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  "path": "/en/news/semantic-mediawiki-7-released",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-09T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://professional.wiki",
  "tags": [
    "Semantic MediaWiki",
    "compatibility matrix",
    "SMW 7 release notes",
    "Semantic Extra Special Properties",
    "Semantic Scribunto",
    "Semantic Compound Queries",
    "Semantic\nCite",
    "Semantic Forms Select",
    "Semantic Breadcrumb Links",
    "Semantic Interlanguage Links",
    "Semantic Glossary",
    "Semantic\nMetaTags",
    "Semantic Image Caption",
    "Semantic External Query Lookup",
    "Semantic Result Formats",
    "Mermaid",
    "Semantic Drilldown",
    "KnowledgeGraph",
    "changes for developers and extension authors",
    "all contributors",
    "alistair3149",
    "Paladox",
    "Brian\nWolff",
    "Niklas Laxström",
    "jaideraf",
    "donating to Semantic\nMediaWiki",
    "changes that affect developers and extension authors",
    "migration guide",
    "update.php",
    "SMW hosting",
    "try out Semantic\nMediaWiki",
    "ProWiki"
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  "textContent": "Semantic MediaWiki 7 is here. It is faster, easier to install, and supports the latest MediaWiki releases.\n\nWe are pleased to announce that Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) 7 is now available. As its maintainers, we consider this the biggest release in years: 24 notable enhancements, plus 32 bug fixes. We focused on making SMW faster and easier to run, and the wider ecosystem of companion extensions is being updated to match.\n\n### Highlights\n\n**SMW is significantly faster.** We optimized database queries and the maintenance jobs that keep your data up to date. The difference can be dramatic on large wikis. In one case, a sorted property query that took 30 seconds now returns in a few milliseconds, and browsing pages with thousands of properties is much quicker thanks to cursor-based pagination. Editing or deleting a widely-referenced category or property no longer forces a re-parse of every dependent page: a change affecting thousands of pages that once kept the job runner busy for hours now finishes in seconds. Pages with language-neutral content are also cached once instead of once per interface language, raising the parser cache hit rate. If you run a big SMW wiki, this release alone is reason to upgrade.\n\n**Support for MediaWiki 1.45 and 1.46.** SMW now runs on everything from the MediaWiki 1.43 LTS through 1.46, and on PHP 8.1 through 8.5. For the details, see the \ncompatibility matrix.\n\n**SMW is easier to install.** Installation now follows standard MediaWiki conventions. A plain `wfLoadExtension( 'SemanticMediaWiki' )` is all you need, with zero extra configuration. You no longer need the `enableSemantics()` call, administrators get the `smw-admin` right by default, and configuration now accepts plain strings instead of the old `SMW_*` PHP constants.\n\n**SMW is more maintainable.** We replaced bundled third-party libraries with MediaWiki core services and modernized large parts of the codebase. This reduces the maintenance burden and makes future development faster and safer.\n\nYou can find the full list of changes in the \nSMW 7 release notes.\n\n### Companion extensions\n\nMost companion extensions already support Semantic MediaWiki 7:\n\n| SMW 7 support since\n---|---\n\nSemantic Extra Special Properties | 5.0.0\nMaps | 12.1.2\n\nSemantic Scribunto | 3.0.0\n\nSemantic Compound Queries | 4.0.0\nSemantic\nCite | 5.0.0\n\nSemantic Forms Select | 5.0.0\n\nSemantic Breadcrumb Links | 3.0.0\n\nSemantic Interlanguage Links | 3.0.0\n\nSemantic Glossary | 7.0.0\nSemantic\nMetaTags | 5.0.0\n\nSemantic Image Caption | 2.0.0\nModern Timeline | 4.0.0\n\nSemantic External Query Lookup | 2.0.0\n\nSemantic Result Formats | In progress\nMermaid | In progress\n\nSemantic Drilldown | In progress\nKnowledgeGraph | In progress\n\nThe extensions still marked in progress do not have a Semantic MediaWiki 7 release yet. We and the community are working on compatibility, and contributions are welcome. The \nchanges for developers and extension authors in the release notes describe what needs updating.\n\n### Credits\n\nOver 25 people contributed to Semantic MediaWiki over the past year. We would like to thank \nall contributors.\n\nSpecial thanks go to alistair3149, who led this release, and to Paladox for keeping the continuous integration infrastructure running. We are also grateful to Brian\nWolff, who surfaced numerous performance issues, and to Niklas Laxström and jaideraf for testing.\n\nSemantic MediaWiki is free and community-driven. Please consider donating to Semantic\nMediaWiki to support its continued development.\n\n### Upgrading\n\nSemantic MediaWiki 7 is a major release, so it contains breaking changes. The changes most likely to affect site administrators are the raised minimum versions and the installation changes described below. For the full list, including \nchanges that affect developers and extension authors, see the \nmigration guide.\n\nUnlike recent SMW releases, this upgrade does require a few extra steps:\n\n  * Run the \nupdate.php maintenance script. It converts the `smw_hash` column to a more compact binary format.\n  * Remove any `enableSemantics()` call. `wfLoadExtension( 'SemanticMediaWiki' )` alone now loads SMW. If you used the domain argument to set a custom RDF base URI, set `$smwgNamespace` directly instead.\n  * If you customized the SMW namespace indexes via `$smwgNamespaceIndex`, replace it with explicit `define()` statements placed before `wfLoadExtension()`. See the \nmigration guide for details.\n  * If you use the full-text search backend, run `rebuildFulltextSearchTable.php` to apply the new transliteration.\n\n\n\nWe recommend that everyone running older versions of SMW upgrades. Especially if you are running SMW 4.0.1 or older, as these versions contain a known security vulnerability.\n\n**Get the new version via Composer:**\n\n  * Step 1: Ensure the SMW version in `composer.local.json` is `^7.0.0`\n  * Step 2: Run composer in your MediaWiki directory: `composer update --no-dev --optimize-autoloader`\n  * Step 3: Run the `update.php` maintenance script\n\n\n\n**Get the new version via Git:**\n\nThis is only for those that have installed SMW via Git.\n\n  * Step 1: do a `git pull` in the SemanticMediaWiki directory\n  * Step 2: run `composer update --no-dev --optimize-autoloader` in the MediaWiki directory\n  * Step 3: run the `update.php` maintenance script\n\n\n\n### Query Semantic MediaWiki with AI\n\nSemantic MediaWiki pairs naturally with AI assistants. Our MediaWiki MCP Server lets tools like Claude and ChatGPT work directly with your wiki using the Model Context Protocol, and it now includes dedicated SMW support. The `smw-query` tool runs `#ask` queries on your behalf, and `smw-list-properties` lets the assistant discover which properties exist and how to query them. Together they let you explore your structured data by asking questions in plain language.\n\n### Professional Semantic MediaWiki Services\n\nAt Professional Wiki, we provide Semantic MediaWiki services, including SMW hosting, SMW software development, SMW consulting, and various MediaWiki services.\n\nYou can try out Semantic\nMediaWiki via the free trial on ProWiki.",
  "title": "Semantic MediaWiki 7 Released"
}