On July 28th a new version (2.4) of Magento will be officially released. It’s a big update which includes over 100 fixes to the core code and about 30 security enhancements.
Security improvements
The new release fixed vulnerabilities that can be used to get customer information or obtain unauthorized access to the admin panel. Two-factor authentication is now the default requirement to enter the admin panel, and data rendering for UI data providers is disabled by default to prevent any malicious activity.
PWA Studio
Progressive Web Apps, or PWA, are considered to be the future of creating e-commerce websites as these applications use modern web technologies which improve loading speed, security, cross-browser compatibility and responsive user interface. They also provide offline mode availability and “mobile” mode that allows you to send push notifications. All of this results in conversion rate growth and decline in application weight which is why starting from version 2.3, Magento supports PWA Studio – the set of developer tools that will allow to create such apps.
B2B capabilities
In version 2.4, Magento expands it’s B2B capabilities including unique rules for each company account, customisable rules based on total order amount, number of items for shipment costs etc., full history log of actions that have been performed on purchase orders, relevant email notifications for all steps in the approval process and the ability to log in as a customer.
Elasticsearch
Elasticsearch in the new version of Magento is the default catalog search engine. It ensures faster and more accurate search possibilities. It also supports the use of partial words in search terms and SKUs when using quick search.
Improved site performance
There are a lot of optimisations to caching including up to 25-30% increase in speed for Quick Order add-to-cart performance, optimisations for Redis performance, lazy loading to load images and better caching of search results.
Inventory Management
Magento 2.4 provides support for in-store pickup and bundle product support. And from now on configurable products will also have stock amounts which will be sum calculations of the stocks of their child products.
New Media Gallery and Adobe Stock integration
A new, searchable interface allows to easily find photos in Adobe Stock images, preview them in the media gallery, sort and filter them up to 30 times faster than previously. Merchants can also use Media Gallery to evaluate storefront image usage.
Other changes
Magento 2.4 introduced a lot of changes to multi-store functionality, improved cart and checkout features (like waiting/spinning icon while prices are updated in the cart, radio buttons for shipping methods, messages in mini-cart when a product becomes out-of-stock etc.), fixed bundle products functionality (like improvement of indexing, adding to cart functionality, applying promotion rules to such products and so on), presented multiple catalog improvements and some other fixes in admin panel.
Why should you update to Magento 2.4 now?
In summary, its important to keep your Magento version up to date almost solely because of security improvements on your store. As a store owner you have the responsibility to keep your customers safe while they use your website. The other improvements in functionality are a nice additional bonus!
