Magento 2.3 Features
Magento 2.3 released on 28th November 2018 and like every major release, the new version comes with new and significant functionality and improvements. The new release has promised to improve Magento in multiple ways including security, scalability, and performance.
What are those features in Magento 2.3?
Magento 2.3 is packed with incredible features such as Progressive Web App(PWA) that enables a superior mobile experience, Multi-Source Inventory for managing inventory from various sources, Page Builder with drag and drop interface functionality for easier content management, and Elasticsearch which was available only in Magento Commerce is now available in Magento Open Source.
Let’s go through the features of Magento 2.3 in detail and see how it would add more value to Magento stores.
Progressive Web App (PWA)
Progressive Web App(PWA) is actually a website that can deliver a rich experience similar to mobile apps and has features that can improve conversion rates. The visual layout would be different as per the requirements of front-end to the screen size. PWA also allows caching of data so it continues to function in the offline mode. Customers can add PWA sites to the home screen of their mobile phones. This will enable them to launch the PWA right from the home screen by directly clicking on it. This can increase online traffic as well as customer experience.
To develop it, Magento has been going ahead beginning with the development of PWA Studio – a powerful suite of tools that allow you to develop, deploy and maintain a PWA storefront on latest Magento 2.3. PWA Studio now lets developers use standard themes without the need for separate customization for mobile and web. PWAs are built on a JavaScript framework like AngularJS, React.js or Vue.js for handling data and displaying it; and communicate with Magento 2 backend via REST API.
If you are a developer, the official Magento PWA Documentation will be helpful in building Magento PWA.
PWA Studio is an open source framework, so developers can hope to receive regular updates, independent of the future Magento release schedule.
GraphQL
GraphQL is a query language for using APIs. It was released by Facebook in 2015, and it is one of the best methods to build an API. GraphQL is the main reason for PWAs to function even on a slow network.
Magento currently supports both REST and SOAP web APIs that use Service Contracts. However, to support GraphQL, Magento has written a completely new layer in Magento 2.3 that interacts directly with GraphQL API. GraphQL makes the PWAs request only the exact data. Since GraphQL requests only the small amounts of exact data, it allows PWAs to run even on a weak network.
Multi-Source Inventory (MSI)
The introduction of multi-source inventory (MIS) will allow business owners and store admins who handle inventory from multiple sources. This would accommodate the shipping of items and tracking of stock levels from multiple warehouses, as well as inventory within retail stores to support “ship from store” and “pick up in store”.
Additionally, MSI helps to improve checkout performance by incorporating a reservation mechanism of inventory. Even store owners with only one inventory source can benefit from MSI with an inventory reservation system that tracks products already added to carts by deducing the quantities from the stock. This would result in accurate stock management and improve conversion rates by high performing checkouts.
Declarative DB Schema
In Magento 2.3 the upgrade and installation process is made easier with the declarative schema. It uses XML file to alter the schema which eliminates many install and upgrade scripts. Magento 2.3 will convert the XML schema files into SQL statements and perform them.
The new declarative schema provides a big advantage: rollback support. This means you can roll back database changes you implement on a module or functionality to a previous version.
Asynchronous API
Asynchronous API enables to process a large number of API requests asynchronously without waiting for the response from the server. In previous versions, Magento used REST API which would wait for sometime to process the response.
So, Asynchronous API allows faster performance integration and requires fewer API calls in scenarios such as a bulk product integration or customer import.
Page Builder
Page builder is one of the major feature in Magento 2.3 release. Page Builder is a rewrite of Blue Foot CMS technology using much of the same foundational features and concepts. Page Builder has a drag and drop interface and a flexible grid system which helps non-technical business owners to easily handle content on their website.
Page Builder can also be used to create your own dynamic content block that can be used throughout the site, and with staging and preview functionality, content can be scheduled to go live as and when required.
Page Builder will come natively with Magento Commerce 2.3 and will be available for purchase inside the Magento Marketplace for Open Source implementations.
ElasticSearch
From Magento 2.3 the support for ElasticSearch is being extended from Magento Commerce to Magento Open Source. Elasticsearch provides advanced search capabilities such as filtering by attributes. This gives merchants the opportunity to integrate a powerful search capabilities in their shops.
ElasticSearch can also provide predictive search results that can save time and effort for customers and zero down what they are looking by just using the filtering options.
Support for PHP 7.2
Support for PHP 7.2 will be added in Magento 2.3, with this change, Magento 2.3 can benefit from all the features that PHP 7.2 supports including improved security, better performance, and access to the latest PHP features for developers. This allows Magento 2.3 stores to stay on top of the latest supported technologies.
Libsodium
PHP 7.2 is dropping support for mCrypt (PHP’s go to encryption module), the libsodium module will now be used for encryption in Magento 2.3.
Cache Management
Another improvement in Magento 2.3 version is Cache Management ACL. You can control exactly which user roles can view and delete the Magento caches.
Two Factor Authentication(2FA)
Magento 2.3 also adds two-factor authentication to protect against malicious attempts to access your Magento admin panel. One of the most vulnerable parts of any web system is the administration panel’s login page. This extra layer of security will require an admin user to prove that they have access by sending a security code to their email or phone.
Google reCAPTCHA
Magento 2.3 incorporates reCAPTCHA, a free Google service that help to protect merchants to keep their key web pages secure such as login, register, contact form pages from malicious users and bots.
WYSIWYG Upgrade
In Magento 2.3 the WYSIWYG editor (or TinyMCE) is upgraded from version 3 to version 4.
Upgrade Your Store to Magento 2.3 ?
Note: Before moving to Magento 2.3, its highly recommend you to go through system requirements for this release as it may require you to make a few upgrades to your hosting setup.
