TWiki Release 4.1.2 (Edinburgh), 2007-03-03

Note: This is the release note for the previous major release version 4.1.X. This note and the TWikiReleaseNotes04x00 are included with 4.2.X because they contain valuable information for people upgrading from earlier versions. Both for the admin and the users. See TWikiReleaseNotes04x02 for the 4.2.X release notes

Introduction

TWiki Release 4.1.0 is a minor release. TWiki releases are either major (major new features and changes in architecture), minor (enhancements and bug fixes), or patch releases (bug fixes only) which can be installed as upgrades on production installations.

TWiki Release 4.1.0 introduces some good enhancements and quite many bug fixes since 4.0.5. It requires some manual work to upgrade from TWiki 4.0.5 to 4.1.0. Depending on the tailoring you have made it may take between 10 minutes to two hours to do an upgrade. If you have not made any changes to the skins the upgrade is for sure an effort that takes less than 30 minutes.

The development team has done everything to maintain full compatibility with topics generated in TWiki-4.0 and there are no changes to the topic format.

TWiki 4.1.1 addresses a series of bugs found in the first 4 weeks after the release of TWiki 4.1.0.

New Features Highlights

• Easier Installation and Upgrade
  • Plugins can now be installed from the configure script.
  • The loading of plugin preferences settings has been moved earlier in the preferences evaluation order so that plugin settings can be redefined in Main.TWikiPreferences, WebPreferences and in topics. To make TWiki upgrades easier, it is recommended to set the plugin settings in Main.TWikiPreferences, and not to customize the settings in the plugin topic. For example, to change the TEMPLATES setting of the CommentPlugin, create a new COMMENTPLUGIN_TEMPLATES setting in Main.TWikiPreferences.
  • Plugin settings can now be defined in configure instead of in the plugin topic (requires that the individual plugin has implemented this). TWiki performs slightly better by not looking for preferences settings in plugin topics.
  • Configure no longer shows many unnecessary errors when run first time.
  • The webmaster email address is now defined in configure instead of TWikiPreferences.
  • Default file access rights in the distribution package have been changed to be more universally defined and in line with the default access rights for new topics.

• Usability Enhancements
  • Redesigned result page when typing incomplete topic name into the Jump box, so that it is possible to quickly navigate to a topic, also in a very large TWiki installation. For example, "I know there is a topic about Ajax somewhere in the Eng web. OK, let my type Eng.ajax into the Jump box... Here we go, the third link is the AjaxCookbook I was looking for."
  • Many user documentation improvements.
  • URL parameters maintained in Table of Contents links so you can stay in a temporary skin (e.g. print) and keep URLPARAM values when you click the TOC links
  • Attachment tables now sorted alphabetically.
  • Better printing of tables and verbatim text in PatternSkin.

• Application Platform Enhancements
  • Auto-incremented topic name on save with AUTOINC<n> in topic name; used by TWiki applications to create topic based database records.
  • The edit and save scripts support a redirectto parameter to redirect to a topic or a URL; for security, redirect to URL needs to be enabled with a {AllowRedirectUrl} configure flag.
  • CommentPlugin supports the redirectto parameter to redirect to a URL or link to TWiki topic after submitting comment.
  • The topic URL parameter also respects the {AllowRedirectUrl} configure flag so redirects to URLs can be disabled which could be abused for phishing attacks.
  • The view script supports a section URL parameter to view just a named section within a topic. Useful for simple AJAX type applications.
  • New plugin handler for content move.
  • Enhancements for Ajax based applications with TWiki:Plugins/YahooUserInterfaceContrib and TWiki:Plugins.TWikiAjaxContrib (available at twiki.org).

• Search Enhancements
  • METASEARCH handles a format parameter like SEARCH.
  • Topic not found / WebTopicViewTemplate search now case insensitive.
  • FormattedSearch header supporting $nop, $quot, $percnt, $dollar.
  • Add search by createdate option to SEARCH.
  • New newline option for SEARCH to protect e.g. formfields from being altered during rendering in SEARCH.

• Skins and Templates Enhancements
  • Support for templates to have text rendering affecting aspect outside of textarea.
  • Pattern skin dependence on TwistyPlugin instead of TwistyContrib (performance improvement.)
  • Don't strip newlines from the front of TMPL:DEFs.

• Miscellaneous Feature Enhancements
  • Change in WikiWord definition: Numbers are treated as lower case letters, e.g. Y2K is now a WikiWord.
  • Configurable template load path. Advanced feature for those that work with customized templates.
  • Added %VBAR% to TWikiPreferences for vertical bar symbol.
  • On topic creation, force initial letter of topic name to be upper case.
  • Allow date format in form fields.
  • Enhance REVINFO{} variable with same date qualifiers as GMTIME{}.
  • WebTopicCreator - adding ability to select a template from any topic name ending in ...Template
  • Functionality of TWiki:Plugins.DateFieldPlugin merged into core

• Enhancements of Pre-installed Plugins
  • CommentPlugin: Supports removal of comment prompt after a comment is made.
  • EditTablePlugin: Default date format based on JSCalendarContrib instead of plugin topic.
  • InterwikiPlugin: Supports custom link formats.
  • SlideShowPlugin: Preserves URL parameters in slideshow
  • SpreadSheetPlugin: New functions $LISTRAND(), $LISTSHUFFLE(), $LISTTRUNCATE().
  • TablePlugin: New attribute cellborder.
  • TablePlugin: Highlight the sorted column with custom colors; includes also a general cosmetic update of default colors.
  • TablePlugin: Support for initsort on more than one table. A table with the initsort option is initsorted UNLESS it is sorted by clicking on a column header. If you click on a header of another table all other tables goes back to the default sort defined by initsort or not sorted if no initsort, and the new table is sorted based on the user clicking on a table header.

Important Changes since 4.0.5

Supported Perl version

TWiki 4.0.5 worked on Perl version 5.6.X. Reports from users has shown that unfortunately TWiki 4.1.0 does not support Perl versions older then 5.8.0. It is the goal that TWiki should work on at least Perl version 5.6.X but none of the developers have had access to Perl installations older than 5.8.0.

Since TWiki 4.1.0 has some urgent bugs the development team decided to release TWiki 4.1.1 without resolving the issue with Perl 5.6.X. We will however address this and try and resolve it for a planned 4.1.2 release. The TWiki community is very interested in contributions from users that have fixes for the code which will enable TWiki to run on older versions of Perl.

See the WhatVersionsOfPerlAreSupported topic to keep up to date with the discussion how to get back support for earlier Perl versions.

Template spec changed

Until TWiki 4.0.5 TWikiTemplates the text inside template definition blocks (anything between %TMPL:DEF{"block"}% and %TMPL:END% was stripped of leading and trailing white space incl new lines.

This caused a lot of problems for skin developers when you wanted a newline before or after the block text.

From TWiki 4.1.0 this has changed so that white space is no longer stripped. Skins like PatternSkin and NatSkin have been updated so that they work with the new behavior. But if you use an older skin or have written your own you will most likely need to make some adjustments.

It is not difficult. The general rule is - if you get mysterious blank lines in your skin, the newline after the %TMPL:DEF{"block"}% needs to be removed. Ie. the content of the block must follow on the same line as the TMPL:DEF.

The spec change have the same impact on CommentPlugin templates where you may have to remove the first line break after the TMPL:DEF. See the CommentPluginTemplate for examples of how comment template definitions should look like in TWiki-4.1.X

An example: A CommentPlugin template that adds a comment as appending a row to a table. Before the spec change this would work.

<verbatim>
%TMPL:DEF{OUTPUT:tabletest}%%POS:BEFORE%
|%URLPARAM{"comment"}%| -- %WIKIUSERNAME% - %DATE% |
%TMPL:END%
</verbatim>

From Twiki 4.1.0 the old template definition will add an empty line before the new table row. To fix it simply remove the new line before the table.

<verbatim>
%TMPL:DEF{OUTPUT:tabletest}%%POS:BEFORE%|%URLPARAM{"comment"}%| -- %WIKIUSERNAME% - %DATE% |
%TMPL:END%
</verbatim>

The advantage of the spec change is that now you can add leading and trailing white space including new lines. This was not possible before.

Important Changes since 4.1.0

An upgrader should note the following important changes.

• The directory for passthrough files and session files have been replaced by a common directory for temporary files used by TWiki. Previously the two configure settings {PassthroughDir} and {Sessions}{Dir} were by default set to /tmp. These config settings have been replaced by {TempfileDir} with the default setting value /tmp/twiki. If the twiki directory does not exist twiki will create it first time it needs it. It is highly recommended no longer to use the tmp directory common to other web applications and the new default will work fine for most. You may want to delete all the old session files in /tmp after the upgrade to 4.1.1. They all start with cgisess_. It is additionally highly recommended to limit write access to the {TempfileDir} for security reasons if you have non-admin users with login access to the webserver just like you would do with the other webserver directories.
• Many bugs fixed. If you had to implement work arounds to make things work chances are that they are fixed now. See the detailed bugfix list below.

Important Changes since 4.1.1

TWiki works again on Perl 5.6.X

TWiki has now been tested and a few small code changes made so that TWiki now runs on Perl 5.6.X

TWiki 4.1.2 has been confirmed working on the combination RedHat 7.3, Apache 1.3.23, Perl 5.6.1. Note that many plugins requires Perl 5.8 or at least additional CPAN libraries.

An upgrader should note the following important changes.

• The twisty that used to hide the attachment table has been removed because the Javascript code triggers a bug in Internet Explorer when a topic is long making page rendering take up to 1 minute. The twisty may return in later versions of TWiki when the bug has been resolved.
• Users of mod_perl should notice a new experimental feature that speeds up searching by a large factor. The feature is described in the NativeSearch topic at the TWiki website. In configure look for the {RCS}{SearchAlgorithm} setting. Normal mode is Forking. The new mode for mod_perl is Native and is a C program which needs to be compiled with a C-compiler like gcc, and this new mode works faster than forking on mod_perl. If you do not run mod_perl stick to the default Forking.
• /tmp/twiki directory which was introduced with 4.1.1 is now auto created also with older versions of the CGI::Session library. This is important for distributions that cleans out /tmp when rebooting.
• Configure has gotten much better at installing extensions such as plugins.
• Configure is now more friendly to a new administator. Configure now only shows the important "General Path Settings" until you have saved and created the LocalSite.cfg file. This prevents a number of false errors from being wrongly fixed by a first time installer.
• The documented bahavior of "* Set ALLOWTOPICCHANGE = (nothing)" does not match the code. Documentation has been updated to match actual behavior in 4.1.2. See also deprecation notice below. You should review your use of access rights settings in topics.

Deprecation Notices

• Usage of TWikiForms for setting preferences has been deprecated in favor of TWiki:Plugins.PreferencesPlugin. PreferencesPlugin has been included since TWiki 4.0.0 to allow more convenient editing of preferences. This plugin provides input controls, such as menus, radio buttons, and checkboxes to select preference settings.
• From TWiki 4.0.0 the syntax "* Set DENYTOPICVIEW = " (nothing) in a topic means deny noone. Even if ALLOWTOPICVIEW is set to people or group setting DENYTOPICCHANGE to nothing means allow anyone. You have to remove the DENYTOPICVIEW or comment it out to have the ALLOWTOPICVIEW working. The reason for this behavior is that it enables limiting access to an entire web by setting a blank DENYTOPICVIEW setting. Same rule applies for DENYTOPICCHANGE and DENYTOPICRENAME. The rule does not apply for access rights defined for webs. Ie. "*Set DENYWEBCHANGE = " does not allow anyone to edit topics in the web. There has been strong oppinions against the syntax "* Set DENYTOPICXXXX = " meaning giving all access. So please be warned that we will change the syntax to a more transparent and logical syntax in future but we will ensure that it is still possible to secure a web and open up individual topics in future also.

Bug Fix Highlights

• User Topics
  • Unused settings on users home topic removed. (no need to update existing user topics - they are still compatible with all features.)
  • An attribute column has been added to the UserForm used on users home topic. If you tailored this form just continue using your existing form.

• Security
  • The topic="" parameter to the view script now respects the {AllowRedirectUrl} configure flag so you can disable redirecting to URLs which could be abused for phishing attacks.
  • More robust authentication denial when redirected after failed authentication (follow up from TWiki:Codev.SecurityAlert-CVE-2006-6071.)
  • More robust TablePlugin, guarding against a sort with very high non-existing column numbers, which may result in a high server load.

• User Interface
  • Left Bar should not show logout when using ApacheLogin because you cannot in reality log out.
  • Can't de-select all options in a checkbox.
  • Duplicate values in checkbox and select when creating a new topic.
  • Form initialization with defaults not working.
  • Multiselect for forms does not work.
  • Size of attachment should only be shown for the most recent version.
  • JSCalendarContrib only works with IE in PatternSkin.

• API, Skins and Templates
  • The print view handled is updated to allow custom templates that can be printed. Note that the viewprint template is subject to additional changes in next releases.
  • The Kupu WYSIWYG editor has been split out of WysiwygPlugin into KupuContrib to allow other editors to be integrated with TWiki.

• Printing
  • Verbatim Text not completly printing with IE6.0.
  • Printable loses URL parameters.
  • Printing in Firefox truncates tables.

• Miscellaneous Bug Fixes
  • Don't include anything when trying to include a non existing section.
  • Turn off {AutoAttachPubFiles} in default distribution.
  • The edit url parameters are not properly passed through change form screen and checkpoint save.
  • Formfield not correctly rendered when type is textarea.
  • IF cannot check for existence of INCLUDE parameter.
  • Firefox downloads attachments as the topic name and not the real file name.
  • Edit and FormattedSearch expands $nop, $quot, $percnt, $dollar in $formfield()
  • Scripts hang in TWiki::UI:run at drain STDIN logic (this is now configurable - whether you need it depends on OS and webserver.)
  • Non-graceful error handling on mail issue during registration.
  • Include of external doc set wrong url in relative links.
  • In INCLUDE, warn parameter does not work when including a URL.
  • WEBMANAGE permission no longer required (removed.)
  • Context not authenticated despite Apache Require valid-user Login.
  • INCLUDE of URL on subdomain returns wrong pages.
  • Combined hidden and mandatory form fields were not hidden in 4.1.0 and 4.1.1.

The full list of bug fixes can be seen below

TWiki 4.1.0 Minor Release - Details

The 4.1.0 release was built from SVN http://svn.twiki.org/svn/twiki/tags/TWikiRelease04x01x00 revision 12567.

TWiki 4.1.0 Fixes

TWiki 4.1.0 Enhancements

TWiki 4.1.1 Patch Release - Details

The 4.1.1 release was built from SVN http://svn.twiki.org/svn/twiki/Patch04x01 revision 12768 (05 Feb 2007).

TWiki 4.1.1 Fixes

TWiki 4.1.1 Enhancements

None

TWiki 4.1.2 Patch Release Details

The 4.1.2 release was built from SVN http://svn.twiki.org/svn/twiki/Patch04x01 revision 13046 (2007-03-03).

TWiki 4.1.1 Fixes

TWiki 4.1.2 Enhancements

None

Related Topic: TWikiHistory