Magento 2.4 release
The global pandemic has resulted in on-premise stores aiming to step into the digital commerce environment. The main reason why Magento had to launch a new version that concentrates on helping business owners realize new options in the current commerce environment and acts as a measure for preparing them for the future.
Magento 2.4 has been released, and the latest features are sure-shot benefits for both customers and business owners. Understanding the Magento 2.4 enhancements and features applicable to both commerce and open-source versions. The new release covers all the improvements that were part of the Magento 2.3.5-p 1.
Besides new functions, the Magento update comes with 30 security improvements and 100 new core code fixes.
Introduction of the Magento 2.4 upgrade
Most Magento releases come with innovations that make the platform more excellent in several aspects. The latest Magento 2.4.0 release is out now!
The Magento 2.4.0 release includes new features, bug fixes, security changes, test cycles, packages & extensions, and support for PHP 7.4!
2FA security for Magento 2 admin panel
Magento Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) raises security by requiring two-step authentication to access the Magento Admin UI from all devices. The extension supports multiple authenticators, including Google Authenticator, Authy, Duo, and U2F keys. 2FA applies to Magento Admin users only.
Approval workflow for purchase
The latest Magento 2.4 features have introduced a new approval workflow capability as a significant update. This feature allows B2B organizations to personalize their approval workflow with a simplified form.
Seller supported shopping
Merchants can log in to the client’s website and help better the customer experience and serve unmatched services. With this feature, admins can support clients in different manners:
- Streamlining any segment of the buying process
- Helping customers navigate any of the personalized capability
In addition to this, admins can directly request quotes and place orders to save the customer’s time
In-store pickup
The in-store pickup in Inventory Management, previously known as the Multi-Source Inventory (MSI), lets business owners select the on-premise inventory locations near the customer’s pickup area. It helps customers quickly and easily identify the nearest location to pick up the product during the checkout process.
Improved media gallery
Developing content, managing, and keeping it fresh can be a time-intensive process. Magento 2.4 is equipped with a Media Gallery with a 30X faster performance and boosts Adobe Stock integration.
Merchants can easily manage images by analyzing how frequently and where these images were utilized. The new image attributes make it easier for businesses to search and filter them. The latest updated Adobe Stock Integration will shift management workflow and image licensing to the new media gallery saving considerable time.
PWA (Progressive Web Application) development
The eCommerce site has launched the newest version of PWA Studio. The PWA studio introduces the new Venia storefront. Many partners, developers, and merchants have adapted to the PWA Studio. Magento is working to make it quicker and more cost-efficient to launch the two together.
Maintaining and configuring Elasticsearch
*Magento 2.4 requires Elasticsearch (shift from MySQL) as the catalog or listing or main search engine. The search engine is utilized for searching and listing the products available in the store.
Once a customer enters a category page, they receive a filtered and sorted list by the search engine. It makes Elasticsearch a vital service for deploying the new Magento store. Without the search engine service, the eCommerce page will not show products on the category page.
Advantages of Elasticsearch
Magento has made the major decision to shift to Elasticsearch due to the associated advantages. Elasticsearch has markedly improved performance as compared to MySQL when customers run a layered navigation filtering search. The search engine can help screen the products based on the attributes, display the total number of available products quicker, and reduce server resource usage.
The search engine is the best bet and can be effortlessly installed and configured. Elasticsearch doesn’t require a considerable amount of attention from the server admin and is stable. If needed, it’s possible to increase the number of search engine servers and develop a cluster.
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Platform and Security Updates
All in one security patch (M2.3.5 p2) End-users can easily install a single security patch that provides the fix without applying hundreds of extra-functional fixes by merely using the new Magento 2.3.5 p2 patch.
Strategic security enhancements
- Two-factor Authentication is compulsory for the Magento admin. The feature is active by default and not visible.
- Cloud SSH has been secured by deploying Multi-factor Authentication (MFA).
- By default, the template filter strict mode is activated.
New updated Security Policy
- Thirty new security enhancements will help eliminate Cross-site Scripting(XSS) and Remote Code Execution (RCE) liabilities.
- Malicious users are prevented from deploying random javascript by disabling data rendering features for UI data providers in default settings.
- Upgrades in the platform.
- PHP 7.1, 7.2 support has been reduced, and 7.4 support has been introduced.
- ElasticSearch 2.x has been eliminated, 6.x and 5.x have been reduced, and 7.6x set as the default catalog search engine.
- Removal of Braintree Integration from the core.
- Elimination of Core Integration of the Signifyd Fraud Protection Code.
- Users can access the latest PHP unit testing framework via PHP 7.4, the new PHP unit 9.x is compatible, and PHP unit 6.5 is reduced.
- To highlight the shift of the Zend Framework to the Linux Foundation’s Lamda project, the framework has been reduced from Magento 2.4.
- MySQL 8 support has been launched.
- Elasticsearch engine has been set as default, and MySQL Catalog Search engine eliminated.
Miscellaneous enhancements
- With accordance to the latest release, all the third-party payment vendors are removed.
- Removal of Web Setup Wizard; hence, everyone needs to upgrade Magento or use the command line to install Magento. The Composer update plugin has automated all the existing manual tasks.
- Redis performance has seen drastic optimization.
- Easier and quicker reordering and quick ordering, which increases the cart performance by 25-30%.
- PayPal Express checkout integration shifted to the new PayPal Javascript SDK
Magento Open Source & Commerce 2.4 release notes
The Magento Open Source 2.4.0 version offers support for Elasticsearch 7.6.x, MySQL 8.0, and PHP 7.4. The latest release means that Authorize.Net method integration gets eliminated from the core code. For Magento Commerce 2.4, the release suggests that Worldpay, CyberSource, eWay, and Authorize.Net gets removed from the core code. Business owners need to migrate to the official extension, which is present on the Magento Marketplace website.
Preferably, before the latest release, merchants needed to deploy and configure the official Braintree payment integration extension from the Marketplace in place of the core integration. With the newest release, the payment extension is present in the Magento release. Merchants need to abide by the extra steps to ensure proper integration of the Braintree extension with the 2.4.0 deployment.
Merchants need to ensure that their environment is compliant with the minimum technical slack requirements before upgrading to Magento 2.4.0. The quarterly release will contain backward-incompatible changes (BIC). The latest deployment has small BIC changes.
Magento B2B Release notes
Elasticsearch’s Layered Navigation has reported the proper working of attribute aggregations. Special characters based search orders work accurately. Clear button selection now results in filter expansion rather than collapsing like the previous scenario.
The Order History search filter conclusion now includes Product SKU/Name. Customers can click the Purchase, Cancel, Reject and Approve buttons only once compared to previously when they could do it multiple times. The bug in version 2.3.4, which resulted in custom extension attributes that could not be allowed from Customer Address to the Quote address, has been entirely resolved. Earlier, during B2B installation, a SQL error would be displayed while assigning categories to the shared catalogs; the same is resolved. Admins can now add products not in the shared catalog to the order.
The Quotes details page has a Fixed Product Tax displayed. These are just some of the changes in the latest version.
Package
For managing PHP packages, the Magento application utilizes Composer. The composer.json file has a list of packages declared. The composer.lock file has a package list (a complete version of each package and the relevant dependencies) required to build the Magento application installation.
Conclusion
Magento’s latest 2.4 release is the right step into the future.
The latest release of Magento 2.4 brings you many new features for performance, security, search, site management, and many more.
Due to the flexibility of Magento, it is the best eCommerce solution for the kind of business sizes.
If you are satisfied and want to enjoy Magento’s latest advantages, we can highly recommend the latest Magento update.
The new Elastic Search integration is a perfect move into a great shopping experience as a particular highlight. The layered navigation work pretty fast and customer can enjoy filtering for products.
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