Ghost Release: 3.1.1

TL;DR

Ghost 3.1.1: Secondary Navigation & Member Management Improvements

This minor release introduces secondary navigation support, allowing for more flexible site navigation options like header/footer or left/right combinations. It also enhances the member management experience with improved UI for adding members and Gravatar support for member avatars. Several bugs were fixed, including a critical fix for 500 errors caused by incorrect Origin headers. The default Casper theme has been updated to support the new secondary navigation feature.

Highlight of the Release

• Added support for secondary navigation (header/footer, left/right combinations)
• Improved member management with better UI for adding first members
• Added Gravatar support for member avatars
• Fixed 500 errors caused by incorrect Origin headers
• Enhanced excerpt helper to better handle gated content

Migration Guide

No specific migration steps are required for this update. This is a minor release (3.1.0 → 3.1.1) with feature additions and bug fixes that should not break existing functionality.

If you're implementing the new secondary navigation feature:

• Update your theme to support secondary navigation if needed
• The Casper theme (3.0.5) already includes support for this feature
• Secondary navigation is available through the Ghost Admin UI
• For developers, the navigation helper now handles secondary navigation data

Upgrade Recommendations

This is a recommended upgrade for all Ghost users, especially for:

• Sites experiencing 500 errors related to CORS/Origin headers
• Anyone wanting to implement secondary navigation features
• Sites using member features who would benefit from the improved member management UI
• Sites with gated content that use the excerpt helper

As a minor point release (3.1.0 → 3.1.1), this update should be safe to apply with minimal risk of breaking changes. The improvements to error handling and member management make this a worthwhile update for most Ghost installations.

Bug Fixes

Fixed 500 Errors for Incorrect Origin Headers

• Added proper error handling for URL parsing in CORS options
• Now returns a 400 Bad Request error instead of 500 Server Error for malformed Origin headers
• Prevents unnecessary server error alerts for client-side configuration issues

Email Improvements

• Fixed test newsletter email subject by prepending "[Test]" instead of appending it
• Makes test emails easier to scan and identify
• Fixed email preview header position for better display

Other Fixes

• Fixed stray whitespace in codebase
• Refactored nested ternaries for better code readability

New Features

Secondary Navigation Support

• Added complete support for secondary navigation menus
• Enables flexible navigation configurations like header/footer or left/right combinations
• API support added (v3 only)
• Navigation helper updated to handle secondary navigation
• Default value set as an empty array

Enhanced Member Management

• Improved UI for adding first members on the no-members screen
• Added dedicated member "add" screen for better user experience
• Implemented Gravatar support for member avatars

Excerpt Helper Improvements

• Added fallback to excerpt property when HTML is hidden from members
• Significantly improves experience when using the helper with gated content
• Helps when both html and custom_excerpt fields are empty due to content gating

Security Updates

No specific security fixes were mentioned in this release.

Performance Improvements

Code Refactoring

• Renamed middleware functions for better clarity:
  • login → getIdentityToken
  • logout → deleteSession
  • authentication → createSessionFromToken
• These renames better describe what actually happens in each middleware
• Improves code maintainability and developer understanding

Dependency Updates

• Updated Bluebird to v3.7.2
• Updated knex-migrator to v3.4.1
• Updated Casper theme to 3.0.5
• Updated Ghost-Admin to 3.1.1

Impact Summary

Ghost 3.1.1 brings meaningful improvements to site navigation flexibility and member management. The addition of secondary navigation opens up new design possibilities for Ghost sites, allowing for more sophisticated navigation structures like separate header/footer menus or left/right combinations.

The member management improvements, including Gravatar support and better UI for adding members, enhance the growing membership features of Ghost. These changes make it easier for site owners to build and manage their audience.

The bug fix for 500 errors caused by incorrect Origin headers is particularly important for site reliability, preventing server errors from bubbling up due to client misconfiguration.

For content creators using gated content, the improved excerpt helper ensures better content display when HTML is hidden from non-members, providing a more consistent experience across the site.

Overall, this release focuses on quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes that enhance the platform's stability and usability without introducing breaking changes.

Full Release Notes