RELEASE-NOTES

   1 = MediaWiki release notes =
   2
   3 Security reminder: MediaWiki does not require PHP's register_globals
   4 setting since version 1.2.0. If you have it on, turn it *off* if you can.
   5
   6 == MediaWiki 1.17 ==
   7
   8 THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET
   9
  10 MediaWiki is now using a "continuous integration" development model with
  11 quarterly snapshot releases. The latest development code is always kept
  12 "ready to run", and in fact runs our own sites on Wikipedia.
  13
  14 Release branches will continue to receive security updates for about a year
  15 from first release, but nonessential bugfixes and feature developments
  16 will be made on the development trunk and appear in the next quarterly release.
  17
  18 Those wishing to use the latest code instead of a branch release can obtain
  19 it from source control: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_SVN
  20
  21 === Configuration changes in 1.17 ===
  22 * DatabaseFunctions.php that was needed for compatibility with pre-1.3
  23   extensions has been removed.
  24 * $wgLogAutocreatedAccounts controls whether autocreation of accounts is logged
  25   to new users log.
  26 * $wgAllowImageTag can be set to true to whitelist the <img> tag in wikitext.
  27 * (bug 12797) Add $wgGalleryOptions for adjusting of default gallery display
  28   options.
  29 * $wgAllowUserCssPrefs option allows disabling CSS-based preferences; which can
  30   improve page loading speed.
  31 * (bug 22858) $wgLocalStylePath is by default set to the same value as
  32   $wgStylePath but should never point to a different domain than the site is
  33   on, allowing skins to use .htc files which are not cross-domain friendly.
  34 * (bug 20193) Added $wgVectorShowVariantName global configuration variable
  35   which causes Vector to render the variants drop-down menu with a label
  36   showing the current variant name. This is off by default, pending further
  37   research into its user experience implications.
  38 * Added $wgJQueryVersion, $wgJQueryMinified and $wgJQueryOnEveryPage (true by
  39   default) to configure loading of jQuery by MediaWiki.
  40 * XmlFunctions.php has been removed. Use the Xml or Html classes as appropriate.
  41 * Added $wgSQLMode for setting database SQL modes - either performance (null)
  42   or other reasons (such as enabling stricter checks)
  43 * $wgFileStore has been deprecated. The only usage $wgFileStore['deleted'] has
  44   been turned into $wgDeletedDirectory.
  45 * $wgDeletedDirectory has been added to specify what directory to place deleted
  46   uploads in.
  47 * IBM DB2 database no longer uses the db specific $wgDBport_db2 variable but the
  48   normal $wgDBport.
  49 * The upload link for missing files can now be set separately from the
  50   navigation link with $wgUploadMissingFileUrl.
  51
  52 === New features in 1.17 ===
  53 * (bug 10183) Users can now add personal styles and scripts to all skins via
  54   User:<name>/common.css and /common.js (if user css/js is enabled).
  55 * (bug 22748) Add anchors on Special:ListGroupRights.
  56 * (bug 21981) Add parameter 'showfilename' to <gallery> to automatically
  57   apply the names of the individual files within the gallery.
  58 * Future-proof redirection to fragments in Gecko, so things work a little nicer
  59   if they fix <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=516293>.
  60 * Support git:// and mms:// protocols by default for external links.
  61 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer unblock themselves without the
  62   'unblockself' permission (which they have by default).
  63 * (bug 18499) Added "enhanced" URL parameter to switch between old and enhanced
  64   changes list.
  65 * (bug 22925) "sp-contributions-blocked-notice-anon" message now displayed when
  66   viewing contributions of a blocked IP address.
  67 * (bug 22474) {{urlencode:}} now takes an optional second paramter for type of
  68   escaping.
  69 * Special:Listfiles now supports a username parameter.
  70 * Special:Random carries over query string parameters.
  71 * (bug 23206) Add Special::Search hook for detecting successful "Go".
  72 * When visiting a "red link" of a deleted file, a deletion and move log excerpt
  73   is provided on the Upload form.
  74 * (bug 22647) Add category details in search results.
  75 * (bug 23276) Add hook to Special:NewPages to modify query.
  76 * Add accesskey 's' and tooltip to 'Save' button at Special:Preferences.
  77 * Add accesskey 'b' and tooltip to the summary field of edit mode.
  78 * (bug 20186) Allow filtering Special:Contributions for RevisionDeleted edits.
  79 * ajaxwatch now uses the API and JQuery, and can be used to animate arbitrary
  80   watch links, not just to watch the page the link is on.
  81 * (bug 20976) "searchmenu-new-nocreate" message now displayed when when there
  82   is no title match in search and the user has no rights to create pages.
  83 * (bug 23429) Added new hook WatchlistEditorBuildRemoveLine.
  84 * (bug 18488) Added maintenance script refreshCategoryCounts.php
  85 * (bug 22844) Added support for WinCache object caching.
  86 * (bug 23580) Add two new events to LivePreview so that scripts can be
  87   notified about the beginning and finishing of LivePreview actions.
  88 * (bug 21278) Now the sidebar allows inclusion of wiki markup.
  89 * (bug 23733) Add IDs to messages used on CSS/JS pages
  90 * (bug 21312) RevisionMove allows moving individual revisions of a page to
  91   another page. Introducing 'revisionmove' user right; disabled by default;
  92   experimental feature.
  93 * Show validity period of the login cookie in Special:UserLogin and
  94   Special:Preferences
  95 * Interlanguage links display the page title in their tooltip.
  96 * (bug 23621) New Special:ComparePages to compare (diff) two articles.
  97 * (bug 4597) Provide support in Special:Contributions to show only "current"
  98   contributions
  99 * (bug 17857) {{anchorencode}} acts more like how the parser creates section ids.
 100 * (bug 21477) \& can now be used in <math>
 101 * (bug 11641) \dotsc \dotsm \dotsi \dotso can now be used in <math>
 102 * (bug 21475) \mathtt and \textsf can now be used in <math>
 103 * texvc is now run via ulimit4.sh, to limit execution time.
 104 * SQLite now supports $wgSharedDB.
 105 * (bug 8507) Group file links by namespace:title on image pages
 106 * Stop emitting named entities, so we can use <!DOCTYPE html> while still being
 107   well-formed XML
 108 * texvc now supports \bcancel and \xcancel in addition to \cancel and \cancelto
 109 * Added scriptExtension setting to $wgForeignFileRepos
 110 * ForeignApiRepo uses scriptDirUrl if apiBase not set
 111 * (bug 24212) Added MediaWiki:Filepage.css which is also included on foreign
 112   client wikis.
 113 * (bug 14685) Double underscore magic word usage is now tracked in the
 114   page_props table, as well as the behavioral magic words {{DEFAULTSORT}} and
 115   {{DISPLAYTITLE}}
 116 * (bug 24045) MediaWiki:Ipb-needreblock is now wrapped in a div with class
 117   "mw-ipb-needreblock"
 118 * (bug 24313) The preference to mark edits minor by default was removed,
 119   because it encourages edits to be marked minor accidentally and it can be
 120   easily replicated by custom user scripts for those who really want it.
 121 * Non-file pages can no longer be moved to the file namespace, nor vice versa.
 122 * (bug 671) The <dfn> element has been whitelisted in user input.
 123 * (bug 24563) Entries on Special:WhatLinksHere now have a link to their history
 124 * (bug 21503) There's now a "reason" field when creating account for other users
 125
 126 === Bug fixes in 1.17 ===
 127 * (bug 17560) Half-broken deletion moved image files to deletion archive
 128   without updating database.
 129 * (bug 22666) Submitting user block form with an invalid user name no longer
 130   throws an error.
 131 * (bug 22665, bug 22667) User '0' can now be unblocked and have its block
 132   settings changed.
 133 * (bug 22606) The body of e-mail address confirmation message is now different
 134   when the address changed.
 135 * (bug 22664) Special:Userrights now accepts '0' as a valid user name.
 136 * (bug 5210)  Preload parser now parses <noinclude>, <includeonly> and redirects.
 137 * (bug 22709) IIS7 mishandles redirects generated by OutputPage::output() when
 138   the URL contains a colon.
 139 * (bug 22353) Categorised recent changes now works again.
 140 * (bug 22747) "Reveal my e-mail address in notification e-mails" preference is
 141   now only displayed when relevant.
 142 * (bug 22772) {{#special:}} parser function now works with subpages.
 143 * (bug 18664) Relative URIs in interwiki links cause failed redirects.
 144 * (bug 19270) Relative URIs in interwiki links break interwiki transclusion.
 145 * (bug 22903) Revdelete log entries now show in the user preferred language.
 146 * (bug 22905) Correctly handle <abbr> followed by ISBN.
 147 * (bug 22940) Namespace aliases pointing to main namespace don't work.
 148 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer block/unblock other users.
 149 * (bug 22876) Avoid possible PHP Notice if $wgDefaultUserOptions is not
 150   correctly set.
 151 * (bug 14952) Page titles are renormalized after html entities are removed so
 152   that links with non-NFC character references work correctly.
 153 * (bug 22991) wgUserGroups JavaScript variable now reports * group for
 154   anonymous users instead of null.
 155 * (bug 22627) Remove PHP notice when deleting a page only hidden users edited.
 156 * (bug 21520) Anonymous previews now also gives a warning about not being
 157   logged in (anonpreviewwarning).
 158 * (bug 22935) image/x-ms-bmp mime type added for BMP files.
 159 * (bug 23024) Special:ListFiles now escapes file names correctly.
 160 * (bug 22867) "View source" tab is now only displayed if there's source text.
 161 * (bug 19393) Feeds now format dates in user language rather than content
 162   language.
 163 * (bug 22852) "Served in" comment is now the time used to cache a single page
 164   when using rebuildFileCache.php
 165 * (bug 22496) Viewing diff of a redirect page without specifying "oldid".
 166   parameter no longer makes the page displayed as being the redirect target.
 167 * (bug 22918) Feed cache keys now use $wgRenderHashAppend.
 168 * (bug 21916) Last-Modified header is now correct when outputting cached feed.
 169 * (bug 20049) Fixed PHP notice in search highlighter that occurs in some cases.
 170 * (bug 23017) Special:Disambiguations now list pages in content namespaces
 171   rather than only main namespace.
 172 * (bug 23063) $wgMaxAnimatedGifArea is checked against the total size of all
 173   frames, and $wgMaxImageArea against the size of the first frame, rather than
 174   the other way around.  Both now default to 12.5 megapixels.  Also, images
 175   exceeding $wgMaxImageArea can still be embedded at original size.
 176 * (bug 23078) "All public logs" option on Special:Log is now always the first
 177   item.
 178 * (bug 16817) Group names in user rights log are now singular and in lowercase.
 179 * Special:Preferences no longer crashes if the wiki default date formatting
 180   style is not valid for the user's interface language.
 181 * (bug 23167) Check the watch checkbox by default if the watchcreations
 182   preference is set.
 183 * Maintenance script cleanupTitles is now able to fix titles stored
 184   in a negative namespace (which is invalid).
 185 * (bug 19858) Removed obsolete <big> in interface messages.
 186 * (bug 21456) "Bad title" error when showing non-local interwiki pages no longer
 187   displays incorrect tabs.
 188 * (bug 23190) Improved math representation for text browsers.
 189 * (bug 22015) Improved upload-by-url error handling and error display.
 190 * (bug 17941) $wgMaxUploadSize is now honored by all upload sources.
 191 * (bug 23080) New usernames now limited to 235 bytes so that custom skin files
 192   work.
 193 * (bug 23075) Correct MediaTransformError default width in gallery.
 194 * (bug 16487) The Anonymous user account used on Postgres is no longer
 195   displayed on Special:Listusers.
 196 * (bug 23313) Move watchlisthidepatrolled above token in watchlist preferences
 197   to enhance preference grouping.
 198 * (bug 23298) Interwiki links with prefix only in log summaries now link to the
 199   correct link.
 200 * (bug 23284) Times are now rounded correctly.
 201 * (bug 23375) Added ogv, oga, spx as extensions for ogg files.
 202 * (bug 18408) All required permissions for uploading (upload, edit, create)
 203   are now checked when loading Special:Upload. Toolbar link for Special:Upload
 204   is no longer shown if the user does not have the required permissions.
 205 * (Bug 23397) texvc in html mode renders \sim as &tilde; not &sim;
 206 * (Bug 23241) Remove License selector, because it is not used when uploading a
 207   new version.
 208 * (bug 23240) Add ID to namespace selector form on Special:Watchlist.
 209 * The pipe | character in urls is now escaped.
 210 * (bug 23422) mp3 files can now be moved.
 211 * (bug 23448) MediaWiki:Summary-preview is now displayed instead of
 212   MediaWiki:Subject-preview when previewing summary.
 213 * (bug 23426) The {{REVISIONMONTH}} variable is now zero-padded and added
 214   new variable {{REVISIONMONTH1}} when unpadded version is needed.
 215 * Special:Userrights didn't recognize user as changing his/her own rights if
 216   user did not capitalize first letter of username.
 217 * (bug 23507) Add styles for printing wikitables.
 218 * (bug 19586) Avoid JS errors in mwsuggest when using old browsers such
 219   as Opera 8.
 220 * (bug 23563) Old skins now support $wgUploadNavigationUrl and take into
 221   account upload rights.
 222 * (bug 1347) Render \phi in math using images, in order to create consistent
 223   and correct render results.
 224 * (bug 16573) Render \epsilon in math using images, in order to create
 225   consistent and correct render results.
 226 * (bug 22541) Support image redirects when using ForeignAPIRepo.
 227 * (bug 22967) Make edit summary length cut-off behave correctly for
 228   multibyte characters.
 229 * (bug 8689) Long numeric lines no longer  kill the parser.
 230 * (bug 23740) Article::doRedirect() now use $extraQuery parameter correctly if
 231   the $noRedir parameter is set to true
 232 * (bug 23688) Correct mime types for Office 2007 OpenXML documents.
 233 * (bug 23787) Corrected $wgDefaultSkin's comment in DefaultSettings.php
 234 * (bug 23797) Xml::input() now allows '0' for the value parameter
 235 * (bug 23747) Make sure that on History pages, the RevDel button is not
 236   accidently activated when hitting enter.
 237 * (bug 23845) Special:ListFiles now uses correct file names without underscores
 238 * Ask for permanent login in Special:Preferences only if $wgCookieExpiration > 0
 239 * (bug 16356) Repair dumpInterwiki.inc to use proper normalization.
 240 * (bug 24006) deleteArchivedRevisions.php maintenance script now longer throws
 241   a fatal error
 242 * (bug 23465) Don't ignore the predefined destination filename on
 243   Special:Upload after following a red link
 244 * Correct the escaping of the autosummary URI fragments.
 245 * (bug 23642) Recognize mime types of MS OpenXML documents.
 246 * (bug 22784) Normalise underscores and spaces in autocomments.
 247 * (bug 19910) Headings of the form ===+\s+ are now displayed as valid headings
 248 * (bug 24022) Only check file extensions on the uploadpage when needed.
 249 * (bug 24076) Recognize Office 2003 files with OpenXML trailers
 250 * (bug 24244) Updated comments in DefaultSettings.php to reflect Image: --> File:
 251   namespace rename.
 252 * Make wfTimestamp recognize negative unix timestamp values.
 253 * (bug 24401) SimpleSearch: No button/text indicating 'Search' if image is disabled
 254 * (bug 23293) Do not show change tags when special:recentchanges(linked)
 255   or special:newpages is transcluded into another page as it messes up the
 256   page.
 257 * (bug 24517) LocalFile::newFromKey() and OldLocalFile::newFromKey() no longer
 258   throw fatal errors
 259 * (bug 23380) Uploaded files that are larger than allowed by PHP now show a
 260   useful error message.
 261 * Uploading to a protected title will allow the user to choose a new name
 262   instead of showing an error page
 263 * (bug 24425) Use Database::replace instead of delete/insert in SqlBagOStuff::set
 264   to avoid query errors about duplicate keynames.
 265
 266 === API changes in 1.17 ===
 267 * (bug 22738) Allow filtering by action type on query=logevent.
 268 * (bug 22764) uselang parameter for action=parse.
 269 * (bug 22944) API: watchlist options are inconsistent.
 270 * (bug 22868) don't list infinite block expiry date as "now" in API logevents.
 271 * (bug 22290) prop=revisions now outputs "comment" field even when comment.
 272   is empty, for consistency with list=recentchanges.
 273 * (bug 19721) API action=help should have a way to just list for a specific module.
 274 * (bug 23458) Add support for pageid parameter to action=parse requests.
 275 * (bug 23460) Parse action should have a section option.
 276 * (bug 21346) Make deleted images searchable by hash.
 277 * (bug 23461) Normalise usage of parameter names in parameter descriptions.
 278 * (bug 23548) Allow access of another users watchlist through watchlistraw
 279   using token and username.
 280 * (bug 23524) Api Modules as followup to bug 14473 (Add iwlinks table to
 281   track inline interwiki link usage.
 282 * Add pltitles and tltemplates to prop=links and prop=templates respectively,
 283   similar to prop=categories's clcategorie
 284 * (bug 23834) Invalid "thumbwidth" and "thumbheight" in "imageinfo" query when
 285   thumbnailing larger than original image
 286 * (bug 23835) Need "thumbmime" result in "imageinfo" query
 287 * (bug 23851) Repair diff for file redirect pages
 288 * (bug 24009) Include implicit groups in action=query&list=users&usprop=groups
 289 * (bug 24016) API: Handle parameters specified in simple string syntax
 290   ( 'paramname' => 'defaultval' ) correctly when outputting help
 291 * (bug 24089) Logevents causes PHP Notice if leprop=title isn't supplied
 292 * (bug 23473) Give description of properties on all modules
 293 * (bug 24136) unknownerror when adding new section without summary, but forceditsummary
 294 * (bug 16886) Sister projects box moves down the extract of the first result in IE 7.
 295 * (bug 22339) Added srwhat=nearmatch to list=search to get a "go" result
 296 * (bug 24303) Added new &servedby parameter to all actions which adds the hostname
 297   that served the request to the result. It is also added unconditionally on error
 298 * (bug 24185) Titles in the Media and Special namespace are now supported for
 299   title normalization in action=query. Special pages have their name resolved
 300   to the local alias.
 301 * (bug 24296) Added converttitles parameter to convert titles to their
 302   canonical language variant.
 303 * Fixed "link" parameter in image links with "thumb" parameter.
 304 * (bug 23936) Add "displaytitle" to query/info API
 305 * (bug 24485) Make iwbacklinks a generator, optionally display iwprefix and iwtitle
 306 * (bug 24564) Fix fatal errors when using list=deletedrevs, prop=revisions or
 307   one of the backlinks generators with limit=max.
 308
 309 === Languages updated in 1.17 ===
 310
 311 MediaWiki supports over 330 languages. Many localisations are updated
 312 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 313 changes to languages because of MediaZilla reports.
 314
 315 * Moroccan Spoken Arabic (ary) (new)
 316 * Banjar (bjn) (new)
 317 * Kabardian (kdb) (new, dummy)
 318 * Kabardian (Cyrillic) (kbd-cyrl) (new)
 319 * Latgalian (ltg) (new)
 320 * Dutch (informal) (nl-informal) (new)
 321 * Rusyn (rue) (new)
 322
 323 * (bug 23156) Commafy and search normalization updated for Belarusian
 324   (Taraškievica)
 325 * (bug 23283) Native name for Old English -> Ænglisc
 326 * (bug 23364) Native name for Azerbaijani -> Azərbaycanca
 327 * (bug 24593) Native name for Sorani now uses only Arabic script
 328
 329 == Compatibility ==
 330
 331 MediaWiki 1.17 requires PHP 5.1 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer
 332 supported.
 333
 334 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 335 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 336
 337
 338 == Upgrading ==
 339
 340 1.17 has several database changes since 1.16, and will not work without schema
 341 updates.
 342
 343 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 344 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 345 database schema changes.
 346
 347 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 348 new database fields are filled with data.
 349
 350 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 351 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 352 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 353
 354 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 355
 356
 357 === Caveats ===
 358
 359 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 360 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 361 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 362 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 363 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 364
 365 For notes on 1.16.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 366
 367
 368 === Online documentation ===
 369
 370 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 371 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 372 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 373 the public domain) :
 374
 375   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 376
 377
 378 === Mailing list ===
 379
 380 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 381 wikitech-l list:
 382
 383   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 384
 385 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 386
 387   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 388
 389 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 390 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 391
 392
 393 === IRC help ===
 394
 395 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net