Magento 2.4.3 New Release – What Merchants Can Expect From This Latest Version?

Launched on 10th August, the Magento version 2.4.3 (for both Commerce and Open Source editions) introduces enhancements on performance and security. This new release brings about more than 370 core code fixes, 33 security enhancements, and solutions to 290 GitHub issues compared with the previous version.

Well, the numbers may overwhelm you a bit. And you may wonder what the fixes and enhancements are, or what you can benefit from them. If you are too lazy to sit down and read the complex & mundane release notes, this post is for you. 

No big words for sure!

Magento 2.4.3 Release Notes

Four new Magento versions are released at the same time: 

• Magento Open Source 2.4.3
• Adobe Commerce 2.4.3
• Magento 2.3.7-p1
• Magento 2.4.2-p2

Notes for users: All Magezon extensions are now compatible with the new version Magento Open Source 2.4.3.

Must-know Release Highlights

Security enhancements

• This new release comes with 33 security fixes and platform security improvements supporting close remote code execution (RCE) and cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities. 

Note: Though no confirmed attacks related to these issues have occurred, certain vulnerabilities can probably be exploited to access customer data or take over administrator sessions. 

• New composer plugin is currently available along with the release of Adobe Commerce 2.4.3. It helps minimize a serious security vulnerability known as dependency confusion. 

Note for merchants: 

– The new composer is now available on Magento Github.

– To protect your code packages on Magento Marketplace from dependency confusion attacks, be sure you are the owner of your namespace on packagist.org and use the new composer while testing any installation flow. 

• Magento APIs built-in rate limiting is currently available that stops denial-of-service (DoS) attacks.

By default:

– The maximum REST requests presented in an entity list is 20. 

– 300 items is the maximum number of REST and GraphQL queries displayed per page.

To disable the input limit of REST API requests, use the patches in this article.

• The expansion of reCAPTCHA coverage protects endpoints from SPAM attacks. 

Infrastructure Improvements

• This new release contains framework quality enhancement with the changes in the following areas:

– Customer Account

– Catalog

– CMS

– OMS

– Import/Export

– Promotions and Targeting

– Cart and Checkout

– B2B

– Staging and Preview

• Good news for merchants using PayPal as their main payment gateway – PayPal Pay Later is now supported. Shoppers can place orders today without paying the full amount upfront, but make payment in bi-weekly installments instead.

• New indexing mode prevents the indexer from manually reset after failure.

Platform Enhancements

Platform upgrades that bring us closer to the future compatibility with PHP 8.x: 

• Upgrade Core Composer dependencies and third-party libraries to the latest version. 
• Upgrade the KnockoutJS library to v3.5.1
• Remove TinyMCE v3 library
• Magento 2.4.3 version is now fully compatible with Redis 6.0.12. (Other versions of 2.4.x remain compatible with Redis 5.x.)

Performance Enhancements

The enhancements decrease indexation time for Product Price and Catalog Rule indexers. 

It’s able for merchants to exclude a website from a customer group which reduces the number of records for indexing and improves indexing times.

GraphQL

Magento 2.4.3 adds the coverage of GraphQL for shared routes. This way, routing requests on CMS, product & category pages will be supported by route query and RoutableInterface. 

Page Builder for Open Source

Page Builder is now officially available for Magento Open Source. It replaces TinyMCE editor in the following areas: 

• CMS Page
• CMS Block
• Category Description
• Product Description

Other Updates: 

• PWA version 11.0.0 
• Upgrade Compatibility Tool based on community feedbacks
• Adobe Stock Integration v2.1.1 and changes on Vendor Developed Extensions

Bonuses for Adobe Commerce: 

• Live Search provides fast, relevant and super intuitive searching experience powered by Adobe Sensei.
• GraphQL support for multiple features including Shared Catalogs, Wish lists, Gift Registries, Negotiable quotes and Shared routes. 
• Introducing B2B v1.3.2.
• Improvement in support for AWS S3 and Amazon Aurora cloud managed services. 

How merchants can benefit from this new release? 

Intuitive Page Builder – A huge bang from Adobe

Finally, the Page Builder is here for Magento Open Source. Merchants must have waited for so long for this moment. You’re now able to build pages with no code, and no unverified third-party extensions. 

The Magento Page Builder is available as a bundled plugin in the Open Source platform. It’s sleek and intuitive. It comes with a drag & drop interface that perfectly replaces the traditional WYSIWYG editor. 

To enable its functionality for certain Admin areas, turn it on in Content Management settings: 

As Page Builder editor is enabled, your existing pages and posts are migrated to HTML. 

After switching to “Edit with Page Builder” mode, the simple and neat interface will let you drag and drop content types and see how they look right away. 

The Page Builder comes with pre-built controls which are known as content types including: 

It’s super easy to customize every single piece of content to make it totally match your brand identity.  

There’s no denying that Magento Page Builder integration is a huge innovation for merchants using Magento Open Source Platform. However, the content types are still basic just for building simple pages without eye-catching effects. In addition, the default settings of the content form editor are not rational in some cases. 

For example: The margins & padding of a content are set to be zero in default. If you don’t enter some numbers, the contents will be glued to each other. 

Plus, if you like to extend content features, you still need to know some CSS. It’s quite hard to find an external Magento old hand to fix internal problems. 

We think you should first give it a try. In the next blog, we will go further into this topic about “How Page Builder works”, “Pros & Cons” or maybe “How to create a simple page with it”. 

In short, Magento Page Builder doesn’t really “work like a charm” but it does provide end-users with a seamless experience. For Magento newbies, it means no coding required. For developers, it means freely customizable and extendable.

Recommendation: Try using Magezon Page Builder for Magento 2.4.3 to better compare with this editor from Magento. The out the box features and 50+ elements supported ready for you to experiment any page building process. Coders with fast and helpful support are available 24/7.

Your site is now safe

These enhancements eliminate remote code vulnerabilities and shut down cross-site scripting. With the help of the new Composer, there is no record of confirmed dependency confusion attacks. 

This new version of Magento prevents DoS attacks with DoS built-in limiting. Plus, the expansion of reCAPTCHA coverage, scalable authentication methods such as 2-factor authentication, VPN, etc protect endpoints from SPAM and hacker issues. 

Speed up your site 

In addition to crashing your site entirely, DDOS attacks can slow down your site speed. This version’s improvements, Magento keeps a stable speed for your site. 

No more long-time waiting for Product Price and Catalog Rule indexers. 

Furthermore, merchants can assign pageview ability for certain customer groups. It tidies up your content system and reduces indexing records.

Also, when the Magento backend ain’t swamped with API requests, there’s no chance of lowering website performance. 

Note: If you find it’s not enough, speed up your site by 50% with FREE Lazy Load extension. 

Definitely boost your sales

There’s no doubt saying that enhancing user experience means boosting your sales record. 

Magento merchants using Paypal as their main payment gateway can now provide customers with flexible payment options. PayPal Pay Later option lets customers pay the order in smaller amounts than paying in full upfront. Thus, your store can absolutely drive more sales because it lowers the entry barrier of product prices. 

With the Adobe Commerce version, your customers can examine the Live Search using AI and machine learning algorithms at no extra cost. This technology is a game-changer focusing on the ease of use, speed and relevance. It may not wow your customers at the first time of using, but it may save tons of time with outstanding features: 

• Search as you type: When typing queries on the search bar, the drop-down (or popover) box automatically displays suggested product links with thumbnail images. The tool returns results when there’re at least 2 characters on the search box. 
• View all search results: Click the View all link at the drop-down’s bottom.
• Filter search with facets: Uses multiple dimensions of attribute values as search criteria
• Search with synonyms 
• Merchandising rules

For more information, read this article.

Wrap it up

Looking at the new release, we all have got not only how interesting the new enhancements are, but also the tweaks that should be concerned about.  

If you are running your business in an older Magento version, it’s high time to update and be ready to serve your customers with a flawless on-site shopping experience. Finding it difficult to install the new version? Contact us at  [email protected]. Our developers are always ready to support.