Tag Name: 0.6.3
Release Date: 5/14/2015
GhostOpen-source publishing platform specifically designed for professional bloggers and publications. Focuses on clean, minimalist writing and publishing experience.
Ghost 0.6.3 introduces two major features: post previews and password protection for blogs, along with several improvements and bug fixes. This release enhances content management workflows for authors and adds security options for blog owners. The update includes better session management, fixes for word counting with non-Latin characters, and ensures secure URLs in RSS feeds when accessed via HTTPS.
No specific migration steps are required for this update. The new features (post previews and password protection) are opt-in and won't affect existing functionality unless explicitly enabled.
If you're using the password protection feature that was previously in Labs, note that it has been moved to General Settings and may have a slightly different interface.
Theme developers should be aware that the prePostsRender filter now receives res.locals as a second parameter, which could affect custom themes that use this filter.
This update is recommended for all Ghost users as it introduces valuable new features and fixes several important bugs. The password protection feature and post preview functionality provide significant improvements for content creators and blog administrators.
The bug fixes for word counting with non-Latin characters, secure URLs in RSS feeds, and preventing accidental publishing through autosave address common pain points reported by users.
There are no breaking changes in this release, making it a safe upgrade for all installations.
Fixed an issue where the word count in the editor wasn't counting non-Latin characters, making it inaccurate for content in languages using non-ASCII characters. Added the xregexp bower module to support this functionality.
Fixed a problem where RSS feeds accessed over HTTPS would still contain HTTP links. Now, post and image links in RSS feeds will use the same protocol (HTTP or HTTPS) as the request.
Resolved an issue where the autosave functionality could inadvertently change a post's published status. Background saving (post auto-save) no longer affects the published status of a post.
Fixed a bug where the admin application would fail to run if the active theme was missing. Now, a default express-hbs instance is set on the express app, allowing middleware processing to continue so the admin client can still be accessed. A warning is logged when this happens.
Fixed an issue where ghostPaths.url.join was returning 'undefined' in certain circumstances.
Fixed a bug that prevented setting a post date using a single digit day. Added new valid formats for the date formatter.
Ghost now offers a preview feature for unpublished posts via a unique URL format (/p/:uuid). This allows content creators to view how their drafts will appear before publishing them. All drafts now display a preview link, while published posts will redirect to their normal URL.
Blog owners can now password protect their entire site, requiring visitors to enter a password before accessing any content. This feature has been moved from Labs to General Settings, making it more accessible. The system includes a random password generator for convenience and improved styling for the login page.
Theme developers can now create custom templates for author pages, allowing for more personalized and flexible author page designs.
The API now supports filtering posts by the featured attribute, making it easier to retrieve and display featured content.
Session length has been extended to 7 days, improving user experience while maintaining security. This change is described as a stopgap measure, with plans for future improvements including token refreshing and extending the session to a month.
Changed how payload data is stored in session cookies, enhancing security of the authentication system.
The frontend controller has been refactored to combine homepage, author, and tag routes into one function with different hash parameters. This provides better abstraction for channels and improves overall performance.
Several dependencies have been updated to their latest versions, including:
These updates improve performance, security, and stability of the Ghost platform.
Ghost 0.6.3 focuses on enhancing content management workflows and adding security options. The post preview feature is particularly valuable for content creators who want to ensure their posts look correct before publishing. Password protection adds a simple but effective security layer for blogs that need limited access.
The bug fixes address several pain points, particularly for international users (word count for non-Latin characters) and those concerned with security (HTTPS links in RSS feeds). The extension of session length to 7 days improves the user experience for administrators who previously had to log in more frequently.
For developers, the frontend controller refactoring and updated dependencies provide a more stable and maintainable codebase. The addition of res.locals to the prePostsRender filter gives theme developers more flexibility in customizing the blog's appearance based on context.
Overall, this release represents a solid improvement in Ghost's functionality and user experience without introducing breaking changes.
Adds post previews and password protected blogs. Please read the release blog post for more details.
The full change log contains a list of all changes.
