Magento 2 has been the leading e-commerce business platform used by more than 2.30,000 online retailers. The app provides a variety of versatile tools that cover far more than it did before your marketing, search engine optimization, and catalogue management needs.
If you’ve been dealing with Magento’s previous versions, you’d be familiar with all the features it provides. However, they took it to an entirely new level with Magento 2 and developed the most user-friendly and balanced e-commerce environment yet. Therefore, you have so many reasons to update now that it is hard not to!
Magento was slimmed down and converted from scratch to what is now a faster, simpler, and safer version of Magento 2. It offers not only enhanced scalability, but also some unique features that help users quickly set up a working online store. The administrative options that increase the customer’s shopping experience have also been expanded.
Combined with the newly added pre-processor technology for HTML5 and CSS, in Magento 2 you have an e-commerce game changer!
Features of Magento 2
Let’s discuss the top 8 features now:
1. New File Structure in Magento 2
In the Magento 2 file structure, there are big changes. Under the app structure, everything is situated. Each module has its own directory where all the models, layouts, JavaScript, CSS/fewer files of a particular module can be accessed easily. This is certainly a huge benefit for the developers of the module, as they can have more custom opportunities without modifying their core site.
In Magento 2, there are four kinds of directories:
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- Primary directories- Unable to change these directories, including the base directory, the code directory, the lib directory.
- Device Directories- This includes directory DI, directory generation, etc. You need to run the Entry Point class to change its location.
- User Directories-Application directory, template directory, temporary directory, cache directory, log directory, session directory are included in the directories.
- Public Directories-Include the pub directory, the media directory, the upload directory, the static directory, the cache pub view directory.
Using the same applied strategy to adjust the position of the device directory to change the location of the public and programmer directories. You can customize both of these directories through the config.XML file.
2. Performance and scalability improved
Magento 2 needs some changes in efficiency and scalability, including:
Performance improvements:
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- Improving indexers- By building the index tables and keeping them updated to improve the query speed and efficiency of your store, the Magento system transforms merchant data, such as catalogues, data, prices, users by indexing. As in previous versions of Magento 2, the latest indexes contain all of the functions. They come with more changes and are enhanced to speed up the query performance.
- A Magento Performance Toolkit- Using a new set of test scripts, you can build a test environment and code changes to validate and improve system performance.
- Varnish-Magento 2 is integrated with Varnish Cache, the leading HTTP accelerator technology, which is responsible for caching common requests, to help minimize server load and speed up page loading.
Scalability improvements
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- Full page caching-All of a page’s content is cached, which improves efficiency and decreases server load significantly.
- Multiple Admin users- Without the fear of data conflicts, multiple admin users can build and edit products with Magento 2.
3. CSS Preprocessing
Magento 2 doesn’t use Bootstrap anymore. Instead, own less and CSS are used in the theme heart. The publisher is expected to locate and publish CSS along with static summary files filed under the pub and directory. The publisher also supports the preprocessing of files with certain preprocessors that have to be released.
Two separate preprocessors are composed of CSS preprocessors:
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- LESS preprocessor: the LESS PHP adapter and the LESS preprocessor allow Magento to use LESS.
- CSS URL Resolver: uses the publisher to resolve links contained in CSS source files and then replace them with the right ones.
Main benefits include:
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- LESS makes it simpler and quicker for users to configure themes.
- The LESS preprocessor and CSS URL help to boost performance speed up page loading and make the search engine framework friendly.
4. Reducing efforts and prices for upgrades
In Magento 2, updating and installing extensions is seamless. Also, relative to Magento 1, extensions in Magento 2 are lightweight.
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- Upgrade to newer versions- Magento 2 provides revised policy details and compatibility for updates.
- Installing Magento- With the latest Magento 2 installer, installing a new Magento has become simpler and quicker. Prior to initiating the installation process, it will first search for prerequisites. To build the deployments, system integrator can easily script the installations and update.
- Upgrading and adding plugins- Your site would be affected by installing or upgrading. Magento 2 enables developers to provide comprehensive details on compatible versions of their code that are based on device modules, versions, and specifications.
- Upgrade to Magento 2- To export customer information, inventory data, customer data, and other records, you can use the export and import feature and then import them into Magento 2.
5. under the hood
Including Magento 2:
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- HTML 5
- CSS3
- RequireJS
- PSR Compliance
- Full page caching
- Varnish support in its core
6. New Layout Elements
Core/text is used in Magento 1.x to act as a standardized book. A new design of container wrappers is now being introduced by Magento 2. Containers contain blocks and all the children are rendered. By simply moving the blocks and quickly identifying the parts in a simpler way, arranging blocks would now be more intuitive.
7. No more prototypes
The prototype used Magento’s JavaScript as the main library since jQuery was not stable enough. As demand for the Magento type increased, jQuery has now substituted the prototype. Only one JavaScript framework is provided by Magento 2, i.e. RequireJS, which means that there will be less JavaScript conflict in Magento 2 compared to Magento 1.
8. Magento UI Library
It is a lightweight modular Magento library that uses a collection of base element mixtures and also helps to ease the creation of the theme and its customization. Its main characteristics include:
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- Customizable
- Easy to maintain
- Focused on web standards
- Built on LESS preprocessor
- Responsive
- Accessible
The Magento Library allows its users to customize each of the following elements:
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- Actions toolbar
- Buttons
- Breadcrumbs
- Dropdowns
- Forms
- Icons
- Layout
- Loaders
- Messages
- Navigation
- Popups
- Ratings
- Tables
- Tabs
- Accordions
- Typography
- List of theme variables
Conclusion
If you are a current Magento user, then from the above article, you might have cleared your question about upgrading to Magento 2. Ultra-fast, stable and more reliable is the latest edition of magento. Magento 2 offers scalability and enhanced performance functionality, along with security and maintenance.