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 === Configuration changes in 1.27 ===
  12 * $wgUseLinkNamespaceDBFields was removed.
  13 * Deprecated $wgResourceLoaderMinifierStatementsOnOwnLine and
  14   $wgResourceLoaderMinifierMaxLineLength, because there was little value in
  15   making the behavior configurable. The default values (`false` for the former,
  16   1000 for the latter) are now hard-coded.
  17 * $wgDebugDumpSqlLength was removed (deprecated in 1.24).
  18 * $wgDebugDBTransactions was removed (deprecated in 1.20).
  19 * $wgUseXVO has been removed, as it provides functionality only used by
  20   custom Wikimedia patches against Squid 2.x that probably noone uses in
  21   production anymore. There is now $wgUseKeyHeader that provides similar
  22   functionality but instead of the MediaWiki-specific X-Vary-Options header,
  23   uses the draft Key header standard.
  24 * $wgScriptExtension (and support for '.php5' entry points) was removed. See the
  25   deprecation notice in the release notes for version 1.25 for advice on how to
  26   preserve support for '.php5' entry points via URL rewriting.
  27 * Password handling via the User object has been deprecated and partially
  28   removed, pending the future introduction of AuthManager. In particular:
  29 ** expirePassword(), getPasswordExpireDate(), resetPasswordExpiration(), and
  30    getPasswordExpired() have been removed. They were unused outside of core.
  31 ** The mPassword, mNewpassword, mNewpassTime, and mPasswordExpires fields are
  32    now private and will be removed in the future.
  33 ** The getPassword() and getTemporaryPassword() methods now throw
  34    BadMethodCallException and will be removed in the future.
  35 ** The ability to pass 'password' and 'newpassword' to createNew() has been
  36    removed. The only users of it seem to have been using it to set invalid
  37    passwords, and so shouldn't be greatly affected.
  38 ** setPassword(), setInternalPassword(), and setNewpassword() have been
  39    deprecated, pending the introduction of AuthManager.
  40 ** User::randomPassword() is deprecated in favor of a new method
  41    PasswordFactory::generateRandomPasswordString()
  42 ** User::getPasswordFactory() is deprecated, callers should just create a
  43    PasswordFactory themselves.
  44 ** A new constructor, User::newSystemUser(), has been added to simplify the
  45    creation of passwordless "system" users for logged actions.
  46 * $wgMaxSquidPurgeTitles was removed.
  47 * $wgAjaxWatch was removed. This is now enabled by default.
  48 * $wgUseInstantCommons now hotlinks Commons images by default instead of
  49   downloading originals and thumbnailing them locally. This allows wikis to save
  50   on CPU and bandwidth while reducing time to first byte for pages, even without
  51   a thumbnail handler. See $wgForeignFileRepos documentation for tweaks.
  52 * (T27397) WebP is enabled by default as an uploadable filetype.
  53 * (T48998) $wgArticlePath must now be either a full url, or start with a "/".
  54 * $wgRateLimitLog was removed; use $wgDebugLogGroups['ratelimit'] instead.
  55 * Deprecated API formats dbg, txt, and yaml have been removed.
  56 * CLDRPluralRule* classes have been replaced with
  57   wikimedia/cldr-plural-rule-parser.
  58 * Removed $wgProfilePerHost, $wgUDPProfilerHost, $wgUDPProfilerPort,
  59   $wgUDPProfilerFormatString, $wgStatsMethod, $wgAggregateStatsID,
  60   $wgStatsFormatString, and $wgProfileCallTree (deprecated since 1.20).
  61 * For proper operation of LocalIdLookup with shared user tables, ensure that
  62   $wgSharedDB and $wgSharedTables are properly set even on the "central" wiki
  63   that all others are sharing from and that $wgLocalDatabases is set to the
  64   full list of sharing wikis on all those wikis.
  65 * Massive overhaul to session handling:
  66 ** $wgSessionsInObjectCache is no longer supported and must be true, due to
  67    MediaWiki\Session\SessionManager. $wgSessionHandler is similarly no longer
  68    used.
  69 ** ObjectCacheSessionHandler is removed, replaced with
  70    MediaWiki\Session\PhpSessionHandler.
  71 ** PHP session handling in general ($_SESSION, session_id(), and so on) is
  72    deprecated. Use MediaWiki\Session\SessionManager instead. A new config
  73    variable, $wgPHPSessionHandling, is available to cause use of $_SESSION to
  74    issue a deprecation warning or to cause most PHP session handling to throw
  75    exceptions.
  76 ** Deprecated UserSetCookies hook. Session-handling extensions should generally
  77    be creating a custom subclass of CookieSessionProvider. Other extensions
  78    messing with cookies can no longer count on user data being saved in cookies
  79    versus other methods.
  80 ** Deprecated UserLoadFromSession hook, extensions should create a
  81    MediaWiki\Session\SessionProvider.
  82 ** The User cannot be loaded from session until after Setup.php completes.
  83    Attempts to do so will be ignored and the User will remain unloaded.
  84 * MediaWiki will now auto-create users as necessary, removing the need for
  85   extensions to do so. An 'autocreateaccount' right is added to allow
  86   auto-creation when 'createaccount' is not granted to all users.
  87 * Deprecated AuthPluginAutoCreate hook in favor of LocalUserCreated.
  88 * Most cookie-handling methods in User are deprecated.
  89
  90 === New features in 1.27 ===
  91 * $wgDataCenterId and $wgDataCenterRoles where added, which will serve as
  92   basic configuration settings needed for multi-datacenter setups.
  93   $wgDataCenterUpdateStickTTL was also added.
  94 * Added a new hook, 'UserMailerTransformContent', to transform the contents
  95   of an email. This is similar to the EmailUser hook but applies to all mail
  96   sent via UserMailer.
  97 * Added a new hook, 'UserMailerTransformMessage', to transform the contents
  98   of an emai after MIME encoding.
  99 * Added a new hook, 'UserMailerSplitTo', to control which users have to be
 100   emailed separately (ie. there is a single address in the To: field) so
 101   user-specific changes to the email can be applied safely.
 102 * $wgCdnMaxageLagged was added, which limits the CDN cache TTL
 103   when any load balancer uses a DB that is lagged beyond the 'max lag'
 104   setting in the relevant section of $wgLBFactoryConf.
 105 * User::newSystemUser() may be used to simplify the creation of passwordless
 106   "system" users for logged actions from scripts and extensions.
 107 * Extensions can now return detailed error information via the API when
 108   preventing user actions using 'getUserPermissionsErrors' and similar hooks
 109   by using ApiMessage instances instead of strings for the $result value.
 110 * $wgAPIMaxLagThreshold was added to limit bot changes when databases lag
 111   becomes too high.
 112 * Skins and extensions can now use FlexBox mixins (.flex-display(@display: flex)
 113   and .flex(@grow: 1, @shrink: 1, @width: auto, @order: 1)) in Less to create
 114   cross-browser-compatible FlexBox rules. Users will still need to add fallback
 115   float rules or the like for compatibility with IE9- separately.
 116 * Added MWTimestamp::getTimezoneString() which returns the localized timezone
 117   string, if available. To localize this string, see the comments of
 118   $wgLocaltimezone in includes/DefaultSettings.php.
 119 * Added CentralIdLookup, a service that allows extensions needing a concept of
 120   "central" users to get that without having to know about specific central
 121   authentication extensions.
 122 * $wgMaxUserDBWriteDuration added to limit huge user-generated transactions.
 123   Regular web request transactions that takes longer than this are aborted.
 124 * Added a new hook, 'TitleMoveCompleting', which runs before a page move is
 125   committed.
 126 * $wgCdnReboundPurgeDelay was added to provide secondary delayed purges of URLs
 127   from CDN to mitigate DB replication lag and WAN cache purge lag.
 128 * (T49162) Installer will default to setting CACHE_ACCEL as the main cache type
 129   if it is available.
 130 * It is now possible to patrol file uploads (both for new files and new versions
 131   of existing files). Special:NewFiles has gained an option to filter by patrol
 132   status. This functionality can be disabled using $wgUseFilePatrol.
 133 * MediaWiki\Session infrastructure allows for easier use of session mechanisms
 134   other than the usual cookies.
 135 ** SessionMetadata and SessionCheckInfo hooks allow for setting and checking
 136    custom session metadata.
 137 * Added MWGrants and associated configuration settings $wgGrantPermissions and
 138   $wgGrantPermissionGroups to hold configuration for authentication features
 139   such as OAuth that want to allow restricting the user rights a user may make
 140   use of.
 141 ** If you're already using the OAuth extension, these new variables are
 142    identical to (and will replace) $wgMWOAuthGrantPermissions and
 143    $wgMWOAuthGrantPermissionGroups.
 144 * Added MWRestrictions as a class to check restrictions on a WebRequest, e.g.
 145   to assert that the request comes from a particular IP range.
 146 * Added bot passwords, a rights-restricted login mechanism for API-using bots.
 147
 148 === External library changes in 1.27 ===
 149
 150 ==== Upgraded external libraries ====
 151 * Updated oojs/oojs-ui from v0.12.12 to v0.13.3.
 152 * Updated composer/semver from v1.0.0 to v1.2.0.
 153 * Update liuggio/statsd-php-client to 1.0.18.
 154
 155 ==== New external libraries ====
 156 * Added wikimedia/base-convert v1.0.1.
 157 * Added wikimedia/cldr-plural-rule-parser v1.0.0.
 158 * Added wikimedia/relpath v1.0.3.
 159 * Added wikimedia/running-stat v1.1.0.
 160 * Added wikimedia/php-session-serializer v1.0.3.
 161
 162 ==== Removed and replaced external libraries ====
 163
 164 === Bug fixes in 1.27 ===
 165 * Special:Upload will now display correct maximum allowed file size when running
 166   under HHVM (T116347).
 167
 168 === Action API changes in 1.27 ===
 169 * Added list=allrevisions.
 170 * generator=recentchanges now has the option to generate revids.
 171 * ApiPageSet::setRedirectMergePolicy() was added. This allows generator
 172   modules to define how generator data for a redirect source gets merged
 173   into the redirect destination.
 174 * prop=imageinfo&iiprop=uploadwarning will no longer include the possibility of
 175   "was-deleted" warning.
 176 * Added difftotextpst to query=revisions which preforms a pre-save transform on
 177   the text before diffing it.
 178 * Deprecated formats dbg, txt, and yaml have been removed.
 179 * (T47988) The protect log event details now use new-style formatting.
 180 * The following response properties from action=login are deprecated, and may
 181   be removed in the future: lgtoken, cookieprefix, sessionid. Clients should
 182   handle cookies to properly manage session state.
 183 * action=login transparently allows login using bot passwords. Clients should
 184   merely need to change the username and password used after setting up a bot
 185   password.
 186
 187 === Action API internal changes in 1.27 ===
 188 * ApiQueryORM removed.
 189 * The following classes have been removed:
 190 ** ApiFormatDbg
 191 ** ApiFormatTxt
 192 ** ApiFormatYaml
 193 * ApiQueryBase::titleToKey(), ApiQueryBase::keyToTitle() and
 194   ApiQueryBase::keyPartToTitle() all removed (deprecated since 1.24).
 195 * ApiQueryBase::checkRowCount() was removed (deprecated since 1.24).
 196 * ApiQueryBase::getDirectionDescription() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 197 * ApiQuery::getModules() was removed (deprecated since 1.21).
 198 * ApiMain::getModules() was removed (deprecated since 1.21).
 199
 200 === Languages updated in 1.27 ===
 201
 202 MediaWiki supports over 350 languages. Many localisations are updated
 203 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 204 changes to languages because of Phabricator reports.
 205
 206 * (T113688) Change default numerals from Gurmukhi to Arabic for Punjabi locale.
 207
 208 === Other changes in 1.27 ===
 209 * ProfilerOutputUdp was removed. Note that there is a ProfilerOutputStats class.
 210 * WikiPage::doDeleteArticleReal() and WikiPage::doDeleteArticle() now
 211   ignore the 2nd and 3rd arguments (formerly $id and $commit).
 212 * Removed "loaderScripts" option from ResourceLoaderFileModule class.
 213 * Removed ORM-like wrapper added in 1.20.
 214 * LinkCache::getGoodLinks and LinkCache::getBadLinks were removed
 215   (deprecated in 1.26).
 216 * WikiPage::doQuickEdit() was removed (deprecated since 1.21).
 217 * Removed SiteObject and SiteArray classes (deprecated in 1.21).
 218 * MessageBlobStore::getInstance() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 219 * (T84937) Free external links ("autolinked" urls) will now be terminated
 220   by &nbsp; and HTML entity encodings of &nbsp, <, and >.
 221 * (T36948) The default file revert message's timestamp is now in
 222   $wgLocaltimezone, instead of UTC.
 223 * The default name of the 'suppress' group page has been changed from
 224   'Project:Oversight' to 'Project:Suppress'.
 225 * DatabaseBase::resultObject() is now protected (use outside Database classes
 226   not necessary since 1.11).
 227 * Calling ResourceLoaderFileModule::readStyleFiles() without a
 228   ResourceLoaderContext instance is deprecated.
 229 * ResourceLoader::getLessCompiler() now takes an optional parameter of
 230   additional LESS variables to set for the compiler.
 231 * wfBaseConvert() marked as deprecated, use Wikimedia\base_convert() directly
 232   instead.
 233 * Obsolete maintenance scripts clearCacheStats.php and showCacheStats.php
 234   were removed. The underlying data is sent to StatsD (see $wgStatsdServer).
 235 * Removed msg_resource_links database table and associated code.
 236 * Removed msg_resource database table and associated code.
 237 * Skin::getNamespaceNotice() was removed.
 238 * wfIsConfiguredProxy() was removed (deprecated since 1.24).
 239 * wfDebugTimer() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 240 * wfIsTrustedProxy() was removed (deprecated since 1.24).
 241 * wfGetIP() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 242 * MWHookException was removed.
 243 * OutputPage::appendSubtitle() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 244 * OutputPage::loginToUse() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 245 * Article::loadContent() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 246 * User::editToken() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 247 * Removed --force-normal option of dumpBackup.php, as it no longer served
 248   any useful purpose since 1.22.
 249 * The functions processOption() and processArgs() on the BackupDumper and
 250   TextPassDumper classes have been removed.
 251 * The maintenance/backupTextPass.inc file was deleted. You should include
 252   maintenance/dumpTextPass.php instead.
 253 * WikiPage::getUsedTemplates() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 254 * wfEmptyMsg() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 255 * OutputPage::permissionRequired() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 256 * OutputPage::blockedPage() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 257 * User::getSkin() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 258 * OutputPage::includeJQuery() was removed (deprecated since 1.17).
 259 * WikiPage::updateRestrictions() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 260 * WikiPage::testPreSaveTransform() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 261 * LogPage::logName() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 262 * LogPage::logHeader() was removed (deprecated since 1.19).
 263 * wfCheckLimits() was removed (deprecated since 1.24).
 264 * Linker::makeKnownLinkObj() was removed (deprecated since 1.16).
 265 * Linker::makeLinkObj() was removed (deprecated since 1.16).
 266 * wfMsgForContentNoTrans() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 267 * ChangesList::usePatrol was removed (deprecated since 1.22).
 268 * wfMsgNoTrans() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 269 * Linker::makeImageLink2 was removed (deprecated since 1.20).
 270 * Title::userIsWatching() was removed (deprecated since 1.20).
 271 * Removed WaitForSlave maintenance script; use SELECT MASTER_POS_WAIT()
 272   database function directly instead.
 273 * wfMsg() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 274 * wfMsgForContent() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 275 * wfMsgReal() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 276 * wfMsgGetKey() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 277 * wfMsgHtml() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 278 * wfMsgWikiHtml() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 279 * wfMsgExt() was removed (deprecated since 1.18).
 280 * Language::armourMath() was removed (deprecated since 1.22).
 281 * LanguageConverter::armourMath() was removed (deprecated since 1.22).
 282 * FakeConverter::armourMath() was removed (deprecated since 1.22).
 283 * The unused jquery.validate ResourceLoader module was removed.
 284 * FileRepo::getRootUrl() was removed (deprecated since 1.20).
 285 * User::generateToken() was removed (deprecated since 1.20).
 286 * WikiPage::getRawText() was removed (deprecated since 1.21).
 287 * ParserOutput::hasCustomDataUpdates() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 288 * ParserOutput::addSecondaryDataUpdate() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 289 * ParserOutput::getSecondaryDataUpdates() was removed (deprecated since 1.25).
 290
 291 == Compatibility ==
 292
 293 MediaWiki 1.27 requires PHP 5.3.3 or later. There is experimental support for
 294 HHVM 3.6.5 or later.
 295
 296 MySQL is the recommended DBMS. PostgreSQL or SQLite can also be used, but
 297 support for them is somewhat less mature. There is experimental support for
 298 Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server.
 299
 300 The supported versions are:
 301
 302 * MySQL 5.0.3 or later
 303 * PostgreSQL 8.3 or later
 304 * SQLite 3.3.7 or later
 305 * Oracle 9.0.1 or later
 306 * Microsoft SQL Server 2005 (9.00.1399)
 307
 308 == Upgrading ==
 309
 310 1.27 has several database changes since 1.26, and will not work without schema
 311 updates. Note that due to changes to some very large tables like the revision
 312 table, the schema update may take quite long (minutes on a medium sized site,
 313 many hours on a large site).
 314
 315 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons
 316 repository, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise
 317 due to database schema changes.
 318
 319 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 320 new database fields are filled with data.
 321
 322 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, you should upgrade to
 323 1.5 first. The upgrade script maintenance/upgrade1_5.php has been removed
 324 with MediaWiki 1.21.
 325
 326 Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 327
 328 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 329
 330 For notes on 1.26.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 331
 332 == Online documentation ==
 333
 334 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is available on
 335 MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation License (except
 336 for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in the public domain):
 337
 338        https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 339
 340 == Mailing list ==
 341
 342 A mailing list is available for MediaWiki user support and discussion:
 343
 344        https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 345
 346 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 347
 348        https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 349
 350 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 351 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 352
 353 == IRC help ==
 354
 355 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net.