Ghost Release: 5.40.2

TL;DR

Ghost v5.40.2: Link Handling Fixes

This minor patch release fixes critical issues with link handling in Ghost. The update addresses a bug in the LinkReplacer component that was causing broken links in published posts and pages, as well as a date matching issue in batch email sending. These fixes ensure proper URL encoding/decoding and more reliable email delivery.

Highlight of the Release

• Fixed LinkReplacer bug that was causing broken links in published posts and pages
• Improved URL handling with proper HTML entity decoding for all links
• Fixed date matching issue in batch email sending functionality

Migration Guide

No migration steps are required for this patch release. Simply update to v5.40.2 to benefit from the bug fixes.

Upgrade Recommendations

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

• Publish content with links that may contain HTML entities
• Use Ghost's newsletter and email functionality

The update addresses critical link handling issues that could affect content display and email delivery. As a patch release, it contains only bug fixes with no breaking changes, making it a safe and straightforward upgrade from v5.40.1.

Bug Fixes

• LinkReplacer Component: Fixed a critical bug in the LinkReplacer component that was causing broken links in published posts and pages. The fix moves the entities.decode() step to the LinkReplacer class, ensuring it's applied to all links, not just those replaced in the email service. This ensures URLs with HTML entities are properly decoded. (#16514)

• Batch Email Sending: Fixed an issue with date matching in batch email sending where the replacement pattern didn't correctly match dates with only one number. This ensures more reliable delivery of scheduled email newsletters.

New Features

No new features were introduced in this patch release.

Security Updates

No security fixes were included in this patch release.

Performance Improvements

No specific performance improvements were included in this patch release.

Impact Summary

This patch release addresses two important bugs that impact content display and email functionality in Ghost. The LinkReplacer fix ensures that links containing HTML entities are properly decoded across the platform, preventing broken links in published content. Previously, entity decoding was only applied to links in the email service, leaving links in other contexts potentially broken.

The batch email sending fix improves the reliability of newsletter delivery by correcting a date matching pattern that failed to recognize dates with single digits. Together, these fixes enhance the overall reliability of Ghost's content publishing and distribution capabilities without introducing any breaking changes or requiring migration steps.

Full Release Notes