On February 09, 2021, the latest version – Magento 2.4.2 was released. Magento always exceeds the expectations for Magento merchants in uplifting the store features. Magento came back with its latest version which brings in the substantial platform and security enhancement. This latest release encompasses 280+ new fixes for core code and 35 enhancements for security. The community members released resolution for 290 GitHub issues, these improvements go from small clean-up of core code to substantial enhancements in GraphQL. Also, all the known concerns in Magento 2.4.1 are fixed in this release.

Release Highlights of Magento 2.4.2

• Supports the SameSite attribute for cookies
• Supports Redis 6.x and elastic search 7.9.x
• Compatibility with Composer 2.x
• Supports usage of Web-optimized images in the content
• Includes integration of Adobe Stock v2.1.1
• Includes the enhancement of AWS (Amazon S3)
• Enhanced PWA Studio
• Fixed many more issues

How Magento 2.4.2 is Different?

1. Important Security Enhancements: In the Magento 2.4.2 version, there are additionally 35 issues fixed for security which includes support for RCE and XSS vulnerabilities. For CSP, it also aids the SameSite attribute for cookies and resolved the violations. The security-only patch 2.4.0.12 allow the merchants to implement the security fixes without applying a huge number of functional fixes.

2. Infrastructure Enhancements: The release of Magento 2.4.2 comes with relevant improvements to lighten the framework in –

• Customer Account
• Catalog
• CMS
• OMS
• Import/Export
• Promotions and Targeting
• Cart and Checkout
• Staging and Preview

3. Platform Enhancements:

• The latest version is compatible with elastic search 7.9.x and Redis 6.x as well. It also continues to be compatible with Redis 5.x.
• It is recommended that all the Magento merchants should migrate to Composer 2.x.
• This version also encompasses compatibility with Varnish 6.4 and Composer 2.x.

The Magento installation now cannot be configured by using a split database in this version. The merchants who are using a split database should migrate or revert to the single database or go for an alternative approach.

4. Performance Enhancements: The Magento 2.4.2 version has the improvements for code to strengthen the performance of API. The time for admin response is also improved for the deployments containing big catalogs. The latest version now facilitates natively support complex catalogs up to 20 times larger than the previous version (Magento 2.4.1).

5. GraphQL: The Magento 2.4.2 release includes the below features for GraphQL:

• Support for comparison list is added and the users can generate and remove comparison lists and also add and delete items from the list.
• Generate customer token as admin is added along with updating the customer object to aid the remote purchasing.
• Localization support is added across the stores to aid tasks like changing currencies, language etc.
• In Magento GraphQL, back up for unions is also added.
• The GraphQL schema is improved to upgrade product data retrieval for products that can be configured.
• Staging attribute is added to the category interface and product interface to find out if the product is staged and also to view its combined campaign information.

6.  The PWA studio in Magento 2.4.2 comes with the following:

• Localization and Internationalization. Support is now offered for various currencies and languages.
• The extensibility framework is improved to support the changes in code through extensions.
• Basic components for account-related features like Address Book, Order History, Saved Payments and Wishlist.
• Several bug fixes and performance enhancements.

 7. Media Gallery: There is a new role resource for media gallery and this release enables the merchants to limit the access of administrator to only the media gallery and also authorise who can do the below-mentioned actions:

• Insert media assets into content
• Upload assets
• Edit assets details
• Delete assets from the Media Gallery
• Manage folder structure
• Supports utilization of Web-optimized images in the content.

The merchants are enabled to use web-optimized images in content in place of high-resolution images. The original image remains as it is in the media gallery and is effectively generated when an image is inserted into the content.

8. Magento Functional Testing Framework: The Magento Functional Testing Framework 3.2.1 is now available and includes all the tolerance for error in the tests and the test suit generation. Apart from this, it contains important enhancements and bug fixes which are explained in detail in Magento Functional Testing Framework Changelog.

9. AWS S3 Support Enhancements: Magento 2.4.2 includes enhanced AWS S3 support:

• Future extensibility and object support
• Storage of media files on AWS S3
• Support is added for AWS S3 in all the modules like Page Builder, Adobe Stock Integration and B2B.

Final Words

Upgrade your Magento store to the latest Magento 2 version today! Explore the above-mentioned features and make the most use of this version for your business until the next latest version. Do not ever compromise with the data and security of the store and so it is recommended to hire certified developers.

Want to see a real-life example of how Magento 2 can help you boost business? Check out our case study to see how we built a successful Magento 2 eCommerce store for a Philippines-based automotive tire supplier.

About SynergyTop

SynergyTop provides end-to-end Magento E-commerce services, including, Design, Development, ERP/ CRM and 3rd Party Integrations, Support and Maintenance. Our developer chooses Magento for its scalability, interconnectivity and reduced TCO. We can help you build bespoke Magento websites, which are responsive and conversion friendly. The certified developers with SynergyTop help you in migrating to the latest version of Magento 2 seamlessly. We also help you with the best Magento security options to mitigate the risk. Write to us at contact@synergytop.com