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
  27 === New features in 1.17 ===
  28 * (bug 10183) Users can now add personal styles and scripts to all skins via
  29   User:<name>/common.css and /common.js (if user css/js is enabled)
  30 * (bug 22748) Add anchors on Special:ListGroupRights
  31 * (bug 21981) Add parameter 'showfilename' to <gallery> to automatically apply
  32   the names of the individual files within the gallery
  33 * (bug 12797) Add $wgGalleryOptions for adjusting of default gallery display
  34   options
  35 * $wgAllowUserCssPrefs option allows disabling CSS-based preferences; which can
  36   improve page loading speed.
  37 * Future-proof redirection to fragments in Gecko, so things work a little nicer
  38   if they fix <https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=516293>.
  39 * Support git:// and mms:// protocols by default for external links
  40 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer unblock themselves without the
  41   'unblockself' permission (which they have by default)
  42 * (bug 18499) Added "enhanced" URL parameter to switch between old and enhanced
  43   changes list
  44 * (bug 22925) "sp-contributions-blocked-notice-anon" message now displayed when
  45   viewing contributions of a blocked IP address
  46 * (bug 22474) {{urlencode:}} now takes an optional second paramter for type of
  47   escaping.
  48 * Special:Listfiles now supports a username parameter
  49 * Special:Random carries over query string parameters
  50
  51 === Bug fixes in 1.17 ===
  52 * (bug 17560) Half-broken deletion moved image files to deletion archive
  53   without updating database
  54 * (bug 22666) Submitting user block form with an invalid user name no longer
  55   throws an error
  56 * (bugs 22665 and 22667) User '0' can now be unblocked and have its block
  57   settings changed
  58 * (bug 22606) The body of e-mail address confirmation message is now different
  59   when the address changed
  60 * (bug 22664) Special:Userrights now accepts '0' as a valid user name
  61 * (bug 5210) preload parser now parses <noinclude>, <includeonly> and redirects
  62 * (bug 22709) IIS7 mishandles redirects generated by OutputPage::output() when
  63   the URL contains a colon.
  64 * (bug 22353) Categorised recent changes now works again
  65 * (bug 22747) "Reveal my e-mail address in notification e-mails" preference is
  66   now only displayed when relevant
  67 * (bug 22772) {{#special:}} parser function now works with subpages
  68 * (bug 18664) Relative URIs in interwiki links cause failed redirects
  69 * (bug 19270) Relative URIs in interwiki links break interwiki transclusion
  70 * (bug 22903) Revdelete log entries now show in the user preferred language.
  71 * (bug 22905) Correctly handle <abbr> followed by ISBN
  72 * (bug 22940) Namespace aliases pointing to main namespace don't work
  73 * (bug 15810) Blocked admins can no longer block/unblock other users
  74 * (bug 22876) Avoid possible PHP Notice if $wgDefaultUserOptions is not
  75   correctly set
  76 * (bug 14952) Page titles are renormalized after html entities are removed so
  77   that links with non-NFC character references work correctly.
  78 * (bug 22991) wgUserGroups JavaScript variable now reports * group for
  79   anonymous users instead of null.
  80 * (bug 22627) Remove PHP notice when deleting a page only hidden users edited.
  81 * (bug 21520) Anonymous previews now also gives a warning about not being
  82   logged in (anonpreviewwarning).
  83 * (bug 22935) image/x-ms-bmp mime type added for BMP files
  84 * (bug 23024) Special:ListFiles now escapes file names correctly
  85 * (bug 22867) "View source" tab is now only displayed if there's source text
  86 * (bug 19393) Feeds now format dates in user language rather than content
  87   language
  88 * (bug 22852) "Served in" comment is now the time used to cache a single page
  89   when using rebuildFileCache.php
  90 * (bug 22496) Viewing diff of a redirect page without specifying "oldid"
  91   parameter no longer makes the page displayed as being the redirect target
  92 * (bug 22918) Feed cache keys now use $wgRenderHashAppend
  93 * (bug 21916) Last-Modified header is now correct when outputting cached feed
  94 * (bug 20049) Fixed PHP notice in search highlighter that occurs in some cases
  95 * (bug 23017) Special:Disambiguations now list pages in content namespaces
  96   rather than only main namespace
  97 * (bug 23063) $wgMaxAnimatedGifArea is checked against the total size of all
  98   frames, and $wgMaxImageArea against the size of the first frame, rather than
  99   the other way around.  Both now default to 12.5 megapixels.  Also, images
 100   exceeding $wgMaxImageArea can still be embedded at original size
 101 * (bug 23078) "All public logs" option on Special:Log is now always the first
 102   item
 103 * (bug 16817) Group names in user rights log are now singular and in lowercase
 104 * Special:Preferences no longer crashes if the wiki default date formatting
 105   style is not valid for the user's interface language
 106 * (bug 23167) Check the watch checkbox by default if the watchcreations
 107   preference is set
 108 * Maintenance script cleanupTitles is now able to fix titles stored
 109 in a negative namespace (which is invalid).
 110 * (bug 19858) Removed obsolete <big> in interface messages.
 111 * (bug 21456) "Bad title" error when showing non-local interwiki pages no longer
 112   displays incorrect tabs
 113 * (bug 23190) Improved math representation for text browsers.
 114 * (bug 22015) Improved upload-by-url error handling and error display
 115 * (bug 17941) $wgMaxUploadSize is now honored by all upload sources
 116 * (bug 23080) New usernames now limited to 235 bytes so that custom skin files
 117   work.
 118
 119 === API changes in 1.17 ===
 120 * (bug 22738) Allow filtering by action type on query=logevent
 121 * (bug 22764) uselang parameter for action=parse
 122 * (bug 22944) API: watchlist options are inconsistent
 123 * (bug 22339) "Go" result should be available through the API
 124 * (bug 22868) don't list infinite block expiry date as "now" in API logevents
 125 * (bug 22290) prop=revisions now outputs "comment" field even when comment
 126   is empty, for consistency with list=recentchanges
 127
 128 === Languages updated in 1.17 ===
 129
 130 MediaWiki supports over 330 languages. Many localisations are updated
 131 regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as
 132 changes to languages because of MediaZilla reports.
 133
 134 * Latgalian (ltg) (new)
 135 * Rusyn (rue) (new)
 136
 137 * (bug 23156) Commafy and search normalization updated for Belarusian
 138   (Taraškievica)
 139
 140 == Compatibility ==
 141
 142 MediaWiki 1.17 requires PHP 5.1 (5.2 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer
 143 supported.
 144
 145 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 146 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 147
 148
 149 == Upgrading ==
 150
 151 1.17 has several database changes since 1.16, and will not work without schema
 152 updates.
 153
 154 If upgrading from before 1.11, and you are using a wiki as a commons reposito-
 155 ry, make sure that it is updated as well. Otherwise, errors may arise due to
 156 database schema changes.
 157
 158 If upgrading from before 1.7, you may want to run refreshLinks.php to ensure
 159 new database fields are filled with data.
 160
 161 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 162 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 163 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 164
 165 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 166
 167
 168 === Caveats ===
 169
 170 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 171 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 172 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 173 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 174 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 175
 176 For notes on 1.16.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 177
 178
 179 === Online documentation ===
 180
 181 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 182 built up on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 183 License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in
 184 the public domain) :
 185
 186   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 187
 188
 189 === Mailing list ===
 190
 191 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 192 wikitech-l list:
 193
 194   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 195
 196 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 197
 198   http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 199
 200 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 201 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 202
 203
 204 === IRC help ===
 205
 206 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net