Ghost Release: 4.35.0

TL;DR

Ghost v4.35.0: Tier-based Content Access & Member Activity Feed Improvements

Ghost 4.35.0 introduces significant enhancements to the membership system with tier-based content access controls, allowing publishers to restrict content to specific membership tiers rather than just free/paid distinctions. The update also improves the member activity feed with better event ordering and additional payment events. Welcome page URLs can now be customized per tier, providing a more tailored onboarding experience for new members. These changes give publishers more granular control over their membership offerings and improve the overall member management experience.

Highlight of the Release

• Tier-based content access with a new pivot table for storing post-tier relationships
• Custom welcome page URLs for each membership tier
• Improved member activity feed with better event ordering and additional payment events
• Default tier name now set to site title instead of 'Default Product'
• Migrated email filter columns from VARCHAR to TEXT to remove size limitations

Migration Guide

Tier-based Content Visibility

If you've been using custom NQL filters for content visibility, these will be automatically migrated to the new tier-based system. The migration transforms existing sites that have default visibility stored as an NQL string to follow the new model with default_content_visibility set to tiers and default_content_visibility_tiers storing the list of restricted tiers.

API Changes

The Posts/Pages API responses now include a tiers array when content is restricted to specific tiers, replacing the previous custom NQL string in the visibility field. If you have custom code that relies on the previous visibility model, you'll need to update it to handle the new structure.

Default Tier Name

The default tier name is now automatically set to your site title instead of "Default Product". This change happens automatically on startup for sites that still have the default name.

Upgrade Recommendations

This is a recommended upgrade for all Ghost users, especially those who use or plan to use membership tiers. The improvements to tier-based content access and member activity feed provide significant enhancements to membership functionality.

How to upgrade:

1. Back up your Ghost installation and database
2. Follow the standard Ghost update process:
   • For Ghost(Pro) users: Updates will be automatically applied
   • For self-hosted users: Use Ghost-CLI with ghost update

Testing recommendation:

After upgrading, verify that:

• Content visibility settings for your posts are preserved correctly
• Member activity feeds display correctly with proper event ordering
• Welcome page redirects work as expected if you've configured them

Bug Fixes

Member Activity Feed

• Fixed event ordering in the member activity feed for email_delivered_event, email_opened_event, and email_failed_event
• Added missing payment events in the member activity feed

Email Verification

• Fixed usage of "ghostMailer" in email verification trigger
• Fixed imports triggering verification when below threshold
• Added source to verification trigger to differentiate between import vs API

Portal and Settings

• Fixed incorrect ID used for updating portal product setting
• Fixed missing portal product data for sites with a single tier

UI and UX

• Made /-menu card searching case-insensitive
• Updated wording on unsubscribe confirmation with paid conditional to avoid confusion
• Fixed a typo breaking the /members/events route

Email Templates

• Added alt tag for logo image on emails to improve email deliverability scores

New Features

Tier-based Content Access

Ghost now supports restricting content to specific membership tiers rather than just the previous free/paid distinction. This is implemented through a new pivot table that stores relationships between posts and tiers, allowing for more granular access control.

Custom Welcome Page URLs per Tier

Publishers can now set custom welcome page URLs for each membership tier, providing a more tailored onboarding experience for new members. This feature is particularly useful for directing members to tier-specific content or instructions after signup.

Improved Member Activity Feed

The member activity feed now includes payment events that were previously missing and fixes event ordering issues. This provides a more complete picture of member activity and interactions.

Default Content Visibility for Tiers

A new setting default_content_visibility_tiers has been added to store tier IDs when default content visibility is set to specific tiers, making it easier to consistently apply tier-based access controls to new content.

Improved Onboarding

Added an "improvedOnboarding" labs flag for working on changes to the setup flow and launch wizard, which will help improve the initial experience for new Ghost users.

Security Updates

No significant security fixes were included in this release.

Performance Improvements

Database Improvements

• Migrated email filter columns from VARCHAR to TEXT, removing size limitations on email filters which is especially beneficial for sites using Tiers
• Added a pivot table for storing tier relationships with posts, which provides a more efficient way to handle tier-based content access without the previous 50-character limitation on visibility filters

Impact Summary

Ghost 4.35.0 significantly enhances the membership system by introducing tier-based content access, allowing publishers to restrict content to specific membership tiers rather than just free/paid distinctions. This provides much more granular control over content access and membership offerings.

The update also improves the member experience with tier-specific welcome pages and fixes several issues in the member activity feed, including better event ordering and the addition of previously missing payment events.

For developers, the release includes important structural changes to how content visibility is stored, moving from a character-limited VARCHAR field to a more flexible pivot table approach for tier relationships. Email filter columns have also been migrated from VARCHAR to TEXT to remove size limitations.

These changes collectively provide publishers with more powerful tools to create sophisticated membership offerings with tailored content access and onboarding experiences for different member segments.

Full Release Notes