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.

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. These might support LaTeX or other forms of markup.

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.

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!

Bundled extensions
We haven't bundled any new extensions in 1.21, but there are suggestions for extensions to be integrated.