MediaWiki 1.21

MediaWiki 1.21 is currently being developed. Consult the RELEASE-NOTES file for the full list of changes. It is currently deployed on Wikimedia wikis through incremental "wmf"-branches starting October 2012. The 1.21.0 stable release is expected to come out in spring 2013. Download from Git to stay on the current bleeding-edge.

What's new?
MediaWiki 1.21 will include all changes released in the smaller, bi-weekly "1.21wmfX" software deployments to Wikimedia sites.

Skins

 * The CologneBlue skin has been refactored.

ContentHandler
As part of the Wikidata initiative, an extensible framework to create pages using something other than wikitext has been created.

Right now, built-in content types are limited to


 * wikitext - wikitext, as usual
 * javascript - user provided javascript code
 * css - user provided css code
 * text - plain text

Extension developers are expected to create additional types in the future. Extension:EventLogging uses ContentHandler and may be used as a reference.


 * The new ContentHandler might affect diff rendering, handing of CSS and JavaScript pages, import/export (including PDF export), and API stuff, especially when rendering and editing. Also look out for issues in template rendering, images and media handling, localisation, and mobile device access.  (merged on Oct 9)

High-resolution image support

 * High-resolution image support. This work-in-progress will try to give higher-res images to high-density screens that can support it, like new Retina displays.  More info at .  One of the bigger risks of the high res stuff is load-based, since we may see substantial new load on our image scalers. So *all* image scaling might be impacted. (merged on Oct 11)

New Sites backend

 * "Sites" is a new backend to represent and store information about sites and site-specific configuration. This code  is meant to replace the current interwiki code, but does not do so just yet.  Still, keep an eye out for site-specific configuration or interwiki issues.

Ajax patrolling
The features users have waited for longest: .... (bug 7851)

Internationalization

 * We plan/hope to make the general logging framework completely localisable at last, by fixing bug 24156 (deferred since MediaWiki 1.18). The logging for each action (whether in core or extensions) might still need to be updated to use the new system, though.
 * We plan/hope to make the general logging framework completely localisable at last, by fixing bug 24156 (deferred since MediaWiki 1.18). The logging for each action (whether in core or extensions) might still need to be updated to use the new system, though.

New accounts

 * It's now easier to create accounts for other users by sending a temporary password via e-mail: Special:CreateAccount now shows a checkbox for logged-in users to use this feature, rather than a button.
 * Account API: bots and other scripts can now use the API to create user accounts rather than attempting to pseudo-submit the HTML form.

Password Recovery system uses Tokens
The previous password recovery system, where users were emailed a short temporary password, has been replaced with a token system. Users now click a link in the email they receive rather than copy/pasting a password into the login form. This new system has the following advantages: Additionally, the expiration time of password reset tokens has been reduced from one week to one day.
 * Tokens are significantly longer than temporary passwords. This means that they are less prone to brute force attacks.
 * Since the users are clicking on a link, they can be pointed to the secure site using https.
 * The login form is now used only for logins; password resets now always go through Special:PasswordReset.
 * Special:PasswordReset now uses FormSpecialPage, making it easier for extension developers to add fields to the form.

Wikitext now supported in JavaScript messages
Tired of all your MediaWiki i18n messages showing on the JavaScript side as wikitext? Parse them with jqueryMsg, now with wikilinks and int: transclusion support!

Several minor HTML changes
Several long-overdue changes to HTML of both skins and parser output were made. While minor, they might require similarly minor updates in any customized CSS or JS (or in screen scrapers).

(Details in release notes for each commit and in commit messages.)


 * : use semantic headings for the navigation menu
 * : don't use a for the TOC (not merged yet)
 * : display editsection links next to headings (not merged yet)

Bundled extensions
Newly bundled for 1.21:
 * Cite
 * InputBox
 * Extension:LocalisationUpdate
 * Extension:SyntaxHighlight GeSHi