Magento 2.4.3 Release & Magento Latest Version Upgrades

What’s New?

Magento Open Source 2.4.3 is loaded with state-of-the-art performance and security improvements. This version expands reCAPTCHA coverage as well as includes built-in rate limiting to protect against unauthorized usage. 

Dependencies and libraries have been upgraded to their latest versions, now compatible with PHP 8.x. For those using the Adobe Commerce and Magento Open Source platform, Page Builder is now available as a bundled extension, designated as the default content editing tool for both products. 

Over 370 updates have been made to core code, such fixes including resolving almost 290 reported by customers on GitHub. Lastly, all known issues for Magento Open Source 2.4.2 are gone with this release making it till date the best platform for Adobe Commerce Developers and users alike.

Highlights

Highlights of this latest Magento version include:

1. Substantial Security Enhancements

• The release includes 33 security fixes and platform security improvements, with many of these fixes backported to 2.4.2-p2 and 2.3.7-p1.
• These security enhancements help to close vulnerabilities related to remote code execution (RCE) and cross-site scripting (XSS), which could potentially be exploited to access customer information or take over administrator sessions.
• There have been no confirmed attacks related to these issues to date, but Magento advises taking all necessary steps to protect the Admin, such as IP allow listing, two-factor authentication, VPN usage, and good password hygiene.
• Additional security enhancements include a new Composer plugin to prevent dependency confusion and identify malicious packages, built-in rate limiting in APIs to prevent DoS attacks, and extended ReCAPTCHA coverage to protect storefront pages and payment-related web APIs from spam and carding attacks.

2. Infrastructure Improvements

• The release includes enhancements that improve the quality of the framework and several functional areas, including Customer Account, Catalog, CMS, OMS, Import/Export, Promotions and Targeting, Cart and Checkout, B2B, and Staging and Preview.
• PayPal Pay Later is now supported in deployments that include PayPal, allowing shoppers to pay for orders in bi-weekly installments instead of paying the full amount at the time of purchase.
• A new indexing mode called “use_application_lock” has been added, which enables re-indexing through the use of environment variables or by configuring the app/etc/env.php file. With this mode enabled, the indexer no longer needs to be manually reset after failure. 

3. Platform and Performance Enhancements

Platform enhancements include:

• Upgrades to core Composer dependencies and third-party libraries have been made to bring Magento closer to future compatibility with PHP 8.x.
• The KnockoutJS library has been upgraded to the latest version, v3.5.1.
• The deprecated TinyMCE v3 library has been removed, along with the Magento_Tinymce3Banner module and MFTF tests related to TinyMCE v3.x from Adobe Commerce.
• Magento Open Source 2.4.3 has been confirmed to be compatible with Redis 6.0.12, while version 2.4.x remains compatible with Redis 5.x.
• Laminas library dependencies have been upgraded to PHP 8. x-compatible versions. Redundant dependencies have been removed from the composer.json file. Magento Open Source 2.4.3 now uses Laminas 3.4.0.

Performance enhancement includes: 

Indexation Enhancements:

• This release includes enhancements that reduce indexation time for Product Price and Catalog Rule indexers.

• Merchants can now exclude a website from a customer group or shared catalog, which reduces the number of records for indexing and improves indexing times.

Adobe Stock Integration

• Adobe Stock Integration v2.1.1 is included in this release.

GraphQL

• This release adds GraphQL coverage for shared routes.

• The route query and RoutableInterface support routing requests on product, category, and CMS pages.

• The URL resolver query has been deprecated, and its functionality has been superseded by the route query. Note: See the GraphQL Developer Guide for details on these enhancements.

Page Builder

• Page Builder is now bundled with Magento Open Source and is the default content editing tool for Adobe Commerce 2.4.3 and Magento Open Source 2.4.3.
• It can replace the WYSIWYG editor with any third-party module.
• Page Builder replaces the TinyMCE editor in the following Admin areas: CMS Page, CMS Block, Category Description, and Product Description.
• All content created in TinyMCE has been migrated into Page Builder as HTML.

PWA Studio

• Some enhancements and bug fixes, based on the feedback of previous versions, were made. 
• Additionally, it’s compatible with different PWA Studio versions, check the list here.

Upgrade Compatibility Tool

• The Upgrade Compatibility Tool has been expanded based on community feedback.
• Join the #upgrade-compatibility-tool Slack channel for support from the Adobe product team and the community, and to help guide the future direction of the tool.
• Vendor Developed Extensions
• Updates on features for the following: Amazon Pay, Braintree, dotdigital Engagement Cloud, Klarna, Vertex Cloud, and Yotpo Product Reviews.

Fixed Issues

Hundreds of issues were fixed in this upgrade version to Magento 2, some of them are:

• Magento 2.4.3 release includes fixes and improvements in various areas such as Adobe Stock Integration, shipping methods through Apple Pay, product display, multiple currencies, price classification for out-of-stock items, and more.
• The installation and upgrade process has been improved, and there are fixes related to the creation of configurable products, the display of cart pricing rules, and system report rendering.
• AdminGWS now uses int values for the website_id SQL condition, and there are fixes related to Adobe Stock Integration, category editing, and infinite redirects.
• Bundle products now support addProductsToCart mutation for adding products with multiple checkbox options, price indexing is done using temporary tables, updates to the availability of bundled products are based on the availability of its child products, and child products can be added, removed, and updated via REST API calls.
• The varnish6.vcl file has been updated to bypass caching of the customer page.

Please note, that we have only given a brief overview of the fixed issue, to know more please visit the Adobe Commerce website.

How To Install/Upgrade To Magento Commerce 2.4.3?

For a successful installation or upgrade of Magento Commerce 2.4.3, it’s best to leverage the expertise of a professional team of Certified Adobe Commerce Developers. Viha Digital Commerce specializes in this type of service and has the technical knowledge and experience to guarantee your store is secure and up-to-date.

Our services cover various aspects related to optimization, such as installation, upgrade, migration, and maintenance. We comfortably guarantee success in 8 hours or less for our free trial customers. Contact us today at info@vihadigitalcommerce.com if you’d like to learn more about our services and what we can do for you!

Magento 2.4.4, which is released on 8th March 2022

Thank you.