Ghost Release: 5.38.0

TL;DR

Ghost v5.38.0: Enhanced Email Alerts, SEO Improvements, and Bug Fixes

This release brings several improvements to Ghost's email and subscription features. Email alerts now include source attribution information, showing where new members came from. SEO is improved with better sitemap handling for canonical URLs. Several bugs have been fixed, including issues with email retrying, HTML escaping in outbound links, and subscription tracking in analytics. The release also adds experimental support for inlining external media from platforms like Revue and Substack.

Highlight of the Release

• Added source attribution info to email alerts for new free and paid members
• Excluded sites with canonical_url meta from sitemap for better SEO
• Fixed subscription analytics to properly show free trials and 3D secure payments
• Added experimental support for inlining external media from platforms like Revue and Substack
• Fixed several email-related bugs including HTML escaping and plaintext replacements

Migration Guide

This release doesn't require any specific migration steps. The changes are backward compatible and should work seamlessly after upgrading.

For those using the experimental media inlining feature:

• External media from supported platforms (currently Revue and Substack) will be automatically downloaded and stored locally
• The feature is implemented as a job and can be triggered via the API
• No configuration is needed to start using this feature

Upgrade Recommendations

This release contains several important bug fixes and enhancements that improve the email and subscription functionality of Ghost. It's recommended for all users to upgrade, especially those who:

• Send newsletters and rely on email features
• Use outbound link tagging
• Track subscription analytics
• Have SEO concerns related to canonical URLs

The upgrade should be straightforward with no breaking changes. As always, it's recommended to backup your database before upgrading.

Bug Fixes

Email & Newsletter Fixes

• Fixed retrying failed emails when rescheduling them - error dialog no longer shown for scheduled emails
• Fixed HTML escaping when using outbound link tagging - prevented occurrences of &map_ being replaced with ↦
• Fixed replacements with fallback in plaintext newsletters - now properly replaces in both HTML and plaintext versions
• Fixed referrals to web archive by removing ref param for archive.org domain

Subscription & Analytics Fixes

• Fixed free trials not visible in paid subscriptions graph - now properly counted in analytics
• Fixed 3D secure payments not counted as paid subscriptions in graph - now counts both 'created' and 'active' events
• Fixed ability to cancel Stripe subscription when deleting member - "Also cancel subscription in Stripe" checkbox now appears correctly
• Fixed maintaining archived newsletter subscriptions for members - archived newsletters will no longer be unsubscribed when saving member

SEO Improvements

• Excluded sites with canonical_url meta from sitemap to prevent duplicate content issues in search engines

New Features

Email Attribution Information

• Added source attribution info for new free and paid members in email alerts
• Added page attribution to member email alerts, showing title and URL for new free members and paid subscriptions

Portal Improvements

• Added newsletter preference page link in portal settings
• Added data attribute and link to member's newsletter preference page

External Media Inlining (Experimental)

• Added media inliner for mobiledoc content to fetch and store external media locally
• Supports inlining media from specified domains like Revue and Substack
• Extended to work with all internal resources: tags, users, and post meta fields
• Implemented as a job to handle long-running operations efficiently

Mentions Enhancements

• Enabled mentions for pages (previously only worked for posts)
• Added listeners for page events (published, unpublished, edited)
• Refined spacing and position of mentions dropdown for better UI

Security Updates

No significant security fixes were included in this release.

Performance Improvements

• Added debug logging to measure model require time to identify models needing optimization
• Added caching to remote media fetch method to avoid redundant network requests when inlining external media
• Improved network access and mocking in tests to prevent unnecessary internet access
• Removed old email flow code that's no longer used since the introduction of the email stability flow

Impact Summary

This release focuses on improving the email and subscription features of Ghost, with several bug fixes and enhancements that will benefit newsletter publishers and site owners. The addition of source attribution in email alerts provides valuable information about where new members are coming from, while fixes to subscription analytics ensure more accurate reporting of free trials and 3D secure payments.

The SEO improvement for handling canonical URLs in sitemaps will help prevent duplicate content issues in search engines, which is particularly important for sites that republish content from other sources.

The experimental media inlining feature is a significant addition for those migrating from platforms like Revue and Substack, as it allows external media to be automatically downloaded and stored locally, ensuring content remains intact even if the original source becomes unavailable.

Overall, this release enhances the reliability and functionality of Ghost's core features without introducing breaking changes, making it a recommended upgrade for all users.

Full Release Notes