Magento 2.4.4 has been available for about a month now, and this release represents the fastest and most scalable version ever, with essential performance and experience updates, improved headless capabilities, and more. Let's break down the key features of this update.
1. PHP 8
The biggest update in Magento 2.4.4 is PHP 8.1 and here's why:
PHP 8's advanced features make Magento classes much simpler. With that, creating classes is significantly faster, and it also shortens the time for debugging and troubleshooting code problems, since there is so much less of it. Along with advanced properties, it also gives you access to other features of PHP 8.1, including enums, array unpacking, read-only properties, and more.
Based on my testing, it appears that when creating Repositories & RepositoryInterface's in Magento 2.4.4, you can now use non-fully qualified names in docblocks, as well as specify scalar argument types & return types! This allows for much cleaner, DRY-er code. pic.twitter.com/mfcCOY4oPF
— Mark Shust (@MarkShust) April 18, 2022
2. Elasticsearch and OpenSearch
Adobe stopped supporting product search with MySQL in version 2.4 and replaced it with Elasticsearch.
And now, merchants deploying Adobe Commerce on-premises can use Elasticsearch 7.16 and OpenSearch 1.2. However, OpenSearch is now the default search engine for Adobe Commerce 2.4.4 deployments hosted in the cloud.
3. JS library
The JQuery library wan updated to version 3.6. jQuery UI was updated to version 1.13.0 – it includes a few breaking updates around rendering tabs and calling widgets with the data function.
The RequireJS library was also updated to the latest version – v2.3.6. And other scripts such as Script.aculo.us, Chart.js, Moment js, Underscore js, Prototype js, and Less Css were all updated to their latest versions.
GraphQL has consistently made some performance and prevention improvements. Translation issues with multi-store and multi-lingual stores in GraphQL have been fixed. Updated GraphQL provides more detailed transaction names to make debugging easier.
4. Headless commerce features
The latest update increased the coverage of the GraphQL API for several B2B and admin functions and added new features to PWA Studio 12.3.
Dynamic Block and Targeted Promotions support allow you to create personalized content and promotions for specific customer segments, reducing the need for customization and the total cost of ownership and go-live time.
What’s more?
- Venmo payments are now available for PayPal users.
- “Pay later” was added as an option for buyers based on the location of the buyer.
- ADA compliance improvements.
- Bug fixes.
Magento 2.4.4 brings a lot of utility features that can benefit your store and makes it abundantly clear that the upgrade is worth it. While upgrading from a glance looks easy, it can leave your website with unwanted bugs, or even data losses if done incorrectly. To take away the frustration and have more time to spend on your business, you can get your Magento backed up, upgraded, adjusted, and covered with a free 2-month warranty by our specialists.
Need help upgrading your Magento version?
Fill out the form below and our specialist will get back to you within 24 working hours. The first consultation is on us.