Ghost Release: 5.114.0

TL;DR

Ghost v5.114.0: ActivityPub Beta, Enhanced CTA Cards, and Analytics Improvements

Ghost v5.114.0 brings significant updates including the promotion of ActivityPub from Alpha to Beta status, enhanced CTA card customization options, and numerous improvements to the Analytics system. This release also includes important bug fixes, performance optimizations, and translation updates to improve the overall user experience.

Highlight of the Release

• ActivityPub moved from Alpha (Labs) to Beta status
• Enhanced CTA card customization with new link color and text alignment settings
• Improved analytics with better data visualization and filtering options
• Fixed slug validation error for newly created posts without titles
• Performance optimization for post previews with new database index

Migration Guide

No migration steps are required for this release. The update should be straightforward with no breaking changes that require manual intervention.

If you're using ActivityPub features, note that it has been moved from the Labs section to the Beta section in the admin interface. Your existing ActivityPub configuration will continue to work as before.

Upgrade Recommendations

This release is recommended for all Ghost users, especially those who:

1. Use or are interested in ActivityPub integration
2. Make extensive use of CTA cards in their content
3. Rely on Ghost's analytics features
4. Have sites with a large number of posts and experience slow post preview loading

The update includes important bug fixes and performance improvements that will benefit most users. There are no breaking changes, making this a safe upgrade for all installations.

Bug Fixes

General Fixes

• Post Creation: Fixed slug validation error for newly created posts without a title
• 2FA Settings: Prevented 2FA settings from appearing for editor users
• Email MFA: Improved text for email MFA requests with simplified messaging

ActivityPub Fixes

• Avatar Interaction: Fixed avatar interaction in ActivityPub onboarding step one to remove unwanted click and hover actions
• Layout Issues: Fixed layout shift and overflow issues in the onboarding process
• Access Control: Fixed ActivityPub onboarding view being shown to non-owner staff users
• Embed Support: Fixed embeds in ActivityPub articles to ensure proper loading and correct aspect ratios

Analytics Fixes

• Data Accuracy: Fixed mismatch in visits and unique visits on stats page
• UI Issues: Fixed "NaN" output for bounce rate and visit duration
• Last 24 Hour View: Fixed date cutoff for last 24-hour view in KPI chart
• Audience Toggle: Fixed audience toggle in stats to properly handle array parameters
• Unknown Location: Fixed flag display for "Unknown" location in analytics

New Features

ActivityPub Improvements

• Promoted to Beta: ActivityPub has been moved from Labs (Alpha) to the Beta section, indicating increased stability and feature completeness
• Improved Feed Experience: Added stale time settings to ActivityPub feeds (Inbox, Feed, and Notifications) for better data refreshing
• Enhanced Media Handling: Fixed audio and video players in ActivityPub and improved media cards UX
• Better Link Handling: Links in articles now open in a new tab instead of within the drawer
• Improved Time Display: Changed time format shown on Feed/Inbox and Profile to show relative time for recent content and absolute dates for older content

CTA Card Enhancements

• Link Color Setting: Added ability to change link color between standard text color and accent color
• Text Alignment: Added center alignment option for CTA cards with full-width layout
• Improved Layout Handling: Fixed image width for small images and adjusted line height for better readability
• Button Alignment: Fixed button alignment in minimal layout

Analytics Improvements

• Enhanced Filtering: Added support for OS filtering in stats page
• Improved Data Visualization: Fixed bounce rate percentage in KPI chart tooltips and improved visit duration formatting
• Direct Post Analytics: Added button in Post analytics to filter traffic analytics by post
• UI Refinements: Sanitized labels for more human-readable format and fixed various UI issues

Security Updates

No significant security fixes were included in this release.

Performance Improvements

Database Optimization

• Post Preview Performance: Added an index to the posts table on the uuid column to prevent whole table scans when doing post previews. This significantly improves performance on sites with a large number of posts, reducing lookup times from several seconds to milliseconds.

Query Performance

• Analytics Data Processing: Updated data files to use simpler aggregate functions that are more performant for handling stats page audience filters.

ActivityPub Improvements

• Feed Refresh: Added stale time settings to ActivityPub feeds (Inbox, Feed, and Notifications) to optimize when data is refreshed, reducing unnecessary requests.
• Profile View Caching: Updated profile view to use cache, improving the performance of profile posts and liked posts tabs.

Impact Summary

Ghost v5.114.0 delivers significant improvements across multiple areas of the platform. The promotion of ActivityPub to Beta status marks an important milestone in Ghost's social web integration capabilities, making it more accessible and reliable for users looking to connect their Ghost sites with the fediverse.

The enhancements to CTA cards provide content creators with more design flexibility, allowing for better visual integration with their content through customizable link colors, text alignment options, and improved layout handling.

Analytics improvements make data more accessible and accurate, with better filtering options, improved data visualization, and UI refinements that make it easier to understand site performance.

Performance optimizations, particularly the new database index for post previews, will significantly improve the editing experience on larger sites, reducing load times from seconds to milliseconds.

The various bug fixes address issues across the platform, ensuring a more stable and consistent user experience. Translation updates continue to make Ghost more accessible to international users.

Overall, this release represents a solid step forward in Ghost's evolution, with meaningful improvements to both user-facing features and underlying performance.

Full Release Notes