Ghost Release: 1.3.0

TL;DR

Ghost 1.3.0 introduces a custom post excerpt feature, allowing content creators to craft specific excerpts for their posts rather than relying solely on auto-generated ones. This release also includes UI improvements, bug fixes for migrations and validation, and performance enhancements with minified CSS for AMP templates. The update focuses on giving publishers more control over how their content appears in previews while improving system stability.

Highlight of the Release

• Introduction of custom post excerpts, giving content creators more control over how their content appears in previews
• Improved meta description and structured data handling for better SEO control
• Fixed database migration issues during Ghost updates
• Performance improvements with minified CSS in AMP templates
• UI enhancements including reordered blog setup fields and fixed active users list

Migration Guide

for Ghost 1.3.0

Custom Post Excerpt Migration

This release includes a migration to add the excerpt field to the post schema. To properly migrate:

1. After updating to Ghost 1.3.0, run:

   knex-migrator migrate --v 1.3 --force
   

2. If you're developing with this version or have pulled the PR before the official release, knex-migrator will provide specific instructions on what to do.

Theme Developers

If you're a theme developer, note these changes:

• The {{excerpt}} helper now prioritizes custom excerpts when available
• Meta description behavior has changed:
  • HTML meta tags for posts, tags, and authors are no longer rendered if not provided
  • Fallbacks for author.bio and tag.description have been removed
  • Review your theme's SEO implementation to ensure compatibility

Upgrade Recommendations

This is a minor version update (1.2.0 → 1.3.0) that introduces new features and fixes several bugs without breaking changes. We recommend all users upgrade to benefit from the custom excerpt feature and important bug fixes.

Upgrade Priority: Medium

• Content creators will benefit immediately from the custom excerpt feature
• Administrators should upgrade to resolve issues with user lists and database migrations
• Developers should review the changes to meta description handling and structured data

Follow the standard Ghost upgrade process and ensure you run database migrations as described in the migration guide.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed database migration issues during Ghost updates that could cause pool errors in Knex
• Corrected publication icon validation to properly accept icons greater than or equal to 60px (previously only accepted greater than 60px)
• Fixed the active users list which was not showing more than 20 users
• Resolved an issue with grunt dev restarting repeatedly during tests by adding an ignore for config.testing.json
• Corrected typos in default welcome posts:
  • Changed "omellete" to "omelette"
  • Changed "sleak" to "sleek"
• Removed broken link from README.md

New Features

Custom Post Excerpt Feature

Ghost now allows content creators to write custom excerpts for posts, providing more control over how content appears in previews, emails, and RSS feeds:

• Added a dedicated custom_excerpt field to the post schema
• The {{excerpt}} helper now prioritizes custom excerpts when available
• Implemented a soft character limit for custom excerpts
• Updated structured data handling to prioritize custom excerpts for SEO

Improved Meta Description Behavior

• Refined how meta descriptions are handled across posts, tags, and authors
• HTML meta description tags are no longer rendered if not explicitly provided
• Removed automatic fallbacks for author bios and tag descriptions
• Structured data for posts now follows a clear priority order:
  1. Custom excerpt
  2. Meta description
  3. Automated excerpt (50 words)

Security Updates

No specific security fixes were mentioned in this release.

Performance Improvements

• Minified CSS in the AMP default template (amp.hbs), reducing page load times for AMP content
• Updated dependencies to improve performance and stability:
  • Upgraded to [email protected]
  • Upgraded to [email protected]
  • Updated Casper theme to version 2.0.2

Impact Summary

Ghost 1.3.0 significantly enhances content management capabilities by introducing custom post excerpts, giving publishers more control over how their content appears across different platforms. This feature is particularly valuable for SEO optimization, social media sharing, and email newsletters where precise excerpt control matters.

The release also addresses several pain points for administrators and developers, including fixing database migration issues that could cause problems during updates and resolving the limitation on viewing active users. Performance improvements for AMP pages will benefit sites using accelerated mobile pages.

For developers, the changes to meta description handling and structured data represent an important shift in how Ghost handles SEO-related content, providing more predictable and controlled behavior. The fix for grunt dev constantly restarting during tests will improve the development experience.

Overall, this release balances new features with important stability improvements, making it a worthwhile upgrade for all Ghost users.

Full Release Notes