Magento 2.3 Release (28/11/2018) – Is it better than Magento 2.2?

Magento 2.3 Release Date is November 28 (28/11/2018). Magento had announced at the Magento Imagine conference for this important release of Magento 2.3 since April, now you should be ready for it. And just like the release of Magento 2.0 in November 2015, this Magento 2.3 release will have new and significant functionality and improvements.

Here are key features will be packing in Magento 2.3:

• Progressive Web App (PWA)
• GraphQL language
• DB Schema
• Asynchronous and Bulk Web API
• Elasticsearch Updates (Magento 2.3 Open Source)
• PHP 7.2
• Multi Source Inventory (MSI)
• WYSIWYG Upgrade
• Page Builder
• Cache-Management ACL
• Google reCAPTCHA and Two Factor Authentication

1, Magento 2.3 Features – Progressive Web App (PWA)

First, Magento 2.3 will fully support the features of PWA (progressive web app). As you may know, PWA will be a key thing in any developers’ mindset from now on. 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 Magento 2.

PWA is the latest frontend technology which a web app that uses modern web capabilities to deliver an app-like experience to users. As usual, PWAs are built on a JavaScript framework like React, Vue.js or AngularJS for handling data and displaying it; and communicate with a backend via (Magento 2) REST API.

We also call this approach as Headless Magento.

When Magento 2.3 and Magento PWA solution is stable, it is going to be the more desirable option for merchants than native apps. It allows to build fast and simple front-end with app-like experiences on mobile devices.

Core features of Magento 2.3’s PWA Studio include:

• Tools to personalize content and add local preferences.
• Build and manage all channels and experiences via one code base, one deployment and app.
• Intuitive user experience with innovative commerce and CMS theme.
• Module component architecture to help drive opportunities for extension providers.
• Purpose-built developer tools for fast prototyping, helpful debugging, rich feedback, and increased productivity.

However PWA Studio requires GraphQL capabilities. This is a function only available in Magento 2.3 releases.

2, Magento 2.3 Features – GraphQL language

As we stated earlier, GraphQL API language is the latest and also biggest moves in Magento 2.3.

GraphQL is a data query language developed by Facebook and released in 2015. Magento 2.3 implements GraphQL as an alternative API endpoint in addition to REST and SOAP.

GraphQL opens up data retrieval possibilities for PWA by allowing to request exactly the data that you need and also giving the ability to join data in a single request. To put it another way, you can efficiently get smaller amounts of data and to make fewer API requests. This is an advantage over a traditional SOAP / REST request which always returns all data associated with an endpoint, and needs at least one request per resource.

So, using GraphQL allows a Magento PWA to be quick even on slow mobile network connections.

3, Magento 2.3 Features -Declarative DB Schema

Magento 2.3 introduces a new approach – declarative database schema, allowing developers to define database structures and changes in XML files, instead of defining with install 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. It also simplifies the Magento 2.3 installation and upgrade processes.

4, Magento 2.3 Features – Asynchronous and Bulk Web API

Asynchronous API in Magento 2.3 is an important community . It enables to process a large number of API requests asynchronously without waiting for the response from the server.

In the traditional API approach, Magento may take a while to process the response and the client will be waiting a significant amount of time for a response. And the bigger the number of changes and products are, the longer it takes.

It will no longer be in Magento 2.3. As the asynchronous API in Magento 2.3 works over message queue (previously, reserved for Magento Commerce only) that allows to execute Web API asynchronously and complete tasks in the background. It gives you the ability to make batch processing with ease which is a huge advantage for big sites with daily bulk API requests i.e. inventory import, order status updated from ERP system etc.

5, Magento 2.3 Features – Elasticsearch Updates

Finally, ElasticSearch will be made available to Magento Open Source of Magento 2.3 users while previously reserved for Magento Commerce only. This gives merchants the opportunity to integrate a powerful search capabilities in their shops, including faceted search – filtering by attributes.

Elasticsearch is a search engine based on the Lucene library. It provides a distributed, multitenant-capable full-text search engine with an HTTP web interface and schema-free JSON documents. Elasticsearch is developed in Java and is released as open source under the terms of the Apache License.

Elasticsearch may become a default search engine in the future. For now, Magento 2.3 will support the latest Elasticsearch v5.

6, Magento 2.3 Features – PHP 7.2

Support for PHP 7.2 will be added in Magento 2.3. This allows Magento 2.3 stores to stay on top of the latest supported technologies.

PHP 7.2 will bring new development features, enhance performance and security. Especially, since PHP 7.2 ultimately removes PHP encryption module ‘mcrypt’, Magento 2.3.x will migrate from mcrypt to libsodium for password hashing.

7, Magento 2.3 Features – Multi Source Inventory (MSI)

One vital improvement introduced in Magento 2.3 (that you must know) is Multi Source Inventory (MSI).

MSI allows merchant to manage all inventory sources without any third-party extensions or platforms. This functionality enables stock management in multiple locations so that merchants can properly reflect their physical warehouses in Magento 2.3 system for fulfillment.

Additionally, MSI helps to improve checkout performance by incorporating a reservation system.
Reservation refers to a mechanism that reserves some product quantity in stock instead of automatically decrementing inventory when the order is placed. This keeps inventory amount (product quantity) up-to-date without locking at the time of checkout and eliminates re-indexing and performance issues during peak order times.

MSI located in the heart of the system where storing all stocks of products. It will be the processing center for inventory control and connects to all sales channel. With a concept of developing a Native Offline Sales Channel for Magento, Magestore brings the introduction of their PWA POS with Magento 2.3 POS functions as the second sales channel next to the online one (Magento) Every time there is an order on POS, it will be updated to Magento backend in real time.

8, Magento 2.3 Features – WYSIWYG Upgrade

The WYSIWYG editor (or TinyMCE) is upgraded from version 3 to version 4 in Magento 2.3. It brings new enhancements for a highly customizable WYSIWYG: Widgets, variables and media gallery are implemented as plugins and can be defined globally or on per shop instance.

Actually, it is a slow update of Magento, as TinyMCE is preparing for version 5.

TinyMCE 3 will be deprecated and planned for removal in Magento 2.4.

9, Magento 2.3 Features – Page Builder

Finally, we have CMS feature on this no-user-friendly platform. In Magento 2.3, the requested Page Builder is added.

The Page Builder function enables merchants to create customized pages without having to write code. In fact, this function is the integration of current simple drag-and-drop interface based on the revised Bluefoot CMS extension.  If you haven’t known yet, Bluefoot is bought by Magento.

The Page Builder will be a part of core code in the Magento 2.3 Commerce. For Magento 2.3 Open Source, there will be an option to purchase, however the price is not known yet.

10, Magento 2.3 Features – Cache Management ACL

Another useful improvement in Magento 2.3 is a granular cache management ACL. You can control exactly which user roles can view and delete the Magento caches.

This feature is handy when you have new team members who might need time to fully interact with the system cache. Under this circumstance, you can control what level of Cache management a given team member can perform.

11, Magento 2.3 Features – Google reCAPTCHA and Two Factor Authentication

Magento 2.3 incorporates reCAPTCHA, a free Google service that protects your website – login, register, contact form pages, for example – from spam and abuse. Google reCAPTCHA doesn’t solely prompts shoppers to check a box to prove that they’re not a robot before they complete a task. Rather it uses advanced risk analysis techniques, evaluates a broad range of cues that distinguish humans from bots. Notice that this is only included in reCAPTCHA v3.

Magento 2.3 also adds two-factor authentication to protect against malicious attempts to access your Magento admin panel. This additional layer of security has become standard practice among many web applications.

Magento 2.3 vs Magento 2.2

Features

Progressive Web App (PWA)

GraphQL language

DB Schema

Asynchronous and Bulk Web API

Elasticsearch Updates (Magento 2.3 Open Source)

PHP 7.2

Multi Source Inventory (MSI)

WYSIWYG TinyMCE v4

Page Builder integration

Cache-Management ACL

Google reCAPTCHA and Two Factor Authentication

Magento 2.3

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

yes

Magento 2.2

no

no

yes

no

no

yes

no

yes

no

yes

yes