Wednesday 18 May 2016

Magento 1 or Magento 2 – Let’s find out what upgrading to Magento 2 would actually mean


If Magento 1 is working well for you, then you don’t need to hurry. But, for new website owners, Magento 2 is a perfect software solution. Existing sites also should explore its key features and benefits and gradually make the upgradation.
Users of Magento 1 software have surely been waiting for the new version of Magento 2, released last year, which reflects on Magento development for several years and offers key features and benefits for its users.
While you must be wondering as to whether this would be the right time for you to upgrade to the new version or not, let’s first have a look at the developed features that it’s offering.
The most important features of the upgraded version include –
Caching on the full page –
With this feature, the category and pages of products now can be cached. The CMS pages on the sites too can be cached, which would offer their services just like the performances of HTML pages in their static forms.
The new version making queries on databases thus leading to enhanced performances in respect of the load time of pages.
Code bases are optimized –
The new version has been developed using code designs that are of advanced patterns. As a result, the developers are better guided to use these codes and hence develop their own new ones. The resultant code is of a better and higher quality.
Databases are separated –
With Magento development, now you can make use of two different databases separately by the same software. Hence, it is now possible to use one database for holding on the CMS pages and categories of the product while other databases can at the same time deal with the checkout processes on the websites.
This is indeed one of the most effective solutions for e-commerce businesses.
Better options for payments –
The new version has its integrated association with various gateways of payments such as PayPal, Braintree and Authorize.net thus making it very effective for users to make online transactions on their websites more effectively and conveniently. The best part of the advancement is that no extensions are required for these.
Extensions are better and improved –
With Magento 2 version, the reviews on the extensions of the software are now done more strictly, with the responsibilities being undertaken by Magento Connect, which is the official extension marketplace of the software.
A number of test cases are used in this new version for performing complete regression testing on the extensions. Thus, a higher assurance is offered by the version regarding no-breakage of the core functions related with the software’s extensions.
Pre-processing of the CSS –
There is an inbuilt CSS pre-processor (LESS) in the new version of Magento. In general, the management of CSS in complex projects can be a very difficult and challenging task for the developers. With LESS, it is now possible to reduce the burden of challenges to a great extent since the pre-processor offers extensions on the CSS with variables, operations, mixins and nested rules.
Optimization of the database –
In the previous version of Magento, there have been reports of traffic based on issues related with performance, which in turn affect the actions of the software. The new version has brought solutions to these by optimizing on the databases associated with this particular issue and hence the traffic occurrences are also less now.
Customized services –
The magento customization services are of particular interest since they are targeted towards fulfilling specific requirements of clients in respect of the profits that customers want to earn through their website development.
With the magento customizationservices, clients can be said to have more effective solutions to their specific e-commerce requirements.
So, the question arises whether you should upgrade right away or wait? If your current version is working well on your websites, without causing you any trouble, then it may not be essential to hurry. What you can do is to explore the features and benefits of Magento 2 gradually and then upgrade your version.
However; it needs to be mentioned here as well as the process of upgradation may not be as smooth as may be expected or desired by users. A tool of migration has been offered with the new version to help you in this regard, which should make it less painful though.
The idea is to conduct a basic research on the upgradation process so that you can implement it effectively for your site, of course with the help of developers. However; certain features such as the themes and customization of codes may not be possible to be transferred. This means that these features would have to be newly created and developed on Magento 2, which might also result in a certain level of extra investments as well.
Considering the benefits that the new version offers, these efforts however; can be said to be worth the value you would get.
If you are using the new version, it will also be supporting the older versions for long, which is another major benefit associated with the new development. So, if you are really looking for improvements and effectiveness on your sites, Magento 2 has some serious solutions for long term success of your websites and business.
With Magento 2, database will no more be an issue of failure, which has been disturbing users for long, with its built-in features being highly developed and tested.