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Magento 2.4 was released on 28th July, 2020. You must be wondering why we need to upgrade to Magento 2.4.
Below are some reasons and important features of Magento 2.4:
1. Security Enhancements
This release has more than 30 security fixes and platform security improvements. Some of those are:
a. Two-factor authentication is enabled by default for the admin and it cannot be disabled. Admin must configure 2FA to log into the admin.
b. Template filter strict mode is enabled by default. Easy for the developers when coding email templates.
c. Data rendering for UI data providers is now disabled by default. This will prevent malicious users from executing arbitrary javascript which ensures that the store is secure.
d. Content security policy improvements
2. Platform Upgrades
a. Magento 2.4 supports only PHP 7.4. PHP 7.1 & PHP 7.2 are deprecated. This enhances the core strength of the platform. All the benefits of PHP 7.4 are into Magento 2.4
b. Elasticsearch 7.6.x is the default catalog search engine for both Magento commerce and open-source which has robust search feature. Magento 2.4 cannot be installed without also installing Elastic Search 7.6.x. MySQL search engine has been removed completely.
c. Support for MySQL 8.0. Although MySQL 5.7 is supported also by Magento 2.4. It is recommended to migrate to MySQL 8.0 for improved performance, security and reliability.
d. Support for MariaDB 10.4. Maria DB 10.0 and 10.1 are no longer supported. It is recommended to upgrade to Maria DB 10.4 if you are running on Maria DB 10.2.
e. Migration of dependencies on the Zend Framework to Laminas Project
f. Signifyd fraud core integration is removed, however, Signifyd users can download the extension from marketplace for free.
3. Infrastructure Improvements
a. Core Integration of third party payment methods is removed. That includes Authorize.Net, Braintree, eWay, CyberSource, and Worldpay payment method. Merchants should migrate to official Marketplace extensions
b. Support for partial word search for default Elasticsearch. Easier for the user to search with any part of the word.
c. Paypal Javascript SDK is upgraded.
d. Web Setup Wizard is deprecated and removed.
e. Composer update plugin.
4. Performance Improvements
a. Improvements to customer data section invalidation logic.
b. Multiple optimizations to Redis performance
i. Decrease in the size of network data transfers between Redis and Magento
ii. Reduction in Redis’ consumption of CPU cycles by improving the adapter’s ability to automatically determine what needs to be loaded
iii. Reduction in race conditions on Redis write operations
iv. Redis interruption is handled better and logs are created in exception log
c. Caching of results of SQL queries to inventory tables is improved. Instead of 16 Queries it is now 1 Query.
d. 25% to 30% improvement in quick add-to-cart performance.
e. Images can be loaded using Lazy load. This will ensure that offscreen images are loaded when the view is reached. Thus improved page load times.
5. New Media Gallery
Administrators can now search, filter and sort images 30x faster than the earlier version. UI is improved and integrated with Adobe Stock.
6. Inventory Management
Support for in-store pickup and bundle products supports multi-store mode. numerous bug fixes
7. GraphQL
Enhanced support of the pickup location queries and includes inventory in-store pickup. This will enhance the technical ability of a business.
8. PWA
Magento 2.4 now supports PWA Studio 6.0.0 and 6.0.1s.
9. Fixed Issues
a. Website can be removed along with website related configuration
b.Configuration settings disabled in index.php is no longer editable from Admin
c. When store configuration is created in config.php then stores can are created without any issue
d. Data scripts are run only once when setup upgrade command is run
It is always recommended that we should have the Magento version up to date to make eCommerce sites secured, run faster, and keep them bug-free.
