[IT-SecNots] [MediaWiki-announce] MediaWiki 1.17 beta 1

[Tim Starling <tstarling AT wikimedia.org>]

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I'm happy to announce the availability of the first beta release of
the new MediaWiki 1.17 release series.

Please try it out and let us know what you think. Don't run it on
any wikis that you really care about, unless you are both very
brave and very confident in your MediaWiki administration skills.

MediaWiki 1.17 is a very large release that contains many new
features and bug fixes. This is a summary of the major changes of
interest to users. You can consult the RELEASE-NOTES file for the
full list of changes in this version.

*********************************************************************
                             What's new?
*********************************************************************

PHP 5.2.3
- ---------

We now require PHP version 5.2.3 or later. Why? Well, it brings with
it some tools for your beloved developers. It was released on June
1, 2007, so we believe this requirement will not be a hassle for
administrators. Be sure to check your PHP installation and contact
your host if it runs an outdated PHP version.

New installer
- -------------

MediaWiki 1.17 is shipping with a completely redesigned installer to
fix a lot of outstanding bugs, clean up the code quality, and make
it easier to use. Notably, you can now run upgrades from the web
without having to move LocalSettings.php. A couple of other notable
changes:

    * The installer can now be fully localized like the rest of the
      software and contains numerous help dialogs.

    * The installer script directory has been renamed from config/
      to mw-config/.

    * You now download your generated LocalSettings.php at install
      completion, rather than writing it straight to the
      configuration directory. The previous behavior was a security
      risk.

    * IBM DB2 and MSSQL support were dropped from the installer.

ResourceLoader
- --------------

As web browsers have become more capable, the software that
MediaWiki runs on them has become more complex. This trend has
resulted in developers needing an efficient way to package and
deliver code to web browsers. To address this, MediaWiki 1.17
ships with ResourceLoader: a framework which combines and minifies
CSS and JavaScript before delivering them to the web browser.
ResourceLoader improves performance, while also making it easier to
write client-side features. ResourceLoader allows developers to
organize scripts, styles, and messages into named modules. Any
number of modules can be loaded through a single request, improving
page load times. Code is minified automatically and loaded when
needed, reducing unnecessary downloads. Other advanced features
include the ability embed images in style sheets using data URIs, or
automatically flipping horizontal information in style sheets for
right-to-left user interfaces.

Category sorting
- ----------------

Category sorting has been drastically improved.

    * Sorting is now case insensitive.

    * Sub-categories, pages and files can now be paged separately.

    * When several pages are given the same sort key, they sort by
      their names instead of randomly.

Language support
- ----------------

As with every release, MediaWiki 1.17 brings improved support for
languages in MediaWiki, with improved translation and features for
the many supported languages.

New languages:

    * Moroccan Spoken Arabic (ary)
    * Banjar (bjn)
    * Kabardian (Cyrillic) (kbd-cyrl)
    * Latgalian (ltg)
    * Minangkabau (min)
    * Dutch (informal) (nl-informal)
    * Rusyn (rue)

API
- ---

API bug fixes and new features have been added to 1.17, providing
more options for input and output.

    * API output can now be formatted by PHP's var_export() (format
      type is dbg/dbgfm).

    * An API module was added to list page properties.

    * PARAM_REQUIRED can now be used on parameters, to have the API
      enforce existence before code even reaches the module.

    * The API now has a Really Simple Discovery module, useful for
      publishing service information by the API.

The API contains 3 breaking changes against previous releases:

    * action=patrol now requires POST.

    * The patrol token is no longer the same as edit token.

    * Session keys returned by ApiUpload are now strings instead of
      integers.

Other
- -----

    * Interwiki links in articles are now recorded in a separate
      table.

    * Users can now add CSS and JS to all skins by using
      User:<name>/common.css and User:<name>/common.js.

Release notes
- -------------

Complete release notes are at

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Release_notes/1.17

**********************************************************************
Download:
http://download.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.17/mediawiki-1.17.0beta1.tar.gz

GPG signatures:
http://download.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.17/mediawiki-1.17.0beta1.tar.gz.sig

Public keys:
https://secure.wikimedia.org/keys.html


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