Ghost Release: 1.22.0

TL;DR

Ghost 1.22.0 introduces multiple authors support, allowing posts to have more than one contributor while maintaining backward compatibility with single author functionality. This major feature enhances content collaboration capabilities, making Ghost more flexible for teams and publications with multiple contributors. The implementation includes new API endpoints, theme helpers, and migration tools to ensure a smooth transition.

Highlight of the Release

• Multiple authors can now be assigned to a single post
• Backward compatibility maintained with single author functionality
• New authors and primary_author helpers available in themes
• Automatic migration of existing content to the new author relationship model
• Enhanced permission system for author management

Migration Guide

Migrating to Multiple Authors

When upgrading to Ghost 1.22.0, a migration script will automatically:

1. Validate all existing author IDs on posts
2. Create appropriate author relationships for each post
3. Fall back to the post owner if an invalid author ID is found

For theme developers:

• Existing themes using {{author}} will continue to work as before
• To support multiple authors, update your theme to use the new {{authors}} helper
• Use {{primary_author}} when you need to reference the main author

For API users:

• Review the API changelog for details on the updated endpoints
• Note that author relationships are now handled differently in the database

For content managers:

• After upgrading, review your posts to ensure author assignments are correct
• Be aware that deleting an author will still remove all posts where they are the primary author

Upgrade Recommendations

This release introduces a significant new feature without breaking changes, making it safe to upgrade for most users. We recommend:

1. Backup your database before upgrading as a standard precaution
2. Review the API changelog if you're using the Ghost API
3. Check the Themes changelog if you're developing custom themes
4. After upgrading, verify that author assignments on existing posts are correct
5. If using a custom theme, test that author display still works as expected

The upgrade should be straightforward with the automatic migration handling the transition to the new author relationship model.

Bug Fixes

No specific bug fixes were mentioned in this release. The focus was on implementing the multiple authors feature.

New Features

Multiple Authors Support

Ghost now allows assigning multiple authors to a single post, enabling better representation of collaborative content creation. This feature maintains backward compatibility with the existing single author functionality.

Key aspects of this implementation include:

• Authors Relationship: A new relationship model between posts and authors
• Performance Optimization: Authors are not fetched by default, only when needed
• Migration Tool: Automatically converts existing posts to the new relationship model
• Theme Helpers: New {{authors}} helper for displaying all post authors
• Primary Author: New {{primary_author}} computed field for maintaining compatibility with existing themes and permalinks
• Permission System: Enhanced to protect author editing based on roles

The multiple authors feature is fully integrated with the existing Ghost architecture, ensuring a seamless experience for both users and developers.

Security Updates

No specific security fixes were mentioned in this release.

Performance Improvements

Performance Considerations

The multiple authors implementation includes performance optimizations:

• Authors are not fetched by default, only when specifically requested
• Efficient relationship model to minimize database queries
• Careful implementation to avoid performance degradation with the new feature

Impact Summary

Ghost 1.22.0 significantly enhances content collaboration capabilities by introducing multiple authors support. This feature allows publications to properly credit all contributors to a piece of content, making Ghost more suitable for team-based publishing workflows.

The implementation is thoughtfully designed to maintain backward compatibility while adding new functionality. Existing themes and API integrations will continue to work with the primary author concept, while new helpers and endpoints enable access to the full author list.

This release represents an important step in Ghost's evolution as a professional publishing platform, addressing a long-requested feature from editorial teams and collaborative publications. The careful implementation ensures that users can adopt this feature at their own pace, with automatic migration handling the technical details of the transition.

Full Release Notes