Ghost Release: 5.33.0

TL;DR

Ghost v5.33.0 introduces several significant improvements including webmentions email notifications, a referral invite system for successful creators, and major performance optimizations for URL handling. This release focuses on enhancing the webmentions feature with email notifications and UI improvements, optimizing routing performance, and fixing several email-related bugs. The update also includes improvements to error handling and user experience across various parts of the platform.

Highlight of the Release

• Added email notifications for webmentions (behind alpha flag)
• Implemented referral invite notification for creators making $100+ MRR
• Optimized URL regeneration process for better performance
• Improved email error handling and messaging
• Enhanced webmentions UI with new widget and empty state

Migration Guide

Upgrading to v5.33.0

This release includes migrations that fix issues with member tier subscriptions:

1. A migration to remove invalid expiry tier expiry dates for paid members
2. A migration to restore missing tier mappings for paid members

These migrations will run automatically when upgrading and should resolve issues where members were losing access to tiers incorrectly.

No manual intervention is required for these migrations, but as always, it's recommended to backup your database before upgrading.

Upgrade Recommendations

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

• Use or plan to use the webmentions feature
• Have a significant number of members with tier subscriptions
• Have experienced issues with email sending or URL generation performance

The upgrade process should be straightforward with no breaking changes. The performance improvements for URL generation could be particularly beneficial for larger sites with complex routing configurations.

As always, make a backup of your database before upgrading.

Bug Fixes

Email System Fixes

• Invalid Recipients: Updated email sending to remove invalid recipient emails before passing them to mail providers
• Email Segment Generation: Fixed email segment generation to correctly target all intended recipients
• Email Analytics Jobs: Fixed an issue where email analytics jobs weren't being reactivated after email creation
• Mailgun Events: Reduced concurrency when fetching Mailgun events to prevent connection pool issues
• Large Email Events: Improved handling of large amounts of email events to ensure none are missed

UI and Interaction Fixes

• Email Preview: Fixed visual bugs in the email preview and fixed the input dropdown not closing when clicking on the iframe
• Dark Mode: Fixed dark mode colors for the mentions interface
• Portal Colors: Removed hardcoded values from Portal to better support theme customization

Member Management Fixes

• Member Tier Subscriptions: Fixed invalid expiry dates for member tier subscriptions when upgrading from complimentary to paid subscriptions

New Features

Webmentions Enhancements

• Email Notifications: Added the ability to receive email notifications when your site gets webmentions (currently behind an alpha feature flag)
• UI Improvements: Added a static Mentions widget, empty state for the Mentions page, and improved display of mention information
• Data Generator: Added webmentions to the data generator for easier testing and development

Referral Program Integration

• Referral Invite Notification: Added a dismissible notification for Admin and Owner users who reach $100+ MRR, inviting them to join the Ghost Referral program
• Smart Dismissal: The notification won't appear again once dismissed, using a saved preference in the user's accessibility settings

Routing Improvements

• Dynamic Routing Events: Added a new dynamic-routing-events package to better handle URL-related events
• Resource Service: Implemented and tested ResourceService as a separate class
• Routing Service: Implemented and tested RoutingService as a separate class
• URL Existence Checking: Improved checks for page existence using resource verification and network requests

Security Updates

No significant security fixes were included in this release.

Performance Improvements

URL Generation Optimization

• Short-circuited Resource URL Regeneration: Implemented a significant performance improvement by avoiding full URL regeneration when only non-URL-affecting fields are updated
• Field Exclusions: Excluded 'tiers' and 'last_seen' from fields that trigger URL regeneration for posts and authors
• Partial Resource Updates: Updated sitemaps to react to partial resource updates without triggering unnecessary regeneration

Email Processing Improvements

• Reduced Concurrency: Reduced email sending concurrency from 10 to 2 to prevent connection pool exhaustion
• Event Processing: Added a small sleep between dispatching events in the worker thread to reduce parallel queries

Code Optimization

• Dependency Cleanup: Removed Bluebird dependency from unit tests in core, replacing with native Promise methods
• External Requests: Completely blocked external requests in Webmentions tests to prevent timeout issues

Impact Summary

Ghost v5.33.0 delivers meaningful improvements across several key areas of the platform. The webmentions feature continues to mature with the addition of email notifications and UI enhancements, making it more useful for site owners looking to track mentions of their content across the web.

Performance optimizations for URL handling represent one of the most impactful changes in this release. By avoiding unnecessary URL regeneration when content changes don't affect URLs, Ghost should now handle content updates more efficiently, especially for sites with complex routing configurations or large amounts of content.

The email system has received several important fixes and improvements, addressing issues with invalid recipients, segment generation, and handling large batches of email events. These changes should result in more reliable email delivery and better error handling.

For successful creators, the new referral invite notification provides a pathway to participate in Ghost's referral program once they reach $100+ MRR, potentially creating additional revenue opportunities.

Overall, this release enhances Ghost's performance, reliability, and feature set without introducing breaking changes, making it a recommended upgrade for all users.

Full Release Notes