As eCommerce continues to grow at an unprecedented pace, Magento remains at the forefront of innovation with its recent release of Adobe Commerce 2.4.6. This latest version brings exciting new features, improvements, and bug fixes that can help merchants elevate their online presence and stay ahead of the curve.

One of the most significant updates is the support for PHP 8.2, while PHP 7.4 has been removed. This allows merchants to benefit from the latest improvements in PHP technology and significantly enhances the performance and scalability of their eCommerce stores. Additionally, the release includes over 300 quality fixes and enhancements, making it the most robust and stable version of Magento to date.

Another major enhancement is the introduction of the Adobe Commerce Extension metapackage. This feature automatically bundles select Adobe Commerce extensions with the core release, making it easier to upgrade extensions when upgrading to the latest core release. The Pay Later button and banners for Italy and Spain have been enabled for Braintree, along with the PayLater messaging with PayPal Vault. Moreover, security improvements for this release improve compliance with the latest security best practices, including IP allowlisting, two-factor authentication, and use of a unique location rather than /admin.

The B2B module has also received significant updates, with the Purchase Orders for Companies feature now fully exposed by the GraphQL API. This feature covers functionalities such as creating, editing, and deleting purchase orders, as well as creating, editing, and deleting approval rules, and manually validating purchase orders. Additionally, the release includes multiple bug fixes related to the B2B module.

For developers, Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 introduces support for Composer 2.2.x and Redis 7.0.x. The release also includes several GraphQL performance enhancements, such as improved response time when querying categories with category permissions enabled and optimized performance of category tree rendering. PWA Studio v.13.0.x is compatible with Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 and includes multiple accessibility enhancements. Furthermore, the release notes include fixed issues related to various modules, including Braintree, Elasticsearch, and Page Builder.

While Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 introduces numerous new features and improvements, it's essential to keep in mind that not all releases introduce major backward-incompatible changes. However, it's always best to review backward-incompatible changes to understand the impact of upgrading to a new version.

Key features also include:

• Support for PHP 8.2

• Significant performance and scalability enhancements, including optimized GraphQL operations for bulk cart operations and category tree rendering response

• Introduces the Adobe Commerce Extension metapackage

• Includes over 300 quality fixes and enhancements

• Includes eight security fixes and platform security improvements

• Merchants can improve the performance of operations involving more than 100 customer segments by enabling a new configuration setting

• New system configuration setting for limiting number of products displayed in product grid

• Improved import performance (up to 100,000 records per minute)

• Improved high-throughput order processing performance through load balancing

• Improved storefront experience on Venia (PWA) that is more perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust

• Purchase Orders for Companies feature is now fully exposed by the GraphQL API

• Pay Later button and banners for Italy and Spain have been enabled for Braintree

• GraphQL performance enhancements, including optimized category tree rendering and reduced bulk cart operations query response times

• PWA Studio v.13.0.x is compatible with Adobe Commerce 2.4.6

• New Relic is not currently compatible with PHP 8.2

In conclusion, Magento remains a dominant force in the eCommerce industry, and the latest release of Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 solidifies its position at the forefront of innovation. The support for PHP 8.2, the introduction of the Adobe Commerce Extension metapackage, and various B2B module updates are among the most exciting features of this release. Developers will also appreciate the support for Composer 2.2.x and Redis 7.0.x, as well as the numerous GraphQL performance enhancements. Overall, Adobe Commerce 2.4.6 is a robust and stable release that can help merchants elevate their eCommerce stores to new heights of success.