v0.13.2

User-Facing Changes

• Fix Gopher collections query (#501)
• Fix date format in anonymous posts (#503)
• Use relative URLs for static assets (#505)
• Fix external user ID recording for Gitea OAuth (#514)
• Fix blog monetization updates when using SQLite (#495)
• Ensure link URLs and image alt text don't get included in the slug (T329, #520)
• Improve keyboard navigation

Admin-Facing Changes

• Fix crash on empty post title

Developer-Facing Changes

• Upgrade bluemonday from 1.0.5 to 1.0.21
• Upgrade ini pkg to v1.66.4
• Ignore post created date when empty on publish

Release updates

NOTE: There is a blocking bug with our upstream tool, xgo, that helps us cross-compile WriteFreely: techknowlogick/xgo#155. Because of this, we'll only release linux-amd64 builds for the foreseeable future.

Upgrading from v0.13.0

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.13.0. Follow the instructions in each previous release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who contributed bug reports, code, and code review to this release!

@thebaer @StJudeWasHere @egon0 @gytisrepecka @lt3Dev @viasux @clausecker

User-Facing Changes

• Fix title rendering as list item (#470)
• Remove additional slash in /feed/ redirect
• Don't include image alt text in post description metadata (#306)
• Fix SQLite-backed instances locking up (#467)
• Fix backslashes added to list items in Classic editor (#480)

Admin-Facing Changes

• Return error when generic OAuth provider doesn't return a user ID, and prompt admin to add map_user_id (#469)
• Fix "Collection.hostName is empty!" log on Stats page (#468)

Upgrading from v0.13.0

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.13.0. Follow the instructions in each previous release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Developers

If you are running a custom build: we made changes to UI components that need to be compiled. Run this to compile everything:

make ui

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who contributed bug reports, code, and code review to this release!

@stayinside @bandicootdancing @PeterCxy @DaarkMoon @poVoq @Tealk @thebaer @mkyos

v0.13

Major Features

Classic editor (T727)

If plain text and Markdown aren't your thing, now you can get a more "classic" writing experience with the Classic editor! This features more of a What You See Is What You Get interface that doesn't require the learning curve of Markdown. However, behind the scenes, posts are still saved as Markdown, so you can always switch between the Classic and standard editor. Admins can enable this option by setting editor = classic in the [app] config section.

Gopher Support (T559)

Give your audience a old-school, lightweight way to read posts on your WriteFreely instance, via the Gopher protocol! Enable it with the new gopher_port config value in the [server] section. When it’s enabled, multi-user instances will show all Public blogs at gopher://[host]:[gopher_port]/.

Gitea and Generic OAuth Provider Support (#293, #317, #405)

We’ve added more ways for users to authenticate with your WriteFreely instance, via Gitea or any generic OAuth 2.0 provider! Our generic OAuth provider support in particular gives you the chance to use WriteFreely alongside a range of applications that hold your users, from Mastodon to Nextcloud to Keycloak.

Web Monetization Support (T773)

Writers can now accept micropayments for their work via the proposed Web Monetization standard, and even publish exclusive content behind a paywall. Admins can enable this by setting monetization = true in the [app] section of their config, or changing the setting in their admin panel. This is just the start as we look to give readers more ways to financially support writers — read more about this on the Write.as blog.

ActivityPub Notes (#220)

Now, WriteFreely is more friendly to microblogs! If a post doesn’t have a double-line-break in it, it’ll be sent to the fediverse as a Note, rather than an Article. If you’d prefer to always send Notes, admins can set notes_only = true in the [app] config section.

Account deletion (T319)

It’s now easy for users and admins to quickly delete account data from WriteFreely via the web! Admins can access this option from their Admin Dashboard, and users can access it from their Account Settings page, if admins have configured Open Account Deletions (via the Dashboard or config file: open_deletion = true under the [app] section).

Post Signatures (T582)

This enables users to add a signature to all blog posts, and update it from a single location (the blog's Customize page).

User-Facing Changes / Fixes

• Optimize Drafts retrieval (#295)
• Support AP-style mentions of centralized social media accounts (#319)
• Show warning in editor when local draft is out of date (#41)
• Allow footer and header elements (#326)
• Set pad light / dark theme based on system settings (#196)
• Improved blog management navigation (#371)
• Fix silenced user post visibility (#374)
• Automatically resize CSS editor (T708)
• Stop private and protected blogs from federating (#403)
• Fix following from Mastodon with Authorized Fetch enabled (T820)
• Fix language metadata gets reset to English after editing a post (#280)
• Support logging out of password-protected blogs (T492)
• Always show post actions on mobile devices (#309)
• Include images as attachments in ActivityStreams data (#442)
• Fix .md file import from Safari (#334)
• Fix Custom CSS editor not working well on touchscreen devices (#452)
• Support Drafts list paging (T401, T696)
• Support title-only posts (#464)

Minor Changes

• Support number+letter hashtags
• Use a bigger font size for h2 (#217)
• Ignore "collation mix" errors in GetCollectionRedirect() (#318)
• Make dropdown navigation menus more accessible (#355)
• Fix removal of query parameters on youtube embed links (#328)
• Truncate lede at question mark (#316)
• Fix double HTML-encoded meta tags (#340)
• Fix header spacing on pinned posts (#385)
• Fix unable to edit posts titled "Tags" (#305)
• Set SameSite=None on session cookie (#443)
• Make language highlighting matching case-insensitive (#429)

Admin-Facing Changes

• Remove “No to!” log (#311)
• Support encrypted database connections (#297)
• Fix docker-compose (#407, #139, #323)
• Fix Docker repository does not exist (#416)
• Support user deletion from web interface (T319)
• Support Unicode domain names (#457)

Developer-Facing Changes

• Add CORS header to public APIs (#327)
• Support slug parameter when publishing a post (T811)
• Return a url property on Publish a Post endpoint
• Support setting description at user registration

Performance / Backend

• Move WriteFreely repo from writeas org to writefreely (#451)
• Move MathJax library from submodule to single file (#176)
• Improve static file serving with Cache-Control header (#322)
• Use HTMLContent field in RSS feed (#418)
• Remove writeas/nerds/store pkg dependency (#445)
• Bump github.com/gorilla/feeds from 1.1.0 to 1.1.1
• Bump github.com/hashicorp/go-multierror from 1.0.0 to 1.1.1
• Bump github.com/microcosm-cc/bluemonday from 1.0.2 to 1.0.5
• Bump github.com/stretchr/testify from 1.6.0 to 1.7.0
• Bump gopkg.in/ini.v1 from 1.55.0 to 1.62.0
• Bump github.com/guregu/null from v3.4 to v3.5
• Bump github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql from 1.4.1 to 1.6.0
• Bump github.com/writeas/import from 0.2.0 to 0.2.1
• Bump github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3 from 1.10.0 to 1.14.6
• Bump github.com/gorilla/schema from 1.0.2 to 1.2.0
• Bump github.com/manifoldco/promptui from 0.3.2 to 0.8.0
• Bump github.com/urfave/cli/v2 from 2.1.1 to 2.3.0
• Bump github.com/fatih/color from 1.7.0 to 1.10.0

Upgrading from v0.12.0

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

Now make sure your database is backed up, and update it with:

writefreely db migrate

Finally, generate a new encryption key needed for this release (you can ignore messages about removing existing keys):

writefreely keys generate

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.12.0. Follow the instructions in each previous release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Developers

If you are running a custom build: we made changes to site styles and added a Javascript dependency that needs to be compiled (prose.js). Run this to compile everything:

make ui

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release!

Development

@gytisrepecka @thebaer @RJ722 @ketudb @pascoual @Dar13 @shleeable @joicemjoseph @dariusk @Obayanju @qwazix @Antolius @colin-axner @conor-f @VV-EE @mostfunkyduck @Dak425 @cjeller1592 @x4e @robjloranger

v0.13 Release Candidate 1

This is a WriteFreely v0.13.0 release candidate. It is intended to be stable, but may not be. Please open bug reports for any issues you find, and otherwise contact us via IRC (#writefreely on freenode) if you have any questions.

Major Features

Classic editor (T727)

If plain text and Markdown aren't your thing, now you can get a more "classic" writing experience with the Classic editor! This features more of a What You See Is What You Get interface that doesn't require the learning curve of Markdown. However, behind the scenes, posts are still saved as Markdown, so you can always switch between the Classic and standard editor. Admins can enable this option by setting editor = classic in the [app] config section.

Gopher Support (T559)

Give your audience a old-school, lightweight way to read posts on your WriteFreely instance, via the Gopher protocol! Enable it with the new gopher_port config value in the [server] section. When it’s enabled, multi-user instances will show all Public blogs at gopher://[host]:[gopher_port]/.

Gitea and Generic OAuth Provider Support (#293, #317, #405)

We’ve added more ways for users to authenticate with your WriteFreely instance, via Gitea or any generic OAuth 2.0 provider! Our generic OAuth provider support in particular gives you the chance to use WriteFreely alongside a range of applications that hold your users, from Mastodon to Nextcloud to Keycloak.

Web Monetization Support (T773)

Writers can now accept micropayments for their work via the proposed Web Monetization standard. Admins can enable this by setting monetization = true in the [app] section of their config, or changing the setting in their admin panel. This is just the start as we look to give readers more ways to financially support writers — read more about this on the Write.as blog.

ActivityPub Notes (#220)

Now, WriteFreely is more friendly to microblogs! If a post doesn’t have a double-line-break in it, it’ll be sent to the fediverse as a Note, rather than an Article. If you’d prefer to always send Notes, admins can set notes_only = true in the [app] config section.

Account deletion (T319)

It’s now easy for users and admins to quickly delete account data from WriteFreely via the web! Admins can access this option from their Admin Dashboard, and users can access it from their Account Settings page, if admins have configured Open Account Deletions (via the Dashboard or config file: open_deletion = true under the [app] section).

Post Signatures (T582)

This enables users to add a signature to all blog posts, and update it from a single location (the blog's Customize page).

User-Facing Changes / Fixes

• Optimize Drafts retrieval (#295)
• Support AP-style mentions of centralized social media accounts (#319)
• Show warning in editor when local draft is out of date (#41)
• Allow footer and header elements (#326)
• Set pad light / dark theme based on system settings (#196)
• Improved blog management navigation (#371)
• Fix silenced user post visibility (#374)
• Automatically resize CSS editor (T708)
• Stop private and protected blogs from federating (#403)
• Fix following from Mastodon with Authorized Fetch enabled (T820)
• Fix language metadata gets reset to English after editing a post (#280)
• Support logging out of password-protected blogs (T492)
• Always show post actions on mobile devices (#309)
• Include images as attachments in ActivityStreams data (#442)
• Fix .md file import from Safari (#334)
• Fix Custom CSS editor not working well on touchscreen devices (#452)
• Support Drafts list paging (T401, T696)

Minor Changes

• Support number+letter hashtags
• Use a bigger font size for h2 (#217)
• Ignore "collation mix" errors in GetCollectionRedirect() (#318)
• Make dropdown navigation menus more accessible (#355)
• Fix removal of query parameters on youtube embed links (#328)
• Truncate lede at question mark (#316)
• Fix double HTML-encoded meta tags (#340)
• Fix header spacing on pinned posts (#385)
• Fix unable to edit posts titled "Tags" (#305)
• Set SameSite=None on session cookie (#443)
• Make language highlighting matching case-insensitive (#429)

Admin-Facing Changes

• Remove “No to!” log (#311)
• Support encrypted database connections (#297)
• Fix docker-compose (#407, #139, #323)
• Fix Docker repository does not exist (#416)
• Support user deletion from web interface (T319)
• Support Unicode domain names (#457)

Developer-Facing Changes

• Add CORS header to public APIs (#327)
• Support slug parameter when publishing a post (T811)

Performance / Backend

• Move WriteFreely repo from writeas org to writefreely (#451)
• Move MathJax library from submodule to single file (#176)
• Improve static file serving with Cache-Control header (#322)
• Use HTMLContent field in RSS feed (#418)
• Remove writeas/nerds/store pkg dependency (#445)
• Bump github.com/gorilla/feeds from 1.1.0 to 1.1.1
• Bump github.com/hashicorp/go-multierror from 1.0.0 to 1.1.1
• Bump github.com/microcosm-cc/bluemonday from 1.0.2 to 1.0.5
• Bump github.com/stretchr/testify from 1.6.0 to 1.7.0
• Bump gopkg.in/ini.v1 from 1.55.0 to 1.62.0
• Bump github.com/guregu/null from v3.4 to v3.5
• Bump github.com/go-sql-driver/mysql from 1.4.1 to 1.6.0
• Bump github.com/writeas/import from 0.2.0 to 0.2.1
• Bump github.com/mattn/go-sqlite3 from 1.10.0 to 1.14.6
• Bump github.com/gorilla/schema from 1.0.2 to 1.2.0
• Bump github.com/manifoldco/promptui from 0.3.2 to 0.8.0
• Bump github.com/urfave/cli/v2 from 2.1.1 to 2.3.0
• Bump github.com/fatih/color from 1.7.0 to 1.10.0

Upgrading from v0.12.0

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

Now make sure your database is backed up, and update it with:

writefreely db migrate

Finally, generate a new encryption key needed for this release (you can ignore messages about removing existing keys):

writefreely keys generate

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.12.0. Follow the instructions in each previous release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Developers

If you are running a custom build: we made changes to site styles and added a Javascript dependency that needs to be compiled (prose.js). Run this to compile everything:

make ui

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release!

Development

@gytisrepecka @thebaer @RJ722 @ketudb @pascoual @Dar13 @shleeable @joicemjoseph @dariusk @Obayanju @qwazix @Antolius @colin-axner @conor-f @VV-EE @mostfunkyduck @Dak425 @cjeller1592 @x4e @robjloranger

v0.12

Major Features

ActivityPub Mentions (T627)

Enable more interaction with your posts by mentioning users on Mastodon, Pleroma, and other ActivityPub platforms! Users on instances with federation enabled can now insert @[email protected] to mention someone. You might use this to write a long response to someone in the fediverse, or even mention your own microblogging account, so that replies to your blog post also notify you there, where you can continue the conversation.

New Admin Dashboard (T694)

We've redesigned the admin dashboard to be a little easier to navigate, and generally more user friendly. It now includes an overview of stats for your instance, dedicated pages for app settings and monitoring, and more details on what each configuration option does. We've also made it easier for admins to get to the "Invite people" page.

OAuth 2.0 Support (#225)

Now you can authenticate with your WriteFreely instance via OAuth! This is perfect for WriteFreely communities that are set up to accompany other platforms. We support three providers so far: GitLab, Slack, and Write.as.

Reader Filter Updates (#269)

Now the Reader will show the most recent 250 public posts, instead of only the last three months of public posts. This should be much more fitting for most WriteFreely instances.

Plain Text Import

Now you can import plain text files to publish them as posts on WriteFreely.

User-Facing Changes / Fixes

• Show dates on blog posts (T669, #276)
• Show post publish dates in local time (T670)
• Fix HTML entities in Draft descriptions (#248)
• Add Drafts explanation (#248)
• Fix post deletion on Pleroma (#233)
• Make user management + Reader pages consistent in their design (#262)
• Fix image metadata extraction (#266)
• Add syntax highlighting aliases: js, jsx, html (#270)
• Lightly style tables in posts (#194)
• Send users to Login page by default on private instances (#274)
• Fix pagination on last page of blogs using "Novel" display format (#272)
• Show 503 Service Unavailable page when server under high load (#284)
• Remove extraneous @context fields to fix Friendica federation (#299)

Minor Changes

• Require authentication for accessing editor (#245, #255)
• Fix 500 on invite links with invalid characters (#250)
• Tell search engines not to index invite URLs (#268)
• Hide Reader footer link when unauthenticated on private instances (#274)

Admin-Facing Changes

• Support Varnish use on ActivityPub endpoints (#180)
• Fix automatic certificates (#228)
• Automatically check for WriteFreely updates (T572) -- enable with update_checks = true in config
• Support account deletion via command-line for non-federated instances (T319 / #202)
• Support sign in via Write.as
• Support sign in via Slack (T710)
• Support sign in via GitLab (#277)
• Refactor command-line commands (#261)

Developer-Facing Changes

• Add /api/markdown endpoint for generating HTML from Markdown
• Add ARM64 build (#213)
• Support OAuth 2.0 as client application (#225)
• Add stylesheet cache busting script and use it on official WF release (#288)

Performance / Backend

• Improve resource use for federation (#249)
• Fix memory leak from gorilla/session library (#133)

Upgrading from v0.3.0 or later

Download the latest release for your operating system, from the files below. Then follow these steps:

1. Stop running your writefreely service
2. Replace all files in your installation except the keys directory with the files from the archive
3. Start your writefreely service again.

Now make sure your database is backed up, and migrate it with the steps below.

1. If you're running MariaDB, run this query on your WriteFreely database (fixes #302):

ALTER DATABASE writefreely CHARACTER SET latin1 COLLATE latin1_swedish_ci;

2. Finally, run this command to update your database schema:

writefreely db migrate

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.3.0 or later. Follow the instructions in each previous release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Developers

If you are running a custom build, note that there were style changes in this release. Run the following command to generate the latest stylesheets:

make ui

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release!

Development

@thebaer @robjloranger @qwazix @yalh76 @ngerakines @techknowlogick @shleeable @nkoehring @paddatrapper @cjeller1592

Documentation

@cjeller1592

Bug reports

@barbrastreisand @wakest @judges119 @laBecasse @misaka00251 @OliverViking @mrvdb @darddan @wiwie @annando

v0.12 Release Candidate 1

This is a WriteFreely v0.12.0 release candidate. It is intended to be stable, but may not be. Please open bug reports for any issues you find, and otherwise contact us via IRC (#writefreely on freenode) if you have any questions.

Major Features

ActivityPub Mentions (T627)

Enable more interaction with your posts by mentioning users on Mastodon, Pleroma, and other ActivityPub platforms! Users on instances with federation enabled can now insert @[email protected] to mention someone. You might use this to write a long response to someone in the fediverse, or even mention your own microblogging account, so that replies to your blog post also notify you there, where you can continue the conversation.

New Admin Dashboard (T694)

We've redesigned the admin dashboard to be a little easier to navigate, and generally more user friendly. It now includes an overview of stats for your instance, dedicated pages for app settings and monitoring, and more details on what each configuration option does. We've also made it easier for admins to get to the "Invite people" page.

OAuth 2.0 Support (#225)

Now you can authenticate with your WriteFreely instance via OAuth! This is perfect for WriteFreely communities that are set up to accompany other platforms. We support three providers so far: GitLab, Slack, and Write.as.

Reader Filter Updates (#269)

Now the Reader will show the most recent 250 public posts, instead of only the last three months of public posts. This should be much more fitting for most WriteFreely instances.

Plain Text Import

Now you can import plain text files to publish them as posts on WriteFreely.

User-Facing Changes / Fixes

• Show dates on blog posts (T669, #276)
• Show post publish dates in local time (T670)
• Fix HTML entities in Draft descriptions (#248)
• Add Drafts explanation (#248)
• Fix post deletion on Pleroma (#233)
• Make user management + Reader pages consistent in their design (#262)
• Fix image metadata extraction (#266)
• Add syntax highlighting aliases: js, jsx, html (#270)
• Lightly style tables in posts (#194)
• Send users to Login page by default on private instances (#274)
• Fix pagination on last page of blogs using "Novel" display format (#272)
• Show 503 Service Unavailable page when server under high load (#284)

Minor Changes

• Require authentication for accessing editor (#245, #255)
• Fix 500 on invite links with invalid characters (#250)
• Tell search engines not to index invite URLs (#268)
• Hide Reader footer link when unauthenticated on private instances (#274)

Admin-Facing Changes

• Support Varnish use on ActivityPub endpoints (#180)
• Fix automatic certificates (#228)
• Automatically check for WriteFreely updates (T572) -- enable with update_checks = true in config
• Support account deletion via command-line for non-federated instances (T319 / #202)
• Support sign in via Write.as
• Support sign in via Slack (T710)
• Support sign in via GitLab (#277)
• Refactor command-line commands (#261)

Developer-Facing Changes

• Add /api/markdown endpoint for generating HTML from Markdown
• Add ARM64 build (#213)
• Support OAuth 2.0 as client application (#225)
• Add stylesheet cache busting script and use it on official WF release (#288)

Performance / Backend

• Improve resource use for federation (#249)
• Fix memory leak from gorilla/session library (#133)

Upgrading from v0.11.x

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

Now make sure your database is backed up, and update it with:

writefreely db migrate

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.11.x. Follow the instructions in each previous release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Developers

If you are running a custom build, note that there were style changes in this release. Run make ui to generate the latest stylesheets.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release!

Development

@thebaer @robjloranger @qwazix @yalh76 @ngerakines @techknowlogick @shleeable @nkoehring @paddatrapper @cjeller1592

Documentation

@cjeller1592

Bug reports

@barbrastreisand @wakest @judges119 @laBecasse @misaka00251 @OliverViking @mrvdb @darddan

User-Facing Changes / Fixes

• Fix Announceing posts via ActivityPub (#212)
• Fix id property in collection posts ActivityStreams data (#214)
• Remove false "programmer error" log (#216)
• Fix password-protected blog rendering (#221)
• Fix silenced password-protected blog quirks
• Fix wrong errors returned when looking up non-existent paths (#215)

Upgrading from v0.11.x

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.11.x. Follow the instructions in each previous release if you're upgrading from v0.10.0 or earlier.

Contributors

Thanks for contributing to this release!

@robjloranger @cjeller1592

Major Features

Automatic SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt (T542)

It's now even easier to start up a WriteFreely instance with free, automatic certificates from Let's Encrypt. With the application facing the public internet (i.e. not behind a reverse proxy), you can set a few configuration values to have WriteFreely generate the certificate for you.

For new instances, choose Production, standalone > Secure (port 443), auto certificate during the interactive setup process.

For existing instances, set autocert = true and tls_cert_path = certs (see config documentation for more information).

WriteFreely Command-Line Interface

We've released our first official WriteFreely client along with this version: wf-cli! This is a simple command-line-based tool for publishing to one or many WriteFreely instances. It's perfect for tech-savvy users who don't want to leave their terminal window or anyone looking to build WriteFreely publishing into their desktop writing workflow -- and it's available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

User-Facing Changes / Fixes

• Prevent transliterated slugs from exceeding character limit (#137)
• Don't consider posts unpublished when they have a title (#138)
• Blog 404 pages are now styled like the rest of the blog (T493)
• Fix missing hostname when publishing via API and support WriteFreely CLI (#144)
• Fix various minor issues with single-user instances (#145)
• Support <audio> HTML element (#147)
• Fix future pinned posts showing in navigation (#158)
• Fix false logged-in state on failed login
• Fix title attribute getting stripped on <abbr> elements (#184)
• Add helpful instructions on invite links when logged in (T690)
• Publish to user's blog by default, instead of Drafts (T697)
• Fix blog URLs in CSV export (#205)
• Include Reader link in site-wide navigation while logged in
• Make header navigation on user and non-authenticated pages consistent

Minor Changes

• Fix go-sitemap-generator overriding GOMAXPROCs (#86)
• Log server software and version on startup (#168)
• Fix crash on some duplicate ActivityPub follows (#159)

Admin-Facing Changes

• Support setting a default visibility for all blogs (T675, #148)
• Support toning down WriteFreely promotion (T676, #149)
• Support using an alternative editor template (T677)
• Support customizing Reader page (T684)
• Support resetting user password from web-based UI (T695)
• Fix tar bomb on install (#160)

Developer-Facing Changes

• Add make build-arm7
• Remove dependency on github.com/gogs/gogs/pkg/tool (#182)
• API endpoints will now honor Accept: application/json headers (not only Content-Type) (#178)

Experimental / In-Progress Work

User Silencing (T661)

Now instance admins can silence problematic users to make their writing inaccessible to the world and prevent further publishing. This strikes a balance between preventing further abuse and making reversible moderation decisions, as users will still be able to log in to their account and access their data.

This is still experimental, as it needs more extensive testing. Please report any bugs you find and give us any feedback you have on this feature!

Reader-centric instances (T681, #157)

As part of our new Write.as for Teams service, we're experimenting with an alternative configuration for admins that want their site to be more focused on the collective work of its writers, rather than on individuals. It's meant for businesses, organizations, and institutions that want to create more of a shared blog than provide individual blog hosting. It sets the Reader view as the home page, uses blog templates with global navigation, and has hashtags search across all public blogs.

This functionality is not at all finalized, and subject to change drastically without notice. We don't recommend enabling this in your configuration unless you're merely curious or want to provide feedback (which we highly encourage!).

Upgrading from v0.10.0

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

Now make sure your database is backed up, and update it with writefreely --migrate.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.10.0. Follow the instructions in each previous #release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Developers

If you are running a custom build, note that there were style changes in this release. Run make ui to generate the latest stylesheets.

About v0.11.0...

Our v0.11.0 release featured a new regression that broke single-user instances, and taught us about the value release candidates -- something we'll start doing, going forward. There's no extra work needed to upgrade from v0.11.0 if you've already upgraded from v0.10 -- only your enduring support as we learn how to build good software goodly.

Contributors

Thanks for contributing to this release!

@robjloranger @OddBloke

Major Features

Automatic SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt (T542)

It's now even easier to start up a WriteFreely instance with free, automatic certificates from Let's Encrypt. With the application facing the public internet (i.e. not behind a reverse proxy), you can set a few configuration values to have WriteFreely generate the certificate for you.

For new instances, choose Production, standalone > Secure (port 443), auto certificate during the interactive setup process.

For existing instances, set autocert = true and tls_cert_path = certs (see config documentation for more information).

WriteFreely Command-Line Interface

We've released our first official WriteFreely client along with this version: wf-cli! This is a simple command-line-based tool for publishing to one or many WriteFreely instances. It's perfect for tech-savvy users who don't want to leave their terminal window or anyone looking to build WriteFreely publishing into their desktop writing workflow -- and it's available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

User-Facing Changes / Fixes

• Prevent transliterated slugs from exceeding character limit (#137)
• Don't consider posts unpublished when they have a title (#138)
• Blog 404 pages are now styled like the rest of the blog (T493)
• Fix missing hostname when publishing via API and support WriteFreely CLI (#144)
• Fix various minor issues with single-user instances (#145)
• Support <audio> HTML element (#147)
• Fix future pinned posts showing in navigation (#158)
• Fix false logged-in state on failed login
• Fix title attribute getting stripped on <abbr> elements (#184)
• Add helpful instructions on invite links when logged in (T690)
• Publish to user's blog by default, instead of Drafts (T697)
• Fix blog URLs in CSV export (#205)

Minor Changes

• Fix go-sitemap-generator overriding GOMAXPROCs (#86)
• Log server software and version on startup (#168)
• Fix crash on some duplicate ActivityPub follows (#159)

Admin-Facing Changes

• Support setting a default visibility for all blogs (T675, #148)
• Support toning down WriteFreely promotion (T676, #149)
• Support using an alternative editor template (T677)
• Support customizing Reader page (T684)
• Support resetting user password from web-based UI (T695)
• Fix tar bomb on install (#160)

Developer-Facing Changes

• Add make build-arm7
• Remove dependency on github.com/gogs/gogs/pkg/tool (#182)
• API endpoints will now honor Accept: application/json headers (not only Content-Type) (#178)

Experimental / In-Progress Work

User Silencing (T661)

Now instance admins can silence problematic users to make their writing inaccessible to the world and prevent further publishing. This strikes a balance between preventing further abuse and making reversible moderation decisions, as users will still be able to log in to their account and access their data.

This is still experimental, as it needs more extensive testing. Please report any bugs you find and give us any feedback you have on this feature!

Reader-centric instances (T681, #157)

As part of our new Write.as for Teams service, we're experimenting with an alternative configuration for admins that want their site to be more focused on the collective work of its writers, rather than on individuals. It's meant for businesses, organizations, and institutions that want to create more of a shared blog than provide individual blog hosting. It sets the Reader view as the home page, uses blog templates with global navigation, and has hashtags search across all public blogs.

This functionality is not at all finalized, and subject to change drastically without notice. We don't recommend enabling this in your configuration unless you're merely curious or want to provide feedback (which we highly encourage!).

Upgrading from v0.10.0

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

Now make sure your database is backed up, and update it with writefreely --migrate.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.10.0. Follow the instructions in each previous #release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Developers

If you are running a custom build, note that there were style changes in this release. Run make ui to generate the latest stylesheets.

Contributors

Thanks for contributing to this release!

@robjloranger @OddBloke

Major Features

Fully Private Instances (T576)

Communities looking for more privacy can now start up WriteFreely instances meant only for internal use. Just enable the private config value to make all blogs and content accessible only to authenticated users in your instance.

NOTE: this is a breaking change! This changes behavior for existing instances with the private config value already set to true. If you have it set, you should verify that the new behavior is what you want.

Landing Page Customization (T565, T574)

Now admins have two new ways to customize their multi-user instance:

Editing your landing page. Now you can change the content of your landing page from the Admin dashboard, including the banner text to the left of the signup form and the optional text below.

Changing the landing URL. For anyone who doesn't want to use their normal landing page -- such as with closed or invite-only instances -- this lets you set the URL that unauthenticated users go to when they first come to your site. For example, you might send them to your About page (/about) or your public Reader (/read).

User-Facing Changes / Fixes

• Add Lithuanian translation (writeas/web-core#3)
• Fix changing RTL setting back to LTR from web UI (#103, #110)
• Fix federation with pubgate (#100, #111, #116)
• Include pinned posts in JSON export (#112)
• Include post title in exported txt files (#114)
• Fix same-size 1st- and 2nd-level headings on blog index (#82)
• Fix post deletion logic needed for WriteFreely CLI (#117)
• Fix C syntax highlighting (#124)
• Fix default background-color not set (#132)
• Fix inconsistent naming / icons on post metadata page

Admin-Facing Changes

• Landing URL is now editable (T574)
• The private config option now makes an instance readable only by registered, authenticated users (T576)
• New upgrade script
• The --config command now automatically initializes the database, removing the need for --init-db during setup
• Specify which part of the app configuration you want to edit with the new --sections flag, e.g. writefreely --config --section="app db server"
• Landing page is now customizable (T565)

Developer-Facing Changes

• Fix lessc installation on macOS and CentOS (#97, #99)
• MathJax library is now a git submodule instead of directly included
• The writefreely.Serve() func has been split out into multiple functions
• Flag handling has moved out of the writefreely pkg to cmd/writefreely/main.go

Upgrading from v0.9.x

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.9.x. Follow the instructions in each previous #release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Developers

If you are running a custom build, note that there were style changes in this release. Run make ui to generate the latest stylesheets.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release!

@dariusk @gytisrepecka @robjloranger @joyeusenoelle @sandrockcstm @qwazix @mrvdb

#WriteFreely

This isn't a required upgrade; it's only needed to fix new installations.

Admin-Facing Changes

• Fix V2 migrations not run on a new instance (#92)
• Fix Docker build with Go Modules enabled (#95)

Upgrading from v0.9.0

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.9.0. Follow the instructions in each previous #release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Contributors

Thanks for contributing to this release!

@kaiyou

#WriteFreely

User-Facing Changes / Fixes

• Fix hash symbols (#) wrongly recognized as hashtags inside code blocks (#6)
• Hashtags without spaces between them are now properly parsed
• Fix IsValidUsername check when PagesParentDir isn't current dir
• Fix code blocks not highlighting when an invalid language is given (#81)
• Strip HTML from meta descriptions (#83)
• Add missing Apple touch icons (#77, #78)
• Fix future-dated posts being immediately federated when moving from Draft to blog (#76)
• Fix draft post metadata (#91)
• Fix excessive space between paragraphs inside blockquotes

Minor Changes

• Navigating to a non-existent invite ID now shows "Page not found" instead of "Server error"
• On Export page: "zip" option now shows "txt" instead
• Remove unused references to files.writeas.org resources

Admin-Facing Changes

• Improve admin navigation
• Move "About" and "Privacy" page editing off the dashboard to a new dedicated section
• Add the ability to change "About" and "Privacy" page titles
• Add Admin Dashboard link in backend navigation

Upgrading from v0.8.x

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

Now make sure your database is backed up, and update it with writefreely --migrate.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.8.x. Follow the instructions in each previous #release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Developers

If you are running a custom build, note that there were style changes in this release. Run make ui to generate the latest stylesheets.

Contributors

Thanks for contributing to this release!

@mrvdb

#WriteFreely

User-facing Fixes

• Fix same-page anchor links (#43, #42, #33)

Install Fixes

• Admin account isn't created correctly with --config (#71)
• Use correct go get command in documentation

Admin-Facing Changes

• Fix --create-user usage error message

Trivial Changes

• Fix Write.as link in README

Upgrading from v0.8.0

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.8.0. Follow the instructions in each previous #release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Contributors

Thanks for contributing to this release!

@mrvdb @SamWhited

Features

User Invites (T556)

Now it's even easier to run a private / invite-only community, with user invites. Admins have a new user_invites setting that can enable invite link generation for all users, admins only, or no users at all (the default). If enabled, users can create invite links to let others sign up for your WriteFreely instance, even if public registration is closed. Invite links can each be set to expire, or optionally have a maximum number of uses.

User-Facing Changes / Fixes

• Fix spacing in sublists (#27)
• Optimize web font loading (#65)

Admin-Facing Changes

• Fixed Docker build (#57)
• Support automated database migration with writefreely --migrate (T509)
• Support configuring resource directories (T560 / #63)

Upgrading from v0.7.x

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

Now make sure your database is backed up, and update it with writefreely --migrate.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.7.x. Follow the instructions in each previous #release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Developers

If you are running a custom build, note that there were style changes in this release. Run make ui to generate the latest stylesheets.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release!

@kaiyou @nkoehring

#WriteFreely

Fixes

• Fix blog customize page not rendering on Windows (#61)
• Initialize database during config step for single-user instance (#59)

Upgrading from v0.7.0

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.7.0. Follow the instructions in each previous #release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Features

User Management

• Admin user creation. Admins can now create a normal user from the command-line with: writefreely --create-user username:password
• Users List (T553). Get an overview of all the users in your community with the new user list for admins. This is the foundation for future moderation features.

Changes

• Use an en dash in the title of posts that are written in German, instead of em dash (#1)
• Now you can build writefreely without SQLite support. To include support, compile with the sqlite build tag (this is the default with all make commands)
• Blog names starting with a number now have an ActivityPub avatar

Fixes

• Prevent creating users with invalid usernames via command-line (#49)
• Fix metadata update for draft posts on single-user instances (#50)
• Fix "Database user or password not set." error when starting SQLite-backed instances (#54)
• Fix user creation process hanging on SQLite-backed instances (#53)
• Fix tagged post query on SQLite-backed instances (#55)
• Fix ActivityPub follows on SQLite-backed instances (#56)

Upgrading from v0.6.0

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.6.0. Follow the instructions in each previous #release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Developers

Some style changes were made in this version. If you are running a custom build / fork, run make ui to generate the latest stylesheets.

Contributors

Thanks for contributing to this release!

@geekgonecrazy

Features

SQLite support (T529)

You no longer need MySQL / MariaDB to store data for your instance! Just select SQLite during the configuration process to use it instead of the MySQL driver.

Reader / local timeline (T554)

Take a break from writing to see what others on your instance have written! Admins can now turn on the Local timeline option in the Admin panel ([app] local_timeline in config.ini) to enable this for both writers on your instance and the wider public. The local timeline functions just like Read Write.as -- it includes an RSS feed, and is opt-in. Writers can start publishing their work on the feed by going into their blog settings and choosing the Public visibility option.

More changes

• Ability to create admin user from the command-line with: --create-admin username:password (T544)
• Specify non-default configuration file to use with various commands via new -c [filename] flag
• Host highlight.js and MathJax locally, instead of on CloudFlare (T551)

Upgrading from v0.5.x

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.5.x. Follow the instructions in each previous #release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this release!

@BenOvermyer @kaiyou

Features

• Configure bind address with new bind configuration value (#38, #5)
• Syntax highlighting support for all programming languages supported in highlight.js (#39)
• Modify NodeInfo description with new site_description config value
• Change admin values via the web admin UI (T541)

Fixes

• Fix metadata editing in single-user mode (#40)
• Always show stats on About page if public_stats enabled

Upgrading from v0.4.x

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.4.x. See previous releases if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Contributors

Thanks for contributing!

@mrvdb

Features

• Work as a standalone server, with TLS (T537)
• Code syntax highlighting (#31)

Functional Fixes

• Fix About page link in Admin dashboard
• Include About/Privacy page content in page description

Upgrading from v0.3.x

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

No additional steps are needed to upgrade from v0.3.x. Follow the instructions in each previous release if you're upgrading from an earlier version.

Contributors

Thanks to everyone who contributed!

@mrvdb @koehn

Features

Admin panel

Dashboard

Now you can get a basic overview of your application on the admin dashboard. It shows you the app's resource utilization and provides helpful admin commands.

Currently, the first registered user is always an admin.

Page editing (T533)

Make your instance your own by updating your site's About and Privacy pages -- now possible directly from the web. The editor accepts Markdown.

Other Features

• Add --init-db flag to create schema in app (T530)
• Add --reset-pass <username> option for resetting passwords (#25, T534)
• Federate draft when published to a blog (#9, T526)
• Support setting created date on new posts (T532)

Functional Fixes

• Fix "view blog" links on customize page in single-user mode (#21)
• Fix "Scheduled" badge appearing when application and database timezones are different (#23)
• Prevent fatal errors when no ActivityPub response is returned
• Change Accept activity ID to use blog's origin (#16)
• Fix MathJax setting not sticking (#28)
• Fix wrong collection data loaded in RSS feeds on multi-user instances
• Fix feed and outbox post order in RSS feeds and ActivityPub outboxes
• Fix em dashes and some glyphs by upgrading Lora

Others

• Add -v flag for outputting version

Upgrading from v0.2.x

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

Important: you'll want to keep config.ini and the files in your keys directory across all upgrades -- don't delete or replace these manually.

You'll need to manually migrate your database for now. To upgrade, connect to your database and run:

CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS `appcontent` (
  `id` varchar(36) NOT NULL,
  `content` mediumtext CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_bin NOT NULL,
  `updated` datetime NOT NULL DEFAULT CURRENT_TIMESTAMP,
  PRIMARY KEY (`id`)
) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1;

Optionally, run these queries to clean up bad data that might've shown up due to previous bugs, now fixed in this version.

-- Erroneous values inserted if you tried to enable MathJax on your blog (fixed in #28)
DELETE FROM `collectionattributes` WHERE collection_id = 0;

Development

This update contains some style changes. Run make ui to regenerate CSS after pulling in the latest changes.

Contributors

Thanks to our contributors!

@TheJF @BenOvermyer

Bugfix release 0.2.1

Application Fixes

• Fix Accept activity IDs (#16)
• Add login link to single-user blogs (#15)

Installation Fixes

• Fix more schema issues (#18)

New Features

• See how many fediverse followers your blogs have
• WriteFreely now works with Pleroma

Application Fixes

• Fix individual post ActivityStreams data fetching, so boosting works (#4)
• Use WriteFreely avatars in social media image preview, instead of Write.as logo

Installation Fixes

• Fix template loading on Windows (#2)
• Fix database errors around default values (#3, #7)
• Don't unnecessarily connect to DB after configuring multi-user instance
• Show any errors when server start fails
• Fix encryption key loading on Windows
• Move encryption key generation from keys.sh to writefreely --gen-keys

Installing

See our guide.

Upgrading from v0.1

Download the latest release for your operating system. Stop running your writefreely service, replace all files in your installation with the ones in the archive, and then start your writefreely service again.

Important: always keep config.ini and the files in your keys directory across all upgrades -- don't delete or replace these manually.

Database migrations are manual for now! Fun! To upgrade, connect to your database and run:

ALTER TABLE `remoteusers` DROP `followers`;

Introducing WriteFreely — the open source version of Write.as.

Version 0.1 allows you to start your own ActivityPub-enabled blogging community, or self-host a blog just for yourself.

Here's how to get started.

Known issues

• Fediverse followers on your Stats page will always show 0