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