Ghost Release: 1.19.0

TL;DR

Ghost 1.19.0 introduces significant internal refactoring and optimization of the URL service, along with a database migration for webhook permissions. This release focuses on code organization improvements and performance optimizations rather than user-facing features. It's the final release of 2018 before the Ghost team takes their holiday break, and includes a fix for IE11 image uploads in the editor.

Highlight of the Release

• Major internal code reorganization moving key utilities to lib/common
• URL Service optimizations and refactoring
• Database migration for webhook permissions
• Fixed editor and drag/drop image uploads in IE11

Migration Guide

Migration Notes

This release contains a database migration to support webhook permissions for future functionality. The migration should run automatically when upgrading to Ghost 1.19.0.

No specific action is required from users, but as with any database migration, it's recommended to:

1. Back up your database before upgrading
2. Allow sufficient time for the migration to complete, especially for larger Ghost installations
3. Check the Ghost logs after upgrade to ensure the migration completed successfully

Upgrade Recommendations

This is primarily an internal refactoring release with one notable bug fix for IE11 users.

• For most users: This is a recommended but not critical upgrade.
• For sites with IE11 users: Upgrade is recommended to fix editor and image upload issues.
• For developers with custom code: Review the internal path changes if you have custom code that directly references Ghost's internal modules, particularly anything related to URL handling, errors, logging, i18n, or events.

As always, make a complete backup of your Ghost installation and database before upgrading.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed editor and drag/drop image uploads in Internet Explorer 11
• Fixed wrong require path in webhook-permissions module
• Decreased chance of random test failures in request_spec.js

New Features

Internal Improvements

• URL Service Optimizations: Several improvements to the URL service including:

  • Renamed config option to disable preloading URLs
  • Exposed URL service as a singleton
  • Moved initialization into the constructor
  • Relocated utils/url.js to the URL Service

• Code Reorganization:

  • Moved errors, logging, i18n, and events to lib/common
  • Simplified imports by requiring common module in each file
  • Cleared out old unused events, focusing only on well-understood published events

• Webhook Permissions: Added database migration for webhook permissions to support future functionality

Security Updates

No security fixes were mentioned in this release.

Performance Improvements

• URL Service optimizations to improve handling of sites with many URLs
• Reduced event emissions by removing unused events, focusing only on well-understood published events
• Simplified module imports which may lead to slight performance improvements

Impact Summary

Ghost 1.19.0 is primarily focused on internal improvements and code reorganization rather than user-facing features. The most significant changes involve refactoring the URL service and moving key utilities to a common library location. These changes lay groundwork for future improvements while maintaining compatibility with existing installations.

The only notable user-facing fix is for Internet Explorer 11 users who previously experienced issues with the editor and image uploads. The release also includes a database migration for webhook permissions that will support upcoming functionality in future releases.

This is the final Ghost release of 2018, with the development team taking a break for the holiday season. The changes in this version are relatively low-risk, focusing on internal optimizations and code organization rather than major feature additions.

Full Release Notes