File Release Notes and Changelog
Notes:
Changes:
== Changes in SMW1.0 as compared to SMW0.7 ==
* Simplified semantic annotations: just one kind of annotation ("Property").
* Significant speedup (both server and network load substantially reduced,
faster RDF export, more efficient query result formatting).
* Prettier and easier to understand interfaces:
** New tooltips for warnings and addtional information.
** Simplified factbox layout, with all properties in alphabetic order.
** Inline warnings to simplify trouble shooting with annotations.
** Improved, more helpful and informative warning and error messages.
** Highlighting for built-in elements. E.g. built-in types are visually
distinguished from arbitrary types; useful as visual feedback.
** Error/warning reporting for (inline) queries.
* More powerful output formatting for semantic querying:
** new {{#ask:...}} parser function syntax for inline queries, fully
compatible with MediaWiki templates, template parameters, and parser
functions of other extension
** more readable inline query structure in #ask parser function,
printouts separated from query
** semantic RSS feeds making feeds from query results via "format=rss"
** new prinout format "?Category:Name" for #ask
** option to hide main column by setting "mainlabel=-", and reinserting
via print request "?" (only for #ask)
* More expressivity for semantic querying:
** support for subproperties,
** improved equality resolution (redirects),
** support for disjunctions,
** inequality check for datavalues ("[[property::!value]]")
** optional pattern matching for string values ("[[property::~Semant*]]")
** automatic sorting on sort-parameter (no additional condition needed)
* New/improved datatypes:
** Type:Page for explicitly specifying properties that are "relations"
** better media support in Type:Page: special treatment of Image: and Media:
** Type:Number as universal replacement for Type:Integer and Type:Float
** Type:URL as universal replacement for old Type:URL and Type:URI
** Type:Geographic coordinates completely rewritten. More input formats
supported, more liberal parsing to accept most inputs
** special property "allows value" works for all types
** display units are now easier to select via property "display units"
** Improved data display: URL-links and tooltips work for queries results
and on special pages
* Improved special pages:
** simpler interface for Special:Ask, hide query when using "further results" link
** hints and warning for property usage/declaration in Special:Properties
** extra information and warnings for types on Special:Types
** Special:SemanticStatistics as faster replacement for earlier "ExtendedStatistics"
* Better internationalisation:
** updates in all translation files
** new translations to Dutch, Chinese (tw/ch), Korean (beta)
** alias strings for all SMW elements; English labels are allowed in all
languages, names of old SMW elements still work as aliases for their
replacements.
* New experimental n-ary properties, allowing property values to consist of
a list of entries.
* Ontology import re-enabled (simple annotation import)
* Maintenance script SMW_refreshData now can rebuild all SMW data structures, fixing
even exotic database problems on most sites.
* New maintenance script for announcing site to Semantic Web crawlers.
* Support for upcoming MediaWiki 1.12
* Improved APIs and various new hooks to simplify the life of SMW extension developers.
* Many bugfixes.
Other changes for SMW1.0 include:
* Type:Enum became obsolete, since all types now suppport "allows value", but it
remains an alias for Type:String.
* Some configurtation options for LocalSettings.php have changed. Read INSTALL
for details on how to upgrade from your old installation.
== Changes since Semantic MediaWiki 1.0RC3 ==
* Support for dynamic, query-generated RSS-feeds via query format "rss".
* Optional query feature for pattern matching in Type:String property values.
* Correct dynamic sorting of result tables, even for dates and numerical values.
* Thumbnail images when displaying property values from Image namespace.
* Simplified use of "sort" parameter in queries.
* Support for upcoming MediaWiki 1.12 (major parser changes).
* More efficient link generation in query results. Link all query results by
default now.
* Maintenance script SMW_refreshData now can rebuild all SMW data structures,
fixing even exotic database problems on most sites.
* New maintenance script for announcing site to Semantic Web crawlers.
* Various bugfixes.
