Ghost Release: 0.6.0

TL;DR

Ghost 0.6.0: Major Editor Overhaul & New Content Features

Ghost 0.6.0 brings a complete overhaul of the editor, replacing CodeMirror with a native textarea implementation that improves spellchecking and mobile support. This release also introduces next/previous post navigation helpers, customizable image storage options, and code injection capabilities without requiring feature flags. RSS feeds have been significantly improved with better structured data and media support. Several critical bugs affecting subdomains, meta descriptions, and accessibility have been fixed.

This is a substantial update for content creators and developers alike, with improvements to both the authoring experience and the platform's extensibility.

Highlight of the Release

• Complete editor overhaul with native textarea replacing CodeMirror
• Native spellcheck support in the editor
• Improved mobile upload experience
• New {{prev_post}} and {{next_post}} block helpers
• Code injection for header and footer without feature flags
• Customizable image storage engine support
• Enhanced RSS feeds with media:content support
• Structured data for index, tag, and author pages
• Centralized events system for better extensibility

Migration Guide

Upgrading to Ghost 0.6.0

1. Editor Changes: The editor has been completely rewritten, replacing CodeMirror with a native textarea. Any custom editor plugins or modifications will need to be updated.

2. Custom Storage Engines: If you've been waiting for custom storage support, you can now implement it by:

   • Creating a custom storage module in /content/storage
   • Configuring it in your Ghost config file

3. Theme Developers:

   • New {{prev_post}} and {{next_post}} helpers are available for navigation
   • Meta description and title helpers now depend on context
   • RSS feeds now include media:content elements for post cover images
   • Structured data is now added to first index/tag/author pages

4. Code Injection:

   • Code injection is now enabled by default (no feature flag needed)
   • Use the new interface in Settings to add custom code to your site

5. Accessibility:

   • If you've used class="hidden" for screen reader text, consider updating to class="sr-only"

6. Events System:

   • If you've built custom code that hooks into Ghost's internals, be aware that many internal methods now use a centralized events system

Upgrade Recommendations

Recommendation: This is a significant update with major improvements to the editor, content features, and developer tools. We recommend all users upgrade to Ghost 0.6.0.

Priority: Medium-High

Preparation:

• Take a complete backup of your Ghost installation before upgrading
• If you've made any modifications to the editor, review them as the editor has been completely rewritten
• Theme developers should test their themes with the new helpers and structured data changes
• If you use any custom integrations that interact with Ghost's internal APIs, test them thoroughly as the events system has been refactored

Potential Issues:

• Custom editor plugins may need updates due to the CodeMirror removal
• Themes that rely on specific behavior of meta description/title helpers may need adjustments
• Sites using subdomains should verify navigation works correctly after the upgrade

Bug Fixes

Navigation and URL Issues

• Fixed issue where subdomains of blog URL were truncated in navigation
• Fixed extra preceding slash in navigation URLs
• Fixed duplicate subdirectory in RSS URLs (fixes #5064)
• Added absolute URL for post preview links (fixes #5116)

Meta Data and Templates

• Fixed meta_description and meta_title helpers when used within {{#foreach}} blocks (closes #4850)
• Fixed missing @blog globals in special templates (fixes #5024)
• Fixed user model saving with MySQL STRICT_TRANS_TABLES option (closes #5066)

UI and Accessibility

• Changed many instances of class="hidden" to class="sr-only" to properly support screen readers (closes #4662)
• Fixed broken keyboard navigation in Post Settings Menu (closes #4978)
• Re-implemented top notification position styles
• Fixed settings serializer normalization (closes #5117)
• Re-added missing X icon in UI

Editor and Content

• Fixed autosave triggering on new posts (closes #5130)
• Added pagination controller mixin fix (closes #5120)

New Features

Editor Overhaul

• Replaced CodeMirror with a native textarea implementation
• Added native browser spellcheck support (fixes #1240)
• Fixed caret positioning bugs (#4974, #4983)
• Improved mobile upload experience
• Created a cleaner API for interacting with the textarea
• Simplified image management

Navigation Helpers

• Added new {{prev_post}} and {{next_post}} block helpers
• Enables easy navigation between chronological content
• Supports both "if" and "else" blocks for flexible templating

Custom Storage Engines

• Implemented pluggable storage architecture (closes #4600)
• Allows custom storage engines to be defined in config
• Loads custom storage from the /content/storage directory
• Enables integration with various cloud storage providers

Code Injection

• Removed feature flag requirement for code injection (closes #1993)
• Added CodeMirror editor component for code fields
• Provides syntax highlighting for injected code
• Allows custom code to be added to site header and footer

Configurable Route Keywords

• Added support for configurable frontend route keywords
• Replaced hard-coded route keywords with configurable options
• Makes URL structure more customizable

Security Updates

Dependency Updates

• Updated semver package due to security advisory (ReDoS vulnerability)
• Updated express-hbs to version 0.8.4 to address security concerns
• Removed deprecated fs.exists() in favor of fs.stat() for better security practices

Performance Improvements

RSS Feed Caching

• Implemented in-memory caching for RSS feeds to prevent regeneration on every request
• Moved RSS handling out of the frontend controller into its own module
• Separated code into logical blocks for better performance

Event System Refactoring

• Created a centralized event module for better performance
• Hooked up events for posts, pages, tags and users
• Used events in sitemaps instead of direct method calls
• Improved performance by reducing direct database queries

Build System Improvements

• Fixed Ember build process with better dependency management
• Pinned dependencies to ensure consistent builds
• Improved Windows compatibility for ember-cli commands

Impact Summary

Ghost 0.6.0 represents a significant evolution of the platform with a focus on improving the content creation experience and extending developer capabilities. The complete overhaul of the editor addresses longstanding issues with spellchecking and mobile support, making content creation more accessible across devices.

For developers, the introduction of custom storage engines opens up new possibilities for image hosting and management, while the centralized events system provides a more robust foundation for extending Ghost's functionality. The removal of the feature flag requirement for code injection makes this powerful feature available to all users without configuration changes.

Content creators will benefit from improved navigation options with the new prev_post and next_post helpers, enabling better content discovery for readers. The enhanced RSS feeds with media support and structured data improvements will help with content distribution and SEO.

This release also demonstrates Ghost's commitment to accessibility, with several improvements to screen reader support and keyboard navigation. The fixes for subdomain handling and meta description helpers address important issues that affected site functionality and SEO.

Overall, Ghost 0.6.0 delivers a more polished, performant, and extensible publishing platform that improves the experience for both content creators and developers while addressing key pain points from previous versions.

Full Release Notes