It’s here, can you believe it? The Magento 2 update, i.e Magento 2.4.5, has landed. Having reviewed the official Magento release notes, we have to say we are rather excited about what Magento 2.4.5 means for merchants using the platform.
In true Foundation Commerce style, we’ve broken down the ins and outs and put together a real simple guide that’s dead easy for you as a merchant to understand.
First things first…
Why are merchants using Magento 2 for eCommerce?
We’re definitely not biassed, but Magento 2 – especially since the launch of Hyva Themes – is a cracking platform for eCommerce stores.
Not only can it integrate with tons of extensions and themes and reduce browser operations, but it provides advanced browser caching for static content and supports the latest PHP versions.
If that’s not enough, it has multiple benefits for customers too including being mobile friendly and responsive and providing faster page load speeds.
Merchants using the Magento 2 platform have reported some pretty impressive improvements, for example:
- Processing 39% more orders
- Up to 66% faster add-to-cart server response times
- Up to 51% faster end-to-end checkout times
That being said, everyone knew Magento 2 needed an update, if not just to fix the issues but to improve security and make it more accessible.
With the multiple bug fixes included in this release as well as new features, platform stability and performance are through the roof.
Let’s explore.
Magento 2.4.5 New and Latest Features
Google Analytics
Google is constantly making changes to analytics and having recently updated the tracking and integration mechanisms of AdWords and Analytics in web apps through Gtag, Adobe had to respond.
Adobe Commerce already had a set of built-in modules including Google AdWords, Analytics, Optimizer, and TagManager that leverage the former API for integration with Google services. In this release, they have re-implemented this integration using the GTag approach.
GraphQL
Ever felt the pain of rebuilding the unified storefront GraphQL schema during deployment or when making changes to attributes in production? Well, the good news is, Adobe has made this process faster with the updates to Magento 2.4.5.
What comes with this is a benefit to the shopper too – they experience faster page loads speeds when the GraphQL schema must be rebuilt. What a win.
If you’re into the technical, background things too, you might be interested to know:
- There’s now the capability to consume the expiration date/time of the authorization token through the use of JSON Web Tokens (JWT) in the GraphQL API.
- The {bin/magento config:set graphql/session/disable 1} command allows you to completely disable the creation of session cookies for all GraphQL operations. By default, Magento Open Source created these cookies and relied on them for authorization, which affected performance. It’s now being recommended to use tokens as the only form of authorization for GraphQL requests.
- Session cookies have been launched in GraphQL operations using class proxies – but only when needed.
- Session usage has been removed from http header processors in GraphQL such as store, customer, or currency.
Page Builder
The page builder v.1.7.2 is compatible with Magento 2.4.5, with some enhancements to the column layout. This means:
- Columns are now exposed, so you can control their settings on the storefront
- Wrapping triggered by user actions is now supported by column resizing
Payments
Merchants who run deployment with Payment Services enabled have Apple Pay available to them. Using this payment method means shoppers don’t have to enter their credit or debit card details. What’s more, Apple Pay is available for merchants to toggle on the product detail page, mini cart, shopping cart and checkout workflow.
There’s also a new PayPal update. If you’re a merchant in Spain or Italy, you can now offer PayPal Pay Later to your customers. If you are a PayPal Pay Later user, you can now also preview how the buttons will look on the storefront for checkout, minicart, cart and product pages.
Last but not least, Braintree has discontinued the KOUNT fraud protection integration and so this has been removed from the Magento codebase. But the always request 3DS has been added to the Admin.
PWA Updates
Yes, we’re not going there! All you need to know is that it’s still not feature complete or 100% compatible yet!
Magento 2.4.5 Enhancements
It’s what we’ve all been waiting for… platform stability and improved eCommerce performance, with the added benefit of some new features. Are you ready to find out what’s improved? Here we go…
Security Enhancements
The release of 2.4.5 sees 20 security fixes and security platform improvements. These include:
- Google reCAPTCHA support for Wishlist Sharing, Create New Customer Account and Gift Cards forms
- ACL resources have been instilled to the inventory
- The security of the inventory template has been enhanced
- The malicious code filter has been upgraded to HTMLPurifier Library
Platform Enhancements
Magento 2.4.5 now supports [PHPStan] (^1.5.7 with constraint) GitHub-35315, Composer 2.2, TinyMCE 5.10.2, jQueryUI 1.13.1, and PHPStan 1.5.7. What’s more, 20 Composer Dependencies have been upgraded to the latest version and all outdated JS libraries have been upgraded to the latest versions.
Magento 2.4.5 Fixes
We’re not going to delve into the 290 fixes and improvements Magento has made, but they are definitely worth checking out if you are involved with eCommerce web development.You can view them in the release notes here.
Need a Magento 2 Specialist?
We love a good conversation with merchants as passionate about Magento 2 as we are. If you fancy a chat about Magento 2 in general, migrating to Hyva Themes or ongoing maintenance, get in touch.