Ghost Release: 0.4.2 RC1

TL;DR

Ghost 0.4.2-rc1 brings significant improvements to the platform with enhanced theme support, tag pages, improved editor experience, and better mobile compatibility. This release includes custom page templates, tag-based RSS feeds, and a more robust app infrastructure. It also addresses numerous bugs and performance issues while laying groundwork for future extensibility. This release candidate is intended for testing purposes and should not be used in production environments.

Highlight of the Release

• Introduction of tag pages with dedicated templates and RSS feeds
• Custom page templates for static pages
• Improved mobile compatibility for the editor
• Package.json support for themes
• Enhanced app infrastructure with sandboxed loading
• Improved Markdown rendering with better HTML support
• Better validation system using schema.js
• XML-RPC ping support for notifying search engines

Migration Guide

Upgrading to Ghost 0.4.2-rc1

1. Backup your content: Always create a backup of your Ghost installation before upgrading.

2. Theme Compatibility:

   • If you have a custom theme, check if it's compatible with the new tag pages feature.
   • If you're using custom helpers that interact with tags, they may need updates.
   • Consider adding a package.json to your theme with name and version information.

3. App Configuration:

   • The apps UI is hidden by default. To enable it, add apps: { browse: true } to your config.js file.

4. Development Environment Changes:

   • If you're a developer working on Ghost:
     • Run npm install to get the new dependencies
     • Bower is now used for client-side dependencies
     • Ruby/SASS is no longer required

5. Custom Permalinks:

   • This version adds support for additional permalink structures

6. Email Configuration:

   • System emails now default to ghost@[blog.url] instead of user email addresses

No database migrations are required for this update.

Upgrade Recommendations

This is a release candidate and should be used for testing purposes only. It is not recommended for production environments.

For those running Ghost 0.4.1 in development or test environments:

• Upgrade to test the new features and provide feedback
• Pay special attention to the tag pages functionality and custom page templates
• Test your themes for compatibility with the new features

For production sites:

• Continue using Ghost 0.4.1 until the final 0.4.2 release
• Use this RC to test your themes and plugins in a staging environment

The upgrade process is straightforward with no database migrations required, making it relatively low-risk for testing purposes.

Bug Fixes

Editor and Content

• Fixed escaping of tags with special characters in editor
• Fixed dash-to-triple-hyphen replacement in generateSlug function
• Fixed mailto auto-linking removal
• Fixed bug where importer added the same tags to every post
• Fixed race conditions in functional tests
• Fixed bug where post titles weren't properly escaped in RSS feeds

UI and Interaction

• Fixed Firefox <select> height issue
• Fixed input:focus border issues
• Fixed modal fading inconsistency
• Fixed issue where settings page rendered the same page twice
• Fixed publish button remaining disabled after save

Authentication and Sessions

• Fixed session expiry being too aggressive
• Fixed subdirectory support in authenticate middleware
• Fixed /ghost/reset/* redirecting to signin incorrectly

Data and Import/Export

• Fixed problems importing from Ghost 0.4.0 files
• Fixed validation for posts 'page' attribute
• Removed res.redirect from db.exportContent
• Fixed broken filters where 'this' context was lost

Other

• Fixed random PostgreSQL failures
• Fixed scoping issue on signup
• Don't cache 404 pages

New Features

Tag Pages

• Added dedicated tag pages with their own URLs (/tag/:slug/)
• Support for tag.hbs template in themes
• Tag-based RSS feeds at /tag/:slug/rss
• Tag information accessible in templates
• Auto-linking of tags in the {{#tags}} helper

Custom Page Templates

• Static pages can now use custom templates
• System checks for template with page slug first
• Adds additional class name to body_class helper for custom templates

Theme Improvements

• Added package.json support for themes
• Themes can now include a custom robots.txt file
• Better debugging with handlebars log helper in dev mode

App Infrastructure

• Sandboxed loading of apps for better security
• App dependencies are installed automatically
• UI for activating/deactivating apps (behind config option)

Editor Enhancements

• Refactored Ghost Editor for better maintainability
• Added shim for CodeMirror on touchscreens
• Upgraded CodeMirror to 4.0.1
• Improved preview scrolling behavior

System Improvements

• XML-RPC ping support to notify search engines of updates
• Promise-based startup process
• Improved bootstrap flow
• Default robots.txt if not provided by theme
• Changed default system email to [email protected]

Security Updates

No significant security fixes were included in this release.

Performance Improvements

Database and Queries

• Updated SQLite3 to v2.2.0 with improved query planner
• Fixed random PostgreSQL failures with sequential fixture insertion
• Added orderBy to insertMorePostsTags fixture helper

Frontend

• Improved caching by not caching 404 pages
• Better handling of session data

Development Workflow

• Switched to Bower for client assets management
• Removed Ruby/SASS dependency in favor of Ghost-UI assets
• Improved Grunt watch task for Ghost-UI changes

Impact Summary

Ghost 0.4.2-rc1 represents a significant step forward in Ghost's evolution with several important features that enhance content organization and theme customization. The introduction of tag pages provides a much-requested feature for better content categorization, while custom page templates give theme developers more flexibility. The improved app infrastructure lays groundwork for future extensibility.

The editor improvements, particularly for mobile devices, make content creation more accessible across different platforms. Theme developers benefit from several new capabilities including package.json support and custom robots.txt files.

This release also addresses numerous bugs and inconsistencies that users have reported, particularly around the editor, authentication, and UI elements. The shift to Bower for client assets and removal of Ruby/SASS dependencies simplifies the development workflow.

While this is a release candidate intended for testing, it demonstrates Ghost's continued focus on improving the platform for both content creators and developers. The changes are largely non-breaking, making it a relatively safe upgrade for testing environments.

Full Release Notes