Semantic MediaWiki 2.5.0

From semantic-mediawiki.org
Semantic MediaWiki 2.5.0
Release date: March 14, 2017
Previous version: Semantic MediaWiki 2.4.6
Next version: Semantic MediaWiki 2.5.1
Compatible with: MW 1.23.0 - 1.29.x
Current version:
SMW 4.1.3

Version 2.5.0 of Semantic MediaWiki is the next major release after the Semantic MediaWiki 2.4.0 release. It introduces several new features, enhances existing functionality, provides bugfixes and further increases platform stability. See the English language RELEASE NOTES below on this page for further information. Please refer to the help page on installing Semantic MediaWiki to get detailed instructions on how to install or upgrade.

Please remember to run MediaWiki's "update.php" maintenance script after the upgrade before continuing to work with Semantic MediaWiki.

Semantic MediaWiki 2.5

Released on March 14, 2017.

Highlights

Full-text search support

Support for full-text search was added using the native capabilities of the SQL backends "MySQL"/"MariaDB" (#1481) and "SQLite" (#1801) for the "Text", "URL" and "Page" datatypes.

Provenance data recording

Qualifying facts using a simple provenance model is now supported (#1808) using existing mechanisms in defining a property specification together with a new "Reference" datatype (video).

Property chain and language filter support in print request

Property chain for conditions (e.g [[Located in.Capital of::Foo]]) was provided for some time, and now got extended (#1824) to supporting the syntax on print requests to retrieve values of a chain member that represent a page node. Values of datatype "Monolingual Text" can now use a language filter (#2037) to restrict the display of a value in a print request.

Edit protection

Edit protection to help avoid changes to properties or other data sensitive pages from alterations that may cause data invalidations (e.g. change of a property type, inconsistent specifications etc.) or process disruptions. This feature integrates with MediaWiki's page protection functionality.

Preferred property label support

Semantic MediaWiki now supports the declaration of preferred property labels (#1865) with the objective to show labels in a user context on special pages, query results, and factboxes instead of the canonical property label.

Query result cache

Caching of query results (#1251) was added as experimental feature to minimize a possible impact of query processing during and after a page view. This change also includes a reevaluation (#2099, #2176) of the query hash (used as identifier) to ensure that cache fragmentation is reduced and duplicate queries can share the same cache across different pages.

Links in values

Support for links in values for datatype "Text" was extended by use-cases and improved in performance as well as avoiding the former error-prone "PCRE-approach".

Fixed properties

Support for fixed properties was overhauled, fixed (#2135) and is no longer experimental.

Special page "SemanticMediaWiki"

Special page "SemanticMediaWiki" formerly known as special page "SMWAdmin" was modernized and extended (#2044, etc.) including a new configuration setting allowing for a more fine-granded control over feature accessibilty (#2142).

Compatibility changes

  • Minimum requirement for PHP changed to version 5.5 and later
  • Minimum requirement for MediaWiki changed to version 1.23 and later (1.27 and later recommended)
  • Forward comatibility with MediaWiki 1.29+ adjustments which include #2149, #2198

Upgrading

This release requires to run update.php or setupStore.php to add an extra table column for the URI table (#1872) and a new table for the preferred label property (#1865).

New features and enhancements

  • #1251 Added support to cache query results
  • #1418 Added recognition for image formatting options in query results
  • #1481 Added full-text MySQL/MariaDB search support to the SQLStore (see #1481 for limitations and features supported)
  • #1652 Added support for approximate search queries that contain a namespace [[Help:~Abc*]]
  • #1691 Added language fallback for special properties
  • #1708 Added the External identifier type
  • #1718 Added feature flag SMW_DV_NUMV_USPACE to allow preserving spaces in unit labels
  • #1747 Extended InTextAnnotationParser to check for a possible pipe syntax in combination with ::
  • #1757 Added the $smwgQTemporaryTablesAutoCommitMode setting to mitigate possible issues with temporary tables in MySQL for when enforce_gtid_consistency=true is set
  • #1756 Extended the display characteristics of Special:Browse to load content via the API back-end (legacy display can be retained by maintaining $smwgBrowseByApi with false)
  • #1759 Improved Special:Ask error output
  • #1760 Improved handling of MonolingualTextValue in Special:SearchByProperty
  • #1761 Added language context support in a property page to recognize localized property type [[Has type ...]] annotations
  • #1768 Extended error display to be shown in a user language context
  • #1778 Export the canonical form of a special page (e.g. Special:ExportRDF, Special:URIResolver)
  • #1779 Added Special:ProcessingErrorList
  • #1793 Extended date type (TimeValue) with an #LOCL@lang output format to recognize a specific language tag
  • #1801 Added SQLStore full-text search support for SQLite
  • #1802 Extended parsing in #set_recurring_event to avoid a 00:00:00 time display
  • #1809 Added support for using a property name as index identifier in a print request for the Record type
  • #1808 Added support for recording provenance data
  • #1824 Added support for the property chain syntax (e.g. ?SomeProperty.Foo) in a print request
  • #1838 Added time zone support in TimeValue together with the new #LOCL#TZ output format
  • #1854 Added unescaped output option for format=json
  • #1855 Added @@@ as special annotation syntax to generate a link to a property (e.g [[Foo::@@@]] or [[Foo::@@@en]])
  • #1865 Added support for preferred property labels
  • #1872 Added support for retrieving and storing URIs longer than 255 characters
  • #1875 Added support for displaying a title attribute on tooltips for non JS environments
  • #1891 Added support for JSON typed annotation in #set and #subobject using the @json marker
  • #1927 Added $smwgSubPropertyListLimit to restrict selection of subproperties on the property page
  • #2007 Extended the intro and outro parameter to correctly display parsed links in Special:Ask
  • #2024 Added option template arguments in format=template to define the type of used parameters
  • #2027 Extended format=table to display an image (instead of a link) in Special:Ask
  • #2036 Added print request option for text values to reduce the length of a text output (e.g. |?Has text#20)
  • #2037 Added |+lang= as print request filter to specify a language for a Monolingual text result instance
  • #2068 Extended the #info tooltip to work on multiple form sections
  • #2108 Extended the smw.dataItem.time JS component to support historic dates
  • #2109 Extended Special:Browse to distinguish between machine and human generate links
  • #2113 Extended the uniqueness constraint to apply a stricter validation on competing annotations
  • #2118 Added a button to Special:Ask to copy the query to the clipboard
  • #2135 Changed and fixed the behaviour of the $smwgFixedProperties setting for fixed properties to ensure consistent typing
  • #2137 Extended the display of statistics in Special:Statistics
  • #2139 Added the display of Semantic MediaWiki related job statistics under the subsection of the Special:SemanticMediaWiki page
  • #2142 Added $smwgAdminFeatures to support PropertyStatisticsRebuildJob and FulltextSearchTableRebuildJob from the Special:SemanticMediaWiki (formally known as Special:SMWAdmin) page, the smwgAdminRefreshStore setting was deprecated
  • #2153 Changed the behaviour of the $smwgLinksInValues setting to allow using the Obfuscator (SMW_LINV_OBFU) approach instead of PCRE to match links in values (e.g. [[Has text::[[Lorem ipsum]] dolor sit amet, [[Has page::consectetur adipiscing elit]]]])
  • #2157 Extended the property page to show redirects (synonyms) directly
  • #2173 Added support for prettified JSON output in the CodeStringValueFormatter
  • #2176 Added an experimental feature smwgQFilterDuplicates to filter duplicate query segments
  • #2204 Extended Special:UnusedProperties and Special:WantedProperties to provide an input form
  • #2207 Added smwgExportResourcesAsIri to allow exporting resources as IRIs
  • #2209 Extended parsing of interface messages to support additional smwgEnabledSpecialPage pages
  • #2221 Added possibility to show a general message on each property page (smw-property-introductory-message) or for a specific type of property (smw-property-introductory-message-user, smw-property-introductory-message-special)
  • #2227 Added warning, error, and info messages for incomplete requirements on a property page
  • #2232 Added support for Is edit protected property together with $wgRestrictionLevels (#2249)
  • #2243 Added property and concept namespace to the $wgContentNamespaces and $wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault setting
  • #2244 Added Special:PropertyLabelSimilarity to help reporting syntactic similarities between property labels
  • #2253 Added #-hl output formatting option to highlight search tokens within a result set
  • #2270 Added query parameters recording in the query profiler
  • #2281 Added check to detect a divergent type specification for an imported vocabulary
  • #2282 Added $smwgPropertyInvalidCharacterList to define character validation rules for property labels
  • #2285 Added SMW_HTTP_DEFERRED_SYNC_JOB option to execute secondary updates synchronously
  • #2289 Added a contents importer to support importing of additional data during the setup process
  • #2290 Added query reference links section to Special:Browse
  • #2295 Added Allows value list to maintain a list of allowed values using a NS_MEDIAWIKI reference page
  • #2301 Added $smwgSparqlReplicationPropertyExemptionList to suppress replication for selected properties to a SPARQL endpoint
  • #2325 Added #-ia as print request output option for the text datatype
  • #2331 Added $smwgResultFormatsFeatures to control available features for specific ResultFormatter and includes (SMW_RF_TEMPLATE_OUTSEP to support the #2022 changes)
  • Many new translations for numerous languages by the communtity of translatewiki.net
  • New translation for special properties, datatypes, magic words, date formats and aliases for Catalan and German by Semantic MediaWiki community members

Bug fixes

  • #1258 Fixed "named args" parameter use in further results link
  • #1328 Fixed a "Undefined index: language" error in #smwdoc parser function
  • #1419 Fixed Feed result printer ouput for empty results
  • #1709 Fixed a potential "Lock wait timeout exceeded; try restarting transaction" in connection with --procs
  • #1713 Fixed a "Segmentation fault" for when QueryResultDependencyListResolver tries to resolve a category/property hierarchy with a circular reference
  • #1715 Fixed decoding of a single quotation mark in DisplayTitlePropertyAnnotator
  • #1724 Fixed a possible InvalidArgumentException in connection with SMW_DV_PVUC by updating the CachedPropertyValuesPrefetcher version number
  • #1727 Fixed an issue when property names contain < or > symbols
  • #1728 Fixed fatal error in Special:SearchByProperty on when the property name contains invalid characters
  • #1731 Fixed possible error in the SkinAfterContent hook when a null object is used
  • #1744 Fixed special page "Searchbyproperty" not working correctly with "-" sign
  • #1775 Fixed time offset recognition
  • #1817 Disabled DataValue constraint validation when used in a query context
  • #1823 Fixed annotation of Display title of when SMW_DV_WPV_DTITLE is disabled
  • #1880 Fixed handling of the bytea type in postgres for a blob field
  • #1886 Fixed disappearance of the Property namespace in connection with extensions that use wfLoadExtension
  • #1922 Fixed InfoLinksProvider to avoid LOCL info links
  • #1926 Fixed PrintRequest to recognize the spant tag in labels
  • #1935 Fixed "Error: 42P10 ERROR: ... ORDER BY expressions must appear in select list" for PostgreSQL
  • #1957 Fixed SMWSQLStore3Writers::getSubobjects using the wrong DBKey in case of predefined properties
  • #1963 Fixed by relying on #2153
  • #1977 Fixed Unexpected general modules for Resource Loader
  • #1978 Fixed Tablebuilder to avoid index creation on an unaltered schema definition
  • #1985 Fixed a potential fatal error in MaintenanceLogger for when $wgMaxNameChars doesn't match an expected name length
  • #2000 Fixed label and caption sanitization
  • #2022 Fixed the usage of the sep parameter for format "template"
  • #2061 Fixed strict comparison === for strings in PropertyTableRowDiffer
  • #2070 Filter invalid entity display from Special:Concepts
  • #2071 Prevent extensions to register already known canonical property labels and hereby avoid a possible ID mismatch
  • #2076 Fixed issue for Gregorian and Julian calendars having a year 0
  • #2078 Fixed issue with "SELECT list; this is incompatible with DISTINCT" for MySQL 5.7+
  • #2089 Fixed issue with "UPDATE - SET; Data too long for column" for MySQL 5.7+
  • #2093 Avoid removal of existing data by #REDIRECT in target
  • #2107 Fixed NamespaceManager::init to set SMW_NS* default settings
  • #2127 Fixed a call to a the member function getHash() on nulll
  • #2182 Fixed display of special properties in Special:UnusedProperties
  • #2183 Fixed display of properties with no explicit datatype in Special:UnusedProperties
  • #2188 Fixed error in special page "RDFExport" with non-latin instance names
  • #2202 Added guard against error "Invalid or virtual namespace -1 given"
  • #2228 Fixed text output for the table format in Special:Ask
  • #2294 Avoid a possible Parser::lock during an UpdateJob

Internal changes

  • #1511 Removed I18n shim originally required for MediaWiki < 1.23
  • #1726 Allows QueryDependencyLinksStore to execute getDependencyListByLateRetrieval even in cases of an intial empty list
  • #1750 Added TableBuilder to replace SMWSQLHelpers
  • #1780 Added ResourceBuilder and DispatchingResourceBuilder
  • #1791 Added PropertyRegistry::registerPropertyDescriptionByMsgKey
  • #1776 Added QueryEngine and StoreAware interface
  • #1848 Added ExtraneousLanguage to handle Semantic MediaWiki specific i18n content in a JSON format, removed the PHP language files
  • #1940 Added Installer and TableSchemaManager to replace SMWSQLStore3SetupHandlers
  • #2118 Added the onoi/shared-resources~0.3 dependency
  • #2201 Changed normalization of spaces to _ instead of %20 in DIUri
  • #2214 Added LinksProcessor and SemanticLinksParser
  • #2217 Added QuerySegmentListBuildManager
  • #2275 Added the onoi/callback-container:~2.0 dependency
  • #2282 Added DataValueServiceFactory and DataValueServices.php to allow injection of services into a DataValue instance

Settings and configurations

Settings and configurations added with 2.5.0.

Contributors

  • 688 - James Hong Kong
  • 59 - Karsten Hoffmeyer
  • 51 - Jeroen De Dauw
  • 37 - Niklas Laxström
  • 14 - translatewiki.net
  • 5 - Maciej Brencz
  • 4 - Felipe de Jong
  • 4 - Siebrand Mazeland
  • 2 - Alex Winkler
  • 2 - Stephan Gambke
  • 2 - Toni Hermoso Pulido
  • 1 - Amir E. Aharoni
  • 1 - Felipe Schenone
  • 1 - Jaider Andrade Ferreira
  • 1 - James Forrester
  • 1 - Justin Du
  • 1 - Sébastien Beyou
  • 1 - Virginia Cepeda

Milestone[edit]