated
 247   by &nbsp; and HTML entity encodings of &nbsp, <, and >.
 248 * (T36948) The default file revert message's timestamp is now in
 249   $wgLocaltimezone, instead of UTC.
 250 * The default name of the 'suppress' group page has been changed from
 251   'Project:Oversight' to 'Project:Suppress'.
 252 * DatabaseBase::resultObject() is now protected (use outside Database classes
 253   not necessary since 1.11).
 254 * Calling ResourceLoaderFileModule::readStyleFiles() without a
 255   ResourceLoaderContext instance is deprecated.
 256 * ResourceLoader::getLessCompiler() now takes an optional parameter of
 257   additional LESS variables to set for the compiler.
 258 * wfBaseConvert() marked as deprecated, use Wikimedia\base_convert() directly
 259   instead.
 260 * Obsolete maintenance scripts clearCacheStats.php and showCacheStats.php
 261   were removed. The underlying data is sent to StatsD (see $wgStatsdServer).
 262 * Removed msg_resource_links database table and associated code.
 263 * Removed msg_resource database table and associated code.
 264 * Skin::getNamespaceNotice() was removed.
 265 * wfIsConfiguredProxy() was removed (deprecated since 1.24).
 266 * wfDebugTimer() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 267 * wfIsTrustedProxy() was removed (deprecated since 1.24).
 268 * wfGetIP() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 269 * MWHookException was removed.
 270 * OutputPage::appendSubtitle() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 271 * OutputPage::loginToUse() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 272 * Article::loadContent() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 273 * User::editToken() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 274 * Removed --force-normal option of dumpBackup.php, as it no longer served
 275   any useful purpose since 1.22.
 276 * The functions processOption() and processArgs() on the BackupDumper and
 277   TextPassDumper classes have been removed.
 278 * The maintenance/backupTextPass.inc file was deleted. You should include
 279   maintenance/dumpTextPass.php instead.
 280 * WikiPage::getUsedTemplates() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 281 * wfEmptyMsg() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 282 * OutputPage::permissionRequired() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 283 * OutputPage::blockedPage() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 284 * User::getSkin() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 285 * OutputPage::includeJQuery() was removed (deprecated since 1.17).
 286 * WikiPage::updateRestrictions() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 287 * WikiPage::testPreSaveTransform() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 288 * LogPage::logName() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 289 * LogPage::logHeader() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 290 * wfCheckLimits() was removed (deprecated since 1.24).
 291 * Linker::makeKnownLinkObj() was removed (deprecated since 1.16).
 292 * Linker::makeLinkObj() was removed (deprecated since 1.16).
 293 * wfMsgForContentNoTrans() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 294 * ChangesList::usePatrol was removed (deprecated since 1.22).
 295 * wfMsgNoTrans() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 296 * Linker::makeImageLink2 was removed (deprecated since 1.20).
 297 * Title::userIsWatching() was removed (deprecated since 1.20).
 298 * Removed WaitForSlave maintenance script; use SELECT MASTER_POS_WAIT()
 299   database function directly instead.
 300 * wfMsg() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 301 * wfMsgForContent() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 302 * wfMsgReal() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 303 * wfMsgGetKey() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 304 * wfMsgHtml() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 305 * wfMsgWikiHtml() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 306 * wfMsgExt() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 307 * Language::armourMath() was removed (deprecated since 1.22).
 308 * LanguageConverter::armourMath() was removed (deprecated since 1.22).
 309 * FakeConverter::armourMath() was removed (deprecated since 1.22).
 310 * The unused jquery.validate ResourceLoader module was removed.
 311 * FileRepo::getRootUrl() was removed (deprecated since 1.20).
 312 * User::generateToken() was removed (deprecated since 1.20).
 313 * WikiPage::getRawText() was removed (deprecated since 1.21).
 314 * ParserOutput::hasCustomDataUpdates() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 315 * ParserOutput::addSecondaryDataUpdate() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 316 * ParserOutput::getSecondaryDataUpdates() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 317 * Gallery images with multiple caption pipes no longer concatenate them all
 318   together but instead pick the final one, similar to image syntax.
 319 * XML-like parser tags (such as <gallery>), when unclosed, will be left unparsed
 320   rather than consume everything until the end of the page.
 321 * New maintenance script resetUserEmail.php allows sysadmins to reset user emails in case
 322   a user forgot password/account was stolen.
 323
 324 == Compatibility ==
 325
 326 MediaWiki 1.27 requires PHP 5.5.9 or later. There is experimental support for
 327 HHVM 3.6.5 or later.
 328
 329 MySQL is the recommended DBMS. PostgreSQL or SQLite can also be used, but
 330 support for them is somewhat less mature. There is experimental support for
 331 Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.
 332
 333 The supported versions are:
 334
 335 * MySQL 5.0.3 or later
 336 * PostgreSQL 8.3 or later
 337 * SQLite 3.3.7 or later
 338 * Oracle 9.0.1 or later
 339 * Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (9.00.1399)
 340
 341 == Upgrading ==
 342
 343 1.27 has several database changes since 1.26, and will not work without schema
 344 updates. Note that due to changes to some very large tables like the revision
 345 table, the schema update may take quite long (minutes on a medium sized site,
 346 many hours on a large site).
 347
 348 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons
 349 repository, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise
 350 due to database schema changes.
 351
 352 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 353 new database fields are filled with data.
 354
 355 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, you should upgrade to
 356 1.5 first. The upgrade script maintenance/upgrade1_5.php has been removed
 357 with MediaWiki 1.21.
 358
 359 Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 360
 361 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 362
 363 For notes on 1.26.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 364
 365 == Online documentation ==
 366
 367 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is available on
 368 MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation License (except
 369 for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in the public domain):
 370
 371        https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 372
 373 == Mailing list ==
 374
 375 A mailing list is available for MediaWiki user support and discussion:
 376
 377        https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 378
 379 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 380
 381        https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 382
 383 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 384 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 385
 386 == IRC help ==
 387
 388 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net.