Ghost Release: 5.86.2

TL;DR

Ghost v5.86.2 fixes a critical issue with YouTube bookmark creation that was preventing users from embedding YouTube videos in their content. This patch ensures that both YouTube and NYTimes embeds work correctly by adjusting the user-agent string used in requests.

Highlight of the Release

• Fixed YouTube bookmark creation that was failing due to user-agent detection
• Resolved compatibility issues with NYTimes embeds
• Improved overall reliability of the bookmark creation system

Migration Guide

No migration steps are required for this patch release. The fix is automatically applied when updating to v5.86.2.

Upgrade Recommendations

This update is recommended for all users who embed YouTube videos or NYTimes content in their Ghost sites. The patch fixes a critical functionality issue with bookmark creation for these services.

To upgrade:

1. Back up your Ghost installation
2. Follow the standard Ghost update procedure for your installation method
3. No additional configuration changes are needed after upgrading

Bug Fixes

YouTube Bookmark Creation Fix

This release addresses an issue where YouTube bookmark creation was failing. The problem occurred after Ghost switched to a browser-like user-agent, which caused YouTube to respond with a "supported browsers" message instead of the actual video content.

The fix involved modifying the user-agent string to use https://ghost.org instead of the GitHub address that was previously included. This change satisfies both YouTube's requirements for processing the request correctly and resolves an issue with NYTimes embeds that were rejecting requests containing GitHub URLs in the user-agent.

Related issue: #20445

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 has a moderate impact on content creation workflows that involve embedding YouTube videos. Prior to this fix, attempts to create bookmarks for YouTube videos would fail, preventing content creators from embedding YouTube content in their posts. The fix ensures that the bookmark creation system works correctly with YouTube and NYTimes, improving the reliability of the content creation experience without requiring any changes from users.

The technical change involves modifying the user-agent string used in HTTP requests to external services, replacing GitHub references with ghost.org to improve compatibility with services that have specific user-agent requirements or restrictions.

Full Release Notes