Magento 2.4.4 Pre-Release Available: Here's All You Need to Know

The future of Adobe Commerce and Adobe Open Source is just here! Adobe has just pre-released the version Magento 2.4.4. Which will be available for Magento Commerce and Magneto Open Source to support PHP 8.1. And OpenSearch 1.2.

Adobe is now prepared to launch a new version named Magento 2.4.4 and it will be available soon. Magento 2.4.4 ‘s beta testing period has been completed, and Adobe has announced a new version of Magento 2.4.4. will be available to the general public from 12 April 2022. which was first going to be released on March 8, 2022, However that date was pushed back.

However, Magento 2.4.4. Is a small version change from the previous one, but it still is a massive update, as it is going to bring a huge impact on online stores with Magento Commerce and Magento Open Source.

Simply, Magento 2.4.4. Will have PHP 8.1 support and backward-incompatible changes and many additional upgrades. And in this article, we are gonna learn what an online retailer needs to know before Magento 2.4.4 official release, and how they can stay prepared for this big change in Magento!

So, don’t waste time and keep on scrolling to get the best inside your brain.

Magento 2.4.4 Release Highlights

The following are several key highlights of the Magento 2.4.4 pre-release:

• All Magento project libraries and dependencies are PHP 8.1 compliant;
• TinyMCE 5 support is included;
• Except for Braintree, All the vendor-bundled extensions are removed.
• PWA Studio v.12.3.0 will be compatible with Adobe Commerce 2.4.4 (Not for Adobe Open Source)
• For a scheduled category update, use a GraphQL query and retrieve category information.
• Magento 2.4.4 will Support the user's timezone in the export filename's UTC timestamp.
• With Magento Open Source 2.4.4 and Adobe Commerce 2.4.4, merchants can add Alt Text to improve Content accessibility.
• Execution time for module list load has been improved.
• Issues with fixed price sorting for products with prices equal to or near zero.
• Admin can verify custom date attribute formats for both the store and the admin.
• Display similar products, upsell products, and cross-sell products based on their admin position.

What’s New with Magento 2.4.4?

As Magento 2.4.4 release date is confirmed, we have prepared an overview of documentation provided by Adobe, so each Magento Store Owner can know what’s new with Magento 2.4.4.

1. PHP 8.1 compatibility:

Adobe has altered the Magento release cycle to coincide with PHP versions, as this is the most crucial component for this e-commerce platform.

Adobe has tested Magento 2.4.4 beta versions against PHP 8.1, and the new version will support PHP 8.1. And consequently, PHP 7.3 will be removed in the new version of Magento 2.4.4.

PHP 8.1 is acknowledged as a big improvement to this language, bringing dozens of new features. Here's a breakdown of the important ones: Enums, Readonly Properties, Explicit Octal Number Notation, First-Class Callable Syntax, Fibers, Pure Intersection Types, Never Return Type, and Final Class Constants. PHP 8.1 speeds up Symfony Demo by 23.0 percent. More information may be found on the official PHP 8.1 release website.

Preliminary performance testing on Magento with PHP 7.4 and 8.1 reveal that the latter speeds up the store significantly. The performance estimates for a specific Magento configuration will change since they are affected by a variety of factors such as the server CPU, architecture (x86/ARM), hosting environment, installed extensions, Cron tasks, and so on.

2. OpenSearch support has been implemented:

Adobe now offers another in-store search engine. Stores can utilize OpenSearch in addition to Elasticsearch.

Magento Open Source and Adobe Commerce Store owners with on-premises deployments can employ any option. OpenSearch, on the other hand, is now the default search engine for Magento Open Source 2.4.4 cloud deployments.

Customers that update to version Magento 2.4.4 of their cloud deployments must use OpenSearch. See Adobe Commerce on Cloud 2.4.4 is now using OpenSearch.

Users of Adobe Commerce 2.4.4 on Cloud will need to switch from Elasticsearch to OpenSearch.

3. Backward incompatibility:

Backward incompatible changes in Magento 2.4.4 may have significant impacts on third-party modules because they must now function in a different manner. As a result, Magento Store Owners should examine all installed extensions to see if they will be affected by these changes. The following backward-incompatible modifications have been made to the new version of Magento 2.4.4:

• Inventory check on cartload: An Enable Inventory Check On Cart Load option will be added in the next edition. It is turned on by default.
• TinyMCE: The name Tinymce4 will be changed to TinyMCE, and the editor may become inaccessible in the admin panel, causing the page builder extension to malfunction.

4. Third-Party Dependencies:

The forthcoming update will contain various third-party dependencies to maintain your Magento Stores strong and safe. These third-party dependencies are classified as follows:

• System Requirements: It will have the latest versions of Redis, MariaDB, ElasticSearch, Varnish, and MySQL. You will also be able to utilize Adobe Live Search for free with the new edition.
• JS NPM Dependencies: Removed "grunt-autoprefixer."
• Updated Core Composer Dependencies: with the addition of phpunit/phpunit and laminas/laminas-code, as well as the removal of laminas/laminas-filter and many others.

5. VBE (Vendor Bundled Extension) decoupled:

Previous versions of Magento had a slew of third-party extensions and modules.

Adobe has detached practically all third-party modules from the Magento core set in the latest edition of Magento 2.4.4. Only the Braintree extension has been included in Adobe Commerce 2.4.4, and all the other vendor-bundled extensions have been removed.

Those Extensions which were eliminated from the Vendor Bundled Extension list will be available for download from the Magento Marketplace as an alternative.

6. Software Components Updation:

The following software updates will be included in the version Magento 2.4.4:

• Added support for OpenSearch 1.1 and ElasticSearch 7.16.1.
• All dependencies and project libraries will be PHP 8.1 compliant.
• Jquery-UI will be upgraded to 1.13.0.
• The most recent version of jquery. tabs will be installed.

Along with these improvements, 33 security problems have been addressed, and Magento 2.4.4 will include a reCaptcha extension, infrastructure changes, support for PayPal Pay Later, and GraphQL API expansion.

For More Information, Visit:- Magento 2.4.4 Pre-Release Available: Here’s All You Need To Know