Ghost Release: 1.0.0-alpha.16

TL;DR

Ghost 1.0.0-alpha.16 brings significant improvements to theme management, user administration, and editor functionality. This release introduces user suspension capabilities, better theme validation with warning/error display, improved editor UI, and changes to how posts-per-page settings are managed. It also includes important URL structure changes with the addition of hash fragments and removes several legacy features as Ghost moves closer to its 1.0 release. This alpha is strictly for development and testing purposes.

Highlight of the Release

• User suspension feature for better account management
• Improved theme validation with warnings/errors display
• New editor UI with improved card menu
• Theme-based posts-per-page configuration
• Admin URLs now include hash fragments
• Better error handling and template fallbacks
• Improved foreach/else handling in get helper

Migration Guide

Breaking Changes

Theme Development

1. Posts Per Page Setting

   • The posts_per_page setting has been removed from admin UI
   • Add this setting to your theme's package.json file:

   {
     "config": {
       "posts_per_page": 5
     }
   }
   

   • Update any references from @blog.posts_per_page to @config.posts_per_page in your templates

2. Meta Description

   • Remove any custom meta description tags from your theme
   • Ghost now handles meta description through the ghost_head helper

3. Legacy Content Hack Removal

   • The {{content words="0"}} hack for extracting the first image has been removed
   • Use proper image handling methods instead

Admin URLs

• Admin URLs now contain a hash fragment: yourblog.com/ghost/#/editor instead of yourblog.com/ghost/editor
• Update any bookmarks or documentation referring to admin URLs

Development Workflow

• gulp commands have been removed
• Use grunt commands for development tasks (see project readme)

Template Changes

• The user-error.hbs template has been renamed to error.hbs

Upgrade Recommendations

This is the sixteenth alpha release of Ghost 1.0.0 and is strictly for development and testing purposes only. Do not use this release for production blogs.

If you're a developer or theme creator testing Ghost 1.0 features:

1. Backup your development environment before upgrading
2. Update your theme to accommodate the breaking changes (posts_per_page in package.json, meta description handling)
3. Be aware of the new URL structure with hash fragments
4. Test thoroughly, especially theme functionality and user management features

For production sites, continue using the latest stable release (0.11.x) until Ghost 1.0.0 is officially released.

Bug Fixes

Theme & Template Fixes

• 🐛 Fixed theme validation warnings for uploads and added for activations
• 🐛 Fixed assetHash clearing bug on theme switch
• 🐛 Fixed handling of unhandled errors using isIgnitionError utility
• 🐛 Fixed database export to read settings directly from database
• 🐛 Improved error handling for missing themes

Authentication & User Management

• 🐛 Fixed email synchronization after logout to prevent users from locking themselves out
• 🐛 Added protection against suspended users activating themselves
• 🐛 Improved user profile fetching by auth ID

Other Fixes

• 🐛 Fixed various issues with logError usage
• 🐛 Fixed admin URL redirects with new hash-based URL structure

New Features

User Management

• ✨ New user suspension feature allows admins to disable user access without deleting accounts or changing credentials
• ✨ Ghost now returns all users (active and inactive) by default with appropriate permission controls

Theme Management

• ✨ Theme validation with gscan when activating themes, showing warnings/errors in the admin UI
• ✨ New ActiveTheme class concept for better theme handling and activation
• ✨ Theme-based configuration for posts-per-page setting via package.json
• ✨ Reimplemented custom theme templates with improved fallback logic
• ✨ Support for new default-prod.hbs template for admin

Editor & Templates

• ✨ New editor card menu and improved UI components
• ✨ Allow foreach else inside of get helper for more natural template flow
• ✨ Meta description now handled by ghost_head helper
• ✨ New @config.posts_per_page helper replacing @blog.posts_per_page

Error Handling

• ✨ Implemented custom errors 2.0 with improved template stack
• ✨ Better error detection using isIgnitionError utility

Security Updates

No specific security fixes were mentioned in this release.

Performance Improvements

Testing & Development Performance

• 🚀 Significantly improved test performance by using database truncation instead of deletion
• 🚀 Optimized Ghost bootstrap process by reducing required modules on startup
• 🚀 Improved theme loading and activation process

Theme Handling

• 🚀 Simplified theme loader by using loadOneTheme for initialization
• 🚀 Improved theme middleware ordering to avoid unnecessary processing for shared assets
• 🚀 Reduced file system lookups by using new hasPartials() method

Impact Summary

Ghost 1.0.0-alpha.16 represents a significant step toward the final 1.0 release with several important improvements and breaking changes. The introduction of user suspension provides administrators with better user management capabilities without resorting to account deletion. Theme developers will need to adapt to several changes, including moving posts-per-page configuration to package.json and updating template helpers. The new hash-based URL structure for admin pages is a notable architectural change that improves separation between admin and frontend.

Performance improvements to the bootstrap process and test suite will benefit developers, while content creators will appreciate the enhanced editor UI and improved save button states. The removal of legacy features like the content words hack and the transition from gulp to grunt signifies Ghost's continued evolution toward a more modern, maintainable codebase.

This alpha release continues to refine Ghost's architecture and developer experience as it approaches the final 1.0 release, with a focus on improved theme handling, better error management, and enhanced user administration capabilities.

Full Release Notes