Ghost Release: 0.11.12

TL;DR

Ghost 0.11.12 brings significant improvements to the update notification system, allowing users to dismiss notifications and enhancing how Ghost handles updates. This release also fixes several critical bugs related to image handling, custom redirects, pagination, and metadata on subscription pages. The update focuses on improving user experience and system stability with minimal breaking changes.

Highlight of the Release

• Completely revamped update notification system allowing dismissal of notifications
• Fixed image dimension requests to properly follow redirects
• Resolved custom redirects issues with query parameters
• Fixed pagination with letters that was causing content duplication
• Updated several core dependencies including express, body-parser, and compression

Migration Guide

No significant migration steps are required for this update. The changes to the update notification system happen automatically, and existing settings will be handled appropriately.

If you were relying on the previous behavior of update notifications or had customized this aspect of Ghost, note that:

• The displayUpdateNotification setting has been removed
• seenNotifications has been renamed to notifications
• Notifications are now stored in the database with a seen property
• Seen notifications are automatically removed after 3 months

These changes should not require any action from users but may affect custom implementations that interact with these settings.

Upgrade Recommendations

This update is recommended for all Ghost 0.11.x users as it contains important bug fixes and improvements to the update notification system. The changes are non-breaking and provide better stability and user experience.

If you're running an older version of Ghost, please follow the standard upgrade process:

1. Back up your Ghost installation
2. Download Ghost 0.11.12
3. Follow the upgrade instructions for your installation method

As this is an LTS (Long Term Support) release, it's designed to be stable and reliable for production environments.

Bug Fixes

Image Handling Fixes

• Fixed following redirects for image dimension requests (#8953) - Resolves issues where Ghost would fail to determine dimensions for images behind redirects
• Bumped Amperize to 0.3.5 (#9118) - Fixes issues with image-size requests not following redirects and errors that stopped transformation of HTML

URL and Routing Fixes

• Fixed custom redirects with query/search params (#9107) - Custom redirects now properly handle URLs that include query parameters
• Fixed pagination with letters duplicating content (#8877) - Resolved an issue where pagination with letters was causing content duplication

Other Bug Fixes

• Fixed meta on subscribe page if labs not enabled (#8873) - Corrected metadata issues on subscription pages when labs features were disabled
• Added protection against unknown user IDs (#8709) - Added missing protection for permission checks against non-existent users
• Improved error handling in Update Check module (#9138) - Better handling of errors from the update service, including proper handling of 404 responses

New Features

Improved Update Notification System

The update notification system has been completely revamped (#8871):

• Users can now dismiss update notifications
• Notifications are now stored in the database instead of in-memory, ensuring they persist across restarts
• Seen notifications are automatically removed after 3 months
• Update check module now respects privacy configuration:
  • With useUpdateCheck: true - performs a check-in with the Update Check Service (exposes data)
  • With useUpdateCheck: false - only performs a GET query (does not expose data)
• Support for multiple custom notifications and notification groups
• Removed hardcoded notification handling in favor of a more dynamic approach

Dependency Updates

Several core dependencies have been updated:

• express: 4.16.2
• body-parser: 1.18.2
• compression: 1.7.1
• morgan: 1.9.0
• cookie-session: 1.3.2
• Replaced extract-zip-fork with extract-zip
• Bumped Amperize to 0.3.5
• Bumped gscan to 0.2.6

Security Updates

No specific security fixes were mentioned in this release.

Performance Improvements

Image Processing Improvements

• Swapped the request library with got in the getImageSizeFromUrl function, providing more reliable and efficient image dimension requests
• Improved error handling and validation in image processing utilities
• Better handling of URLs without protocols (e.g., Gravatar URLs)

Update Check Module Optimizations

• Removed in-process notification store in favor of database storage, eliminating memory overhead
• Optimized conditions for when update checks should occur
• Improved request handling based on privacy configuration

Impact Summary

Ghost 0.11.12 delivers significant improvements to the update notification system and fixes several important bugs that enhance the overall stability and user experience of the platform.

The most notable change is the complete revamp of the update notification system, which now allows users to dismiss notifications and stores them in the database rather than in memory. This ensures notifications persist across restarts and provides a more reliable notification experience.

Bug fixes for image dimension requests, custom redirects with query parameters, and pagination issues address pain points that users have been experiencing. The image handling improvements are particularly important as they resolve issues with redirected images and prevent errors from stopping HTML transformation.

Several core dependencies have been updated, keeping Ghost current with the latest security patches and improvements from these libraries.

Overall, this is a quality-of-life update that focuses on stability and user experience rather than introducing major new features. The changes are non-breaking and should provide a smoother experience for all Ghost users.

Full Release Notes