Magento Open Source 2.3.1 Released Features, Highlights & Improvements

As usual, like Magento 2.3.0, Magento has made several functional fixes and enhancements. Recently, Magento Live event was organized in Australia, which had deliberations regarding the future of E-commerce. During that event, many topics came into light, for instance, AI and digital wallets with expected 2.3.1 release in March implementing some significant contributions and bringing some developer experience advancement.

So, finally the most awaited Magento Version 2.3.1 is finally out yesterday night for which we all are waiting eagerly. This time Magento Open Source 2.3.1 release includes over 200 functional fixes to the core product, over 500 pull requests contributed by the community, and over 30 security enhancements. This 2.3.1 release includes significant contributions from our community members from minor clean-up of core code to the development of substantial features such as Inventory Management and GraphQL and  Page Builder and Progressive Web Applications (PWA) Studio) are also released independently. There are hundreds of enhancements and fixes but we have listed some highlights that will drastically impact on our daily Magento use.

 

1. Automation of upgrade process dependency assessment:

– All new composer plugin magento/composer-root-update-plugin will automatically update all dependencies in composer.json during a Magento 2.x upgrade.

2. Progressive Web Apps (PWA) Studio:

– PWA Studio is a set of developer tools that allow you to develop, deploy, and maintain a PWA storefront on top of Magento 2.x.

3. GraphQL:

– Community contributions for this release include major additions to cart actions (create cart, populate cart, set shipping address) and customers (create customer account).

4. All new Authorize.Net extension:

– This release includes a new Authorize.Net extension to replace the Authorize.Net Direct Post module, which implemented an MD5-based hash that Authorize.Net will no longer support as of June 28, 2019. So, Magento has also included Authorize.Net patch and stopped supporting MD5-based hash usage. If you are using older Magento than you can read our blog to Update Authorize.Net Direct Post from MD5 to SHA-512 in Magento.

5. Update for PayPal Express Checkout:

– Magento has updated PayPal Express Checkout to all new checkout.js v4. This introduces a modernized checkout flow, faster checkout performance, and new payment options in a single integration that does not have to be updated as new payment methods become available. It also unlocks new payment options including Venmo and PayPal Credit.

6. Check out information now persists after a cart update:

– Information previously entered by a customer during check out (such as shipping address) now persists after the customer updates their shopping cart. Previously, when a customer updated their shopping cart, all information previously entered during check out (such as shipping address) was deleted.

7. Shipment Cancellation:

– You can now cancel a shipment that has not yet been dispatched by accessing the shipment and clicking Cancel Shipment.

8. Carrier-specific packaging has been added for FedEx. These packages will be available for selection during shipping if a FedEx carrier is configured.
9. Magento Cart Price Rules can now be applied to Magento Shipping.
10. You can now successfully save a role from the Admin. Previously, when you saved a role from the Admin, Magento removed all users from the role (no matter which checkbox was checked), and displayed this message, This user has no tokens.
11. You can now successfully change the attribute set for a bundle product. Previously, the edit bundle page hung, and Magento threw this error, Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property ‘length’ of undefined.
12. CAPTCHA now appears as expected in the login pop-up window.
13. Magento no longer displays the infinite loading indicator when an error occurs during check out.
14. The DateTime class can now parse strings for all supported languages, not just English. Previously, converting from string to PHP DateTime object failed for locales other than en_US.
15. Now Magento maintains alphabetical order for customer groups when you filter customers by the group in the Admin. Previously, groups were sorted by ID.

 

And…Magento Open Source 2.2.8 released

Magento 2.2.8 includes over 30 critical enhancements to product security, over 150 core code fixes and enhancements, and 285 community-submitted pull requests. Although this release includes these security enhancements, no confirmed attacks related to these issues have occurred to date. However, certain vulnerabilities can potentially be exploited to access customer information or take over administrator sessions, so we recommend that you upgrade your Magento software to the latest version as soon as possible.

Read official Magento Open Source 2.2.8 Release Note

 

Also, Magento Open Source 2.1.17 Released Yesterday.

Magento Open Source 2.1.17 includes multiple enhancements to product security. This release includes security enhancements that help close cross-site scripting, arbitrary code execution, and sensitive data disclosure vulnerabilities as well as other security issues. No confirmed attacks related to these issues have occurred to date. However, certain vulnerabilities can potentially be exploited to access customer information or take over administrator sessions. We recommend that you upgrade your Magento software to the latest version as soon as possible.

Read official Magento Open Source 2.1.17 Release Note

 

So, these are the important features that we found useful and important for each of us but Don’t forget to tell us your opinion about this newly launched Magento 2.3.1 by Commenting below. We recommend upgrading your Magento store to the latest Magento 2.3.1 version to enjoy the secure and bug-free experience.

You can also read our guide to quickly upgrade your Magento 2.x to Latest Version.

Happy Installing!