Hey, Magento enthusiasts! You must be excited about the Magento 2.4.6 release. And why shouldn’t you be? With every new version released, Adobe ushers in the new age of Magento technology. For instance, in version 2.4.6, users get to see revolutionary features, such as improved security measures, enhanced user interface, scalability, and many more things.
1. Magento 2.4.6 Officially Out
Early this year, an exciting announcement awaited the Magento community. It was announced that Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 and Magento Open Source 2.4.6 is going to make an official release on March 14th, 2023.
As the Magento 2.4.6 release date was reaching the Big Day, speculations ran high within the Magento community about the new improvements that would be on the table.
In other words, the new version of Magento was going to come up with many new enhancements and features so that it becomes easy for the merchants to run their online stores.
2. Magento 2.4.6. Release Date
The official Magento 2.4.6 release date for the general was on March 14, 2023. However, the pre-release date for the developers was February 28th, 2023.
3. Significant Changes in Magento 2.4.6
As promised, Magento 2.4.6 was rolled out on March 14th, 2023. The performance enhancements that one gets to see in this new version are exciting for developers and store owners alike.
In fact, the enhancements and bug fixes to 2.4.6 are going to impact the third-party extensions’ performance. This means developers and vendors must spend significant time and effort to revise the plugins so that it runs properly on the new version of Magento.
Since the latest release update was going to be a major performance update, things like 300 quality fixes and enhancements were expected. Also, store owners expected improved enhancements in terms of performance and scalability.
With the Magento 2.4.6 release, one got to see that Magento’s latest version 2.4.6 was not only limited to only a few of the significant changes initially stated. It came with many more improvements and changes. For instance, version 2.4.6 has PHP 8.2 instead of PHP 7.4. Similarly, support for PHP 8.1 is going to be there.
Well, before diving deep into the new features of Magento 2.4.6, let’s dive into some key highlights of this latest version.
4. Magento 2.4.6: Key Highlights
Wondering about the key highlights of Magento 2.4.6? Yes! It doesn’t matter whether you know how of the key highlights or not, there’s nothing wrong with looking into the same.
The key highlights are:
- Security enhancements
- Platform enhancements
- Performance enhancements
- Scalability enhancements
- Accessibility updates
- New B2B feature
- New Braintree features
- GraphQL performance enhancements
- Page Builder compatibility
- PWA Studio compatibility
4.1. Security Enhancements
Magento geeks know that Adobe Commerce is serious about this platform’s security. For this reason, they have not only brought about 8 security fixes but have also made significant strides toward platform security improvements.
For instance, the latest security update is going to resolve important, critical, as well as moderate vulnerabilities. Similarly, the gaps that were earlier present in the Admin action logs are now filled with specific auditing of the admin sections.
Also, issues related to the reCAPTCHA validation failure or errors, especially during payment processing or checkout, are no longer going to be present.
Similarly, a new setting system configuration, usually disabled by default has been added to the recent version. When this system is enabled, it is going to request email confirmation every time the admin changes the email address.
4.2. Platform Enhancement
As the countdown for the Magento 2.4.6 release date approached, store owners to developers were pretty much excited to see the enhancements that the platform is getting and so were we.
Now, let’s take you through the platform enhancements of this latest version. Magento 2.4.6 is now compatible with the high-performing PHP 8.2 and remains fully functional with other versions of PHP 8, such as PHP 8.1.
For continued support of the latest Magento version 2.4.6, store owners must upgrade their server environment to a minimum of PHP 8.x.
However, if you are server is using an older version of PHP 7.4 with Magento 2.4, you must update it to the latest version of PHP 8.
It must be kept in mind that Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 upgrade won’t be supporting the older version of PHP 7.4.
4.2.1. Platform: Added Features
Furthermore, the latest version of Magento comes loaded with the following features. They are:
- Composer 2.2.x is now supported. Similarly, ElasticSearch 8.x.is supported by the new version; also, Redis 7.0.x is going to receive support. However, Redis 6.2 is going to remain compatible till April 2024.
- Make MariaDB 10.6 easier to understand: MariaDB 10.6 is a long-term support version that still works with MariaDB 10.4, but it’s better to upgrade to 10.6.
- As a part of the platform enhancement, the DHL scheme migrated from version 6.2 to version 10.0.
- All outdated and older dependencies have been taken out, and Java libraries were updated. Plus, Adobe even updated the JavaScript library to the latest version.
- In short, the new enhancements made to the platform are bound to improve the overall experience of the users.
4.3. Performance Enhancements
The latest release greatly focuses on improving speed and performance. With the enhancements made to the platform, merchants get to enjoy the ease of use. Due to the improvements made, merchants can perform bulk operations in a few minutes. This is going to save their valuable time and effort.
Basically, due to the new configuration settings, the performance of the Adobe Commerce and Magento stores having large customer segments is bound to improve. Plus, the ‘The Real-time Check, if Customer is Matched by Segment’ setting, has been introduced.
4.3.1. What Is It Going to Support?
We all know that performance is crucial for eCommerce platforms. So, due to the platform enhancement features, two things are going to be supported. They are:
4.3.1.1. Category Tree Processing
The category processing system has been revamped to optimize nested children’s tree handling. Due to this upgrade, one should get ready to experience faster loading times and improved performance. This will make the search process easier and manage over 1500 categories!
4.3.1.2. Bulk Cart Operation Response Time
The query response times is now optimized for bulk cart operations, enabling the addition of 500+ simple or configurable products to the shopping cart with ease
In short, Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 has been designed to be future-ready. Hence, it is not only efficient and scalable but also tailored to meet the ever-increasing company needs.
4.4. Scalability Enhancements
There is some good news for store owners who are going to upgrade their stores to Magento Commerce 2.4.6. Wondering about the scalability improvements brought to the platform? Then you should read on.
Magento 2.4.6 brings some fantastic scalability enhancements. Now, one can easily say goodbye to slow operations involving 100+ customer segments. A new setting reduces validation, boosting performance significantly.
4.4.1. Limit Item Number in Grid
In case you are tired of a sluggish product grid, then there is some good news. This Magento update introduces a setting to limit the number of displayed products, enhancing performance noticeably.
Well, Magento 2.4.6 has made it easier than ever to manage large product catalogs by optimizing the performance of product grids. As a store admin, you can now control the maximum number of products displayed in the grid using a new system configuration setting.
To access this setting, simply head to Stores > Settings > Configuration > Advanced > Admin > Admin Grids > Limit Number of Products in Grid.
By default, this feature is disabled. However, when activated, the default limit is set to 20,000 products – the minimum allowed for this option. Experience seamless management of your product catalog with this fantastic new addition to Magento 2.4.6.
4.4.2. Faster Imports
Importing just got easier! The new POST /rest/<store_view_code>/V1/import/csv REST API Endpoint allows you to import up to a whopping 100,000 records per minute!
4.4.3. Quick Order Processing
Plus, cloud users can simply rejoice! Those with over 1000 orders per minute can now improve order processing performance by distributing the load across different database nodes.
4.4.4. Enhanced Cache Efficiency
Magento 2.4.6 now smartly manages cache, ensuring more pages load from cache for faster performance. The full-page cache is no longer flushed when an order is fulfilled unless it contains out-of-stock products.
Additionally, category page caches remain intact when in-stock product quantities change, allowing these pages to load more quickly from cache rather than being regenerated.
4.5. Accessibility Updates
Magento 2.4.6 focuses on making Venia (PWA) more engaging, user-friendly, and seamless for an amazing retail experience. Here are some exciting improvements that store owners will simply love.
Firstly, the Sign-in button now sports a visually striking text label that perfectly aligns with its accessible name, which is easy to remember.
Secondly, all shop buttons now have memorable and descriptive names.
Thirdly, the latest Adobe Commerce version allows enhanced accessibility. This means one gets to see verbal descriptions in the “Has Video” checkboxes in search filters.
Fourthly, there is some good news for keyboard-only users. Full-page functionality is now at their fingertips.
Fifthly, the latest Magento version 2.4.6 supports PWA Studio v.13.0.x.
Lastly, accessing the sub-navigation links are easy to access with keystrokes.
Basically, these improvements to Magento 2.4.6 have been made keeping in mind the users with special needs.
4.6. New B2B feature
In the latest version of Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 two GraphQL schemas have been released. They are:
Purchase Order GraphQL API
This schema includes functionalities, such as purchase order creation, editing, and deleting.
Purchase Order Rule GraphQL
This schema includes rules creation, editing, and deleting them, and purchase order manual validation.
4.7. New Braintree features
Magento’s latest release brings some exciting improvements to the Braintree payment method. Some of the enhancements that one will get to see are the addition of Fraud Protection and ACH webhooks. Similarly, LPM (Local Payment Methods) webhook has also been added.
Plus, customers in Italy and Spain can now enjoy the convenience of the PayLater button. Also, PayLater messaging when using PayPal Vault for payments is now enabled.
4.8. GraphQL Performance Enhancements
In the most recent Magento 2.4.6 release, Adobe has introduced a range of performance-enhancing updates for Magento 2 GraphQL. This, in turn, is going to make GraphQL more efficient and user-friendly. Some key improvements include:
Quicker response times when querying products in categories with enabled category permissions, especially for those with numerous customer groups or shared catalogs. The optimized GraphQL resolver operations are going to help with faster processing.
Product permissions are now applied more efficiently to product collections, rather than on a per-product basis, for better performance.
New ‘deleteCustomer’ mutations have been added for added functionality.
Enhanced category tree rendering performance, specifically when querying categories with enabled category permissions via GraphQL. Similarly, there are faster bulk cart operation response times through GraphQL.
Improved loading of category children by refining code, removing unnecessary method calls, optimizing category tree caching, and allowing for recursive loading of category data through GraphQL.
4.9. Page Builder compatibility
The best part about the Magento 2.4.6 release is that it is going to support Page Builder v.1.7.3.
4.10. PWA Studio compatibility
Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 now supports PWA Studio v.13.0.x.
5. Magento 2.4.6: Some Added Functionalities
Some added functionalities that one will get to see in Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 are:
- Focus indication on buttons operates as expected when navigating with TAB or SHIFT + TAB.
- Moreover, Magento 2.4.6 offers improved compatibility with screen readers. For instance, screen readers now announce successful user logins, total item counts in search results, and any required input fields.
6. OpenSearch vs ElasticSearch in Magento 2.4.6
OpenSearch emerged in 2021 as a fork of ElasticSearch due to licensing disputes with Amazon. Based on ElasticSearch 7.10, OpenSearch is also an Amazon creation, with its foundations in ElasticSearch and Kibana.
Both search solutions offer essential features like data tiering for the cloud, machine learning, SQL query syntax, reporting, and asynchronous search. Although licensing differences might matter to developers, end users may not notice any significant differences.
Ultimately, ElasticSearch could be the better choice for Magento stores in the long run, thanks to the continued contributions from its thriving community.
7. Magento 2.4.6: Additional Fixes
In the latest Adobe Commerce 2.4.6, hundreds of issues have been fixed. So, if you are wondering what the fixes are all about, then here’s a quick look.
Firstly, the bin/magento setup:di:compile -vvv (or with the -v or -vv options) command is now going to return an informative message on failure.
Secondly, when executing the composer install command overwriting of .gitignore files is eliminated.
Thirdly, exceptions and exception stack trace entries are a part of the var/log/exception.log.
Fourthly, the buttons in the checkout now work as expected with keyboard input.
Fifthly, screen readers won’t be facing any more problems in reading the correct image description on the order history page.
Sixth, the Drag and drop feature for product custom options has been now added.
Seventh, the issue with adding items to wish lists after logging in is completely resolved.
Eighth, FedEx, USPS, and UPS shipping rate calculations are fixed for carts with Free Shipping rule applied to a subset of items.
Lastly, performance improvements for string searches with Minimum Terms to Match configuration enabled.
It won’t be wrong to say that the latest version of Magento brings a lot of dependency changes that are worth taking note of.
8. Some Major Updates One Will Get to See
Magento 2.4.6 is coming with some major updates that are worth taking note of.
8.1. Cart and Checkout Enhancements
Magento’s latest update brings several improvements to the cart and checkout experience:
- Add extra items to the cart even when it already contains the minimum quantity of a simple product.
- Accurate refund calculations for orders with shipping discounts.
- Place orders without selecting Google ReCAPTCHA first.
- Proper display of confirmation popups.
- Show a confirmation popup when changing product quantity in the cart without updating it first.
- Allow customers to decrease product quantity in the cart even if it was adjusted by the store manager in the Admin.
- Check customer group permission access to prevent adding restricted products to the cart.
- Restore cart contents if an order is canceled or abandoned, removing items only after order creation.
- Display correct product images in the mini cart, fixing issues with placeholder images.
8.2 Catalog Updates
Here are some key improvements for the product catalog:
- Show accurate prices for logged-in customers, fixing issues with cached prices.
- Enable mobile shoppers to expand categories with subcategories, resolving previous limitations.
- Update the product price indexer when a product is assigned to a new store, avoiding missing or incorrect prices due to Cron updates.
9. Magento 2.4.6: Steps to Upgrade
Now, you are aware of the new features that version 2.4.6 brings to the table, it’s time to look at the Magento 2.4.6 upgrade process.
First, you must go to your Magento installation’s root directory.
Second, you must update the Composer before going ahead with the Magento upgrade steps. For updating the Composer to the latest version, the following command needs to be executed. It is:
composer self-update
Third, for upgrading the existing Magento installation to the latest 2.4.6 version, the following command must be used:
composer require magento/product-community-edition=2.4.6–no-update
Fourth, you must also update the Composer dependencies. For this, you must run the command below:
composer update
Once you are done with the last step, you must use the command below to clear the cache and reindex the Magento store:
php bin/magento cache:clean
php bin/magento cache:flush
php bin/magento setup:upgrade
php bin/magento indexer:reindex
Sixth, you must confirm whether the Magento upgrade was successful or not. To carry out this step, use the following command:
php bin/magento –version
These are some steps that need to be followed during the upgrade process. However, during the upgrade one can face certain issues that are going to be discussed below.
10. Issues That One Might Face During the Upgrade
Well, the latest update introduces several backward-incompatible changes due to the end of support for certain libraries and third-party software components. This includes:
- Replacing Zend_Filter with laminas-filter
- Replacing Zend_HTTP with laminas-http
- Replacing Zend_Validate with laminas-validator
These changes can greatly impact numerous Magento modules, such as Magento_GoogleAdwords (backend), Magento_Framework, Magento_Payment, Magento_Backend, Magento_Search, Magento_LayeredNavigation, and Magento_Downloadable.
Third-party extensions relying on the affected Magento modules, or the replaced libraries will also need to be updated.
11. Things to Keep in Mind Before the Magento 2.4.6 Upgrade
Before you go ahead and upgrade your Magento store, don’t forget to turn on maintenance mode. Trust me, it’s super important to keep your system stable and protect all your precious data and settings. Once you’ve finished upgrading, just make sure to turn everything back on and switch off maintenance mode.
Similarly, before opting for Magento 2.4.6 upgrade, it’s mandatory to check whether all required extensions are up to date or not. If they are not updated, it won’t support the new Magento release.
If you have decided to move your store or upgrade your store to Magento 2.4.6 then it’s a good move from your end; however, before heading for the Magento 2.4.6 upgrade make sure you fulfill all system requirements.
12. Magento 2.4.6 System Requirements
Well, the system requirements for Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 are not the same for the previous versions. The requirements for Magento 2.4.6 are as follows:
- Apache 2.4
- AWS Aurora (MySQL) 8.0
- AWS MQ 3.9.13
- AWS OpenSearch 1.2
- Composer 2.2
- Elasticsearch 8.x
- MySQL 8.0
- MariaDB 10.6
- OpenSearch 2.5, and OpenSearch 2.x
- PHP 8.2 or 8.1
- RabbitMQ 3.9
- Redis 7.0
- Varnish 7.1
- Nginx 1.18
13. Magento 2.4.6: Key Differences from Earlier Versions
Before making the move to the latest 2.4.6 version, it’s important to look into the key differences with past versions.
| Version 2.4.6 | Version 2.4.5 | |
| ElasticSearch | 8.0 | 7.17 |
| Security Enhancements | 8 security fixes and platform security improvements. | Google reCAPTCHA supports Wish List Sharing and Gift Card forms. Added ACL resources to inventory. Inventory template security enhancements. MaliciousCode upgraded to HTMLPurifier. |
| Platform & APIs | Latest Platform technology, including PHP 8.1 and 8.2. GraphQL improvements | Support for PHP 8.1 |
| Performance Enhancements | The bin/Magento/setup: upgrade command performance has been enhanced. In the past, recreating database triggers during command execution led to considerable downtime. Moreover, indexers stayed in save mode instead of reverting to the scheduled mode. This issue has now been resolved. | The performance of primary indexes has been boosted by decreasing their quantity from three to just one. |
| PageBuilder | V.1.7.3 | V.1.7.2 |
| Scalability | 1K+ customer segments | 500 concurrent admin users Duplicate SKU removal reduces eSKU count up to 85% |
14. Is Magento 2.4.6 Worth it?
By this time, you are aware that Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 has made significant improvements in key areas. This is good news for the merchants and developers as the Magento platform is now going to offer them enhanced security, improved performance, and better bug fixes. Overall, customers are going to enjoy better functionality and experience than ever before on this platform.
15. Take Professional Expertise
Do you need help with Magento 2.4.6 upgrade? Or do you need more information about this latest Magento release? If you said yes to both questions, you are on the right page.
At Wagento, we are ready to help you out with any needs that you might have. Whether you need to develop a store on Magento 2.4.6 right from scratch or just want to migrate or upgrade to the latest Magento release, our professionals will be more than happy to help you out. You can reach out to our experts for a detailed overview.
16. Final Thoughts
There is no denying that the latest Magento update brings a more inclusive experience to users with accessibility needs, offering enhanced compatibility with screen readers and overall improved accessibility features.
Magento 2.4.6 is packed with exciting improvements and new capabilities, making it an essential upgrade for Magento store owners. However, be aware that upgrading can be challenging, as changes in this version may impact various extensions installed in your store, potentially requiring updates to ensure smooth functioning. Embrace the upgrade but be prepared for a little extra work to optimize your store!
