🐛 Fixed attribution on links in email-only posts (#26899)

refs
https://linear.app/ghost/issue/ONC-1569/post-attribution-for-links-in-emails-seems-to-be-broken-on-pro
closes
https://linear.app/ghost/issue/ONC-1568/email-only-post-attribution-incorrectly-resolves-to-url-type-instead

## Problem

Attribution for links in email-only posts does not correctly resolve to
the post itself. For example, if a free member clicks a link in an
email-only post they received, then upgrade to a paid membership within
the same browser session, the newly created subscription should be
attributed to the email only post. Currently though, the subscription
would be attributed as a `url` and, depending on the link, the URL might
be the `/email/:uuid` route of the post, or the Homepage.

## Root cause

In
`/ghost/core/core/server/services/member-attribution/url-translator.js`,
Ghost had previously been filtering out email only posts, because the
Post.findOne() query implicitly filters to only `published` posts, while
an email-only post will have a status of `sent`.

## Fix

Updated the query in the url-translator to filter for
`status:[published,sent]` and `type:[post,page]`. With this change, the
attribution correctly resolves to the `post` itself, rather than the
generic `url`.

There is also a change to the attribution builder to support this: since
email only post's don't have a URL registered in the URL service, the
`attribution_url` was being set to `null`. This adds a conditional to
check if the post is email only, and if so, it sets the
`attribution_url` to `/email/:uuid` for the post.

Finally, it also updated the link on the members page to the post to
point to the Post Analytics, rather than the post on the frontend. This
change is made for regular `published` posts in addition to the `sent`
posts for consistency.


### Files changed
- **`url-translator.js`** — Added fallback `findOne` query with
`status:sent` for email-only posts; added `/email/:uuid/` URL for sent
posts
- **`attribution-builder.js`** — Use `/email/:uuid/` URL when resolving
attribution for email-only posts at read time

Author: cmraible

ghost/admin/app/components/member/subscription-detail-box.hbs

@@ -14,9 +14,15 @@
                 Source&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;<span>{{@sub.attribution.referrerSource}}</span>
             </p>
             {{/if}}
-            {{#if (and @sub.attribution @sub.attribution.url @sub.attribution.title)}}
+            {{#if (and @sub.attribution @sub.attribution.title)}}
             <p>
+                {{#if (and @sub.attribution.id (eq @sub.attribution.type "post"))}}
+                Page&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;<a href="/ghost/#/posts/analytics/{{@sub.attribution.id}}">{{ @sub.attribution.title }}</a>
+                {{else if @sub.attribution.url}}
                 Page&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;<a href="{{@sub.attribution.url}}" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">{{ @sub.attribution.title }}</a>
+                {{else}}
+                Page&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;{{ @sub.attribution.title }}
+                {{/if}}
             </p>
             {{/if}}
         </div>

ghost/core/core/server/services/member-attribution/attribution-builder.js

@@ -96,7 +96,7 @@ class Attribution {
             };
         }
 
-        const updatedUrl = this.#urlTranslator.getUrlByResourceId(this.id, {absolute: true});
+        const updatedUrl = this.#urlTranslator.getResourceUrl(this.id, this.type, model, {absolute: true});
 
         return {
             id: model.id,

ghost/core/core/server/services/member-attribution/url-translator.js

@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ class UrlTranslator {
                 return {
                     type: item.type,
                     id: item.id,
-                    url: this.getUrlByResourceId(item.id, {absolute: false})
+                    url: this.getResourceUrl(item.id, item.type, resource, {absolute: false})
                 };
             }
 
@@ -128,11 +128,24 @@ class UrlTranslator {
         return this.urlService.getUrlByResourceId(id, options);
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Get the URL for a resource, handling email-only posts which have no
+     * public URL (the URL service returns /404/ for them).
+     */
+    getResourceUrl(id, type, model, {absolute = true} = {}) {
+        const isEmailOnly = type === 'post' && model.get('status') === 'sent';
+        if (isEmailOnly) {
+            const emailPath = `/email/${model.get('uuid')}/`;
+            return absolute ? this.relativeToAbsolute(emailPath) : emailPath;
+        }
+        return this.getUrlByResourceId(id, {absolute});
+    }
+
     async getResourceById(id, type) {
         switch (type) {
         case 'post':
         case 'page': {
-            const post = await this.models.Post.findOne({id}, {require: false});
+            const post = await this.models.Post.findOne({id}, {require: false, filter: 'type:[post,page]+status:[published,sent]'});
             if (!post) {
                 return null;
             }

ghost/core/test/e2e-server/services/member-attribution.test.js

@@ -185,6 +185,73 @@ describe('Member Attribution Service', function () {
                     title: author.get('name')
                 });
             });
+
+            it('resolves email-only posts via id and type', async function () {
+                // Simulates the offer link flow: member-attribution.js extracts
+                // attribution_id and attribution_type from the URL search params
+                // and stores them as {id, type} entries in the URL history
+                const id = fixtureManager.get('posts', 0).id;
+                const post = await models.Post.where('id', id).fetch({require: true});
+
+                // Make the post email-only (must set email_only flag first,
+                // otherwise the model rejects the 'sent' status)
+                await models.Post.edit({posts_meta: {email_only: true}, status: 'published'}, {id});
+                await models.Post.edit({status: 'sent'}, {id});
+
+                try {
+                    const attribution = await memberAttributionService.service.getAttribution([
+                        {
+                            id: post.id,
+                            type: 'post',
+                            time: Date.now()
+                        }
+                    ]);
+
+                    // Should resolve to the post, not fall through to homepage
+                    assertObjectMatches(attribution, {
+                        id: post.id,
+                        url: `/email/${post.get('uuid')}/`,
+                        type: 'post'
+                    });
+
+                    const resource = await attribution.fetchResource();
+                    const expectedUrl = urlUtils.createUrl(`/email/${post.get('uuid')}/`, true);
+
+                    assertObjectMatches(resource, {
+                        id: post.id,
+                        url: expectedUrl,
+                        type: 'post',
+                        title: post.get('title')
+                    });
+                } finally {
+                    await models.Post.edit({posts_meta: {email_only: false}, status: 'published'}, {id});
+                }
+            });
+
+            it('does not resolve draft posts via id and type', async function () {
+                const id = fixtureManager.get('posts', 0).id;
+                const post = await models.Post.where('id', id).fetch({require: true});
+
+                await models.Post.edit({status: 'draft'}, {id});
+
+                try {
+                    const attribution = await memberAttributionService.service.getAttribution([
+                        {
+                            id: post.id,
+                            type: 'post',
+                            time: Date.now()
+                        }
+                    ]);
+
+                    // Draft posts should not resolve — falls through to null attribution
+                    assertObjectMatches(attribution, {
+                        id: null,
+                        type: null
+                    });
+                } finally {
+                    await models.Post.edit({status: 'published'}, {id});
+                }
+            });
         });
 
         describe('with subdirectory', function () {

ghost/core/test/unit/server/services/member-attribution/attribution.test.js

@@ -71,6 +71,9 @@ describe('AttributionBuilder', function () {
             getUrlByResourceId() {
                 return 'https://absolute/dir/path';
             },
+            getResourceUrl() {
+                return 'https://absolute/dir/path';
+            },
             relativeToAbsolute(path) {
                 return 'https://absolute/dir' + path;
             },