Toolsby Spectral Web Services

DocsRepublish Tracker

Republish Tracker configuration

Putting a Republish button on your posts in six steps, then the reference — the button, your guidelines and credit line, the window's options (plain text, image downloads), hiding the button, what the Analytics tab counts, and what to check when something's off.

One script tag puts a Republish button on every post. Another outlet presses it and gets your guidelines and a copy-ready version of the article, carrying a pixel and a script that count where it runs.

Get it running

  1. Connect your Ghost site. If you haven't yet, Connect your Ghost site has the steps.
  2. Paste your Content API key. On the Settings tab, under Content API Key. It's the Content key of your custom integration (Ghost → Settings → Integrations), not the Admin key. The button uses it to fetch each article.
  3. Write your guidelines and credit line. Republishing Guidelines is the text the window opens with. Boilerplate is the credit line added to every copy. Both take headings, bold, links and lists.
  4. Place the button. Under Button: a label, the CSS selector of the element it sits by, and whether it goes before, after or inside that element. .gh-content and After put it under the article on most themes.
  5. Save, then paste the install snippet once. Copy the script tag from the Install tab into Ghost → Settings → Code injection → Site footer, and save there too.
  6. Open a post on your site and press the button. You should see your guidelines and the copy fields. From here on, every Save reaches your site within about a minute; there's nothing to re-paste.

Everything below is reference: each setting, what a republisher gets, and what to check when something's off.

The Settings tab

  • Show the Republish button. The site-wide switch. Off hides the button everywhere without touching the snippet in Ghost.
  • Content API Key. A site setting, shared with the other tools that read your site.
  • Button. The Button label (Republish, Steal this story, Reprint permissions), the CSS selector, and the Position: before or after the matched element, or inside it at the start or the end. If the selector matches nothing, the button parks itself in the bottom corner of the page instead of vanishing.
  • Republish window. Three switches, all off by default:
    • Show the copy-paste fields above the guidelines. Off, the guidelines come first.
    • Offer a plain-text copy. Adds a Plain text field, for outlets that can't paste HTML. Plain text carries no pixel or script, so a republication pasted from it isn't counted.
    • Offer the article's images for download. Adds an Images list: the featured image and every image in the article, each with its caption and a Download link to the full-size file, plus Download all as .zip.
  • Republishing Guidelines. Rich text: your terms, a link to your full policy, and a request to keep the pixel and script with the article.
  • Boilerplate. The credit line, at the end of the article unless Put the boilerplate above the article is on. Something like "Originally published by YOURSITENAME. Please visit YOURSITENAME to sign up for our weekly email".

Pressing the button opens a window with:

  • Your guidelines, first or last as you chose.
  • HTML. The article as clean HTML: headline, byline, featured image, the body, your credit line. The pixel sits after the first paragraph and the script at the end.
  • Plain text (if on). The same article as text: one paragraph per block, lists as lines, links spelled out. Images, embeds and forms are left out. No pixel, no script.
  • Images (if on). Each with a Download link to the original file. Download all as .zip builds the zip in the republisher's browser; it opens with a captions.txt listing each file's caption and alt text. An image hosted on another site may open in a new tab instead of downloading, and stays out of the zip if that site doesn't allow it; captions.txt lists those too, with their addresses.
  • Script only and Pixel only, for outlets that paste article text by hand and add the tracker separately.

Either tracker records one page view of the republished article and nothing else, never anything about the republisher's readers. The pixel keeps working on sites that strip scripts; the script reports the page it's on.

The Install tab

The one script tag, and a Re-publish settings button for when the Content API key or the Ghost URL was changed from Site settings rather than here. The button renders only on post pages, the ones Ghost gives the post-template class.

Hiding the button

  • On one post: give it the internal tag #no-republish-button.
  • Everywhere: turn off Show the Republish button on the Settings tab. The snippet can stay in Ghost.

The Analytics tab

One row per article, the republishing sites grouped under it, over the last 7, 30 or 90 days, with a CSV export. Two counts per row: Pixel loads and JS views. A site that strips scripts shows pixel loads only; a site that blocks images shows JS views only; the article row sums both. There's no per-visitor dedup: one event per page load.

When something's off

The button isn't on my posts

Check in this order: the snippet is in Code injection → Site footer and that page was saved; Show the Republish button is on; you're looking at a post, not a page or the home page; the post isn't tagged #no-republish-button. Then reload the page properly, and give a fresh Save a minute to reach the site.

The button sits in the bottom corner of the page

The CSS selector matched nothing, so the button parked itself where you'd see it. Fix the selector on the Settings tab (.gh-content works on most themes), and check it again after a theme change.

The window says "Sorry — could not load this article for republishing"

The Content API key is wrong or was revoked, or the site's Ghost URL changed. Correct the key on the Settings tab and save; if it was changed from Site settings, press Re-publish settings on the Install tab. The same message appears on a post whose address doesn't end in its slug, which some custom routes produce.

I saved, but the site still shows the old settings

Settings reach the site within about a minute. If they still haven't, press Re-publish settings on the Install tab. If saving reported that the settings couldn't be published, save again.

Download all as .zip left some images out

Those images are hosted on another site that doesn't let a browser read them; the status line says how many. Their Download links still open them in a new tab, and captions.txt lists them with their addresses.

An outlet republished us and nothing was counted

Either they pasted the plain text, which can't carry a tracker, or their CMS stripped both the pixel and the script. Send them the Pixel only line to add to the article.

Contributor access

If you give a contributor a Republish Tracker grant (Site settings → Users), use shows them the settings and the analytics; manage lets them change and save.