Ghost Release: 5.84.2

TL;DR

Ghost v5.84.2 is a minor release that improves caching performance for sites with members, updates translations for signup forms and comments, enhances API performance, and adds documentation for link redirects. This release focuses on performance optimizations and user experience improvements without introducing any breaking changes.

Highlight of the Release

• Improved caching performance by removing unnecessary cookies when no member is logged in
• Enhanced API performance with selectRaw option for posts model
• Updated translations for signup-form and comments-ui components
• Added comprehensive documentation for link redirects with sequence diagrams

Migration Guide

No migration steps are required for this release. The update can be applied without any additional configuration changes.

Upgrade Recommendations

This release is recommended for all Ghost users, especially those with member features enabled who will benefit from the improved caching performance. The update is low-risk with no breaking changes and can be applied immediately.

Bug Fixes

Cookie Management Fix

Fixed an issue where Ghost would unnecessarily send ghost-access=null; and ghost-access-hmac=null; cookies in requests to /members/api/member/ when no member was logged in. This prevented proper caching of these requests. The fix removes these cookies when no member is logged in and properly unsets them when a member logs out.

New Features

Enhanced API Options

Added selectRaw to permitted options for the posts model, allowing content API requests to omit fields that aren't needed. This provides more flexibility when querying posts and improves API performance.

Security Updates

No security fixes were included in this release.

Performance Improvements

Improved Caching for Member Sites

Removed unnecessary cookies from requests when no member is logged in, which significantly improves the cache hit ratio for sites with members caching enabled. Previously, even with no member logged in, Ghost would send null cookies that prevented proper caching.

API Performance Optimization

Added support for selectRaw option in the posts model, allowing API requests to omit unnecessary fields when fetching posts, resulting in improved performance for content API requests.

Impact Summary

Ghost v5.84.2 focuses on performance improvements and minor enhancements. The most significant change is the optimization of caching for sites with members enabled, which should result in better performance and reduced server load. The release also includes updated translations for signup forms and comments UI, enhancing the experience for international users. For developers, there's new documentation on link redirects and an enhanced API option for the posts model. All changes are backward compatible with no breaking changes.

Full Release Notes