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 1.18 ==
   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 1.18 ===
  22 * The WantedPages::getSQL hook has been removed and replaced with
  23   WantedPages::getQueryInfo . This may break older extensions.
  24 * $wgUseCombinedLoginLink controls whether to output a combined login / create account
  25   link in the personal bar, or to output separate login and create account links
  26 * Skin names are no longer created based on a ucfirst version of the key in $wgValidSkinNames but now
  27   the value. This means for $wgValidSkinNames["monobook"] = "MonoBook"; the skin
  28   loader will no longer try loading SkinMonobook and will instead load SkinMonoBook.
  29 * The parser now attempts to output markers for editsection tokens and defer the rendering
  30   of them so skin and language specific markup does not need to be saved inside the parser cache
  31   note that this changes the cache key making all old entries in the parser cache invalid you
  32   can set $wgUseEditSectionTokens to false to disable this and keep your old parser cache entries.
  33   Note that this feature should reduce parser cache fragmentation when enabled.
  34 * $wgMaxUploadSize may now be set to an array to specify the upload size limit
  35   per upload type.
  36 * $wgAPICacheHelp added in 1.16 is now removed. To disable API help caching, set
  37   $wgAPICacheHelpTimeout = 0;
  38
  39 === New features in 1.18 ===
  40 * Added a special page, disabled by default, that allows users with the
  41   'disableaccount' privilege to permanently deactivate user accounts.
  42 * (bug 8130) Query pages should limit to content namespaces, not just main namespace
  43 * Search suggestions (other than in the Vector skin) will now use the HTML5
  44   datalist feature where supported, currently only Firefox 4.
  45 * Special:Contribs now redirects to Special:Contributions
  46 * (bug 6672) Images are now autorotated according to their EXIF orientation.
  47   This only affects thumbnails; the source remains unrotated.
  48 * (bug 25708) Update case mappings and normalization to Unicode 6.0.0
  49
  50 === Bug fixes in 1.18 ===
  51 * (bug 23119) WikiError class and subclasses are now marked as deprecated
  52 * (bug 10871) Javascript and CSS pages in MediaWiki namespace are no longer
  53   treated as wikitext on preview.
  54 * (bug 22753) Output from update.php is more clear when things changed, entries
  55   indicating nothing changed are now all prefixed by "..."
  56 * Page existence is now not revealed (in the colour of the tabs) to users who
  57   cannot read the page in question.
  58 * (bug 19006) {{REVISIONUSER}} no longer acts like {{CURRENTUSER}} in some cases
  59 * (bug 16019) $wgArticlePath = "/$1" no longer breaks API edit/watch actions
  60 * (bug 18372) File types blacklisted by $wgFileBlacklist will no longer be shown as
  61   "Permitted file types" on the upload form
  62 * (bug 26379) importImages.php gives more descriptive error message on failure.
  63 * (bug 26410) + signs are no longer treated as spaces in internal links if
  64   link has a % sign in it.
  65 * (bug 26412) Search results headers no longer show a bogus edit link.
  66 * (bug 26540) Fixed wrong call to applyPatch in MysqlUpdater
  67 * (bug 26574) Added 'upload' to $wgRestrictionTypes, allowing upload protected
  68   pages to be queried via the API and Special:ProtectedPages, and allowing
  69   disabling upload protection by removing it from $wgRestrictionTypes.
  70 * If an edit summary exceeds 250 bytes and is truncated, add an ellipse
  71 * (bug 26638) Database error pages display correctly in RTL languages
  72 * (bug 26187) Confirmrecreate no longer parses the edit summary
  73 * (bug 25506) Exception is thrown if OutputPage::parse is called inside a tag hook,
  74   which would reset parser state
  75 * (bug 26208) Mark directionality of some interlanguage links
  76
  77 === API changes in 1.18 ===
  78 * (bug 26339) Throw warning when truncating an overlarge API result
  79 * (bug 14869) Add API module for accessing QueryPage-based special pages
  80 * (bug 14020) API for Special:Unwatchedpages
  81 * (bug 24287) Wrap API Help output at 100 characters
  82 * Add a realname uiprop option to query=userinfo so a user's realname can be extracted
  83 * Add a &watchuser option to ApiBlock
  84 * (bug 26541) Generator-ise ApiQueryRecentChanges
  85 * action=parse now correctly returns an error for nonexistent pages
  86 * (bug 25767) Add userrights properties to allusers and users query lists
  87 * (bug 26558) list=allusers auprop=groups does not list groups a user is automatically a member of
  88 * (bug 26559) list=allusers auprop=rights does not match list=users usprop=rights
  89 * (bug 26560) On allusers if limit < total number of users, last user gets duplicate
  90 * (bug 25135) add "normalized" to action=parse
  91 * (bug 26460) Add support for listing category members by category pageid
  92 * (bug 26482) add a imimages param to prop=images
  93 * (bug 26498) allow LinksUpdate with API
  94 * (bug 26485) add a elextlinks param to prop=extlinks
  95 * (bug 26483) add a iwtitles param to prop=iwlinks
  96 * (bug 26484) add a lltitles param to prop=langlinks
  97 * (bug 26480) add a pppageprops param to prop=pageprops
  98 * (bug 26650) Remove $wgAPICacheHelp in favour of $wgAPICacheHelpTimeout
  99
 100 === Languages updated in 1.18 ===
 101
 102 MediaWiki supports over 330 languages. Many localisations are updated
 103 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 104 changes to languages because of Bugzilla reports.
 105
 106 == Compatibility ==
 107
 108 MediaWiki 1.18 requires PHP 5.1 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer
 109 supported.
 110
 111 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 112 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 113
 114
 115 == Upgrading ==
 116
 117 1.18 has several database changes since 1.17, and will not work without schema
 118 updates.
 119
 120 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 121 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 122 database schema changes.
 123
 124 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 125 new database fields are filled with data.
 126
 127 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 128 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 129 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 130
 131 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 132
 133
 134 === Caveats ===
 135
 136 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 137 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 138 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 139 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 140 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 141
 142 For notes on 1.17.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 143
 144
 145 === Online documentation ===
 146
 147 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 148 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 149 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 150 the public domain) :
 151
 152         http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 153
 154
 155 === Mailing list ===
 156
 157 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 158 wikitech-l list:
 159
 160         http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 161
 162 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 163
 164         http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 165
 166 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 167 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 168
 169
 170 === IRC help ===
 171
 172 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net