Magento 2: Was has changed for developers and shop operators

Many had ceased to believe, but just before Christmas, Magento surprised the e-commerce community with the release of Magento 2.0 Beta. The new version of the most widely used e-commerce software has been available since the 17th of December and can be tested. But can iQuery and PHP5.5 offer any comfort for the loss of transparency and the open-source mindset? And what will change for shop operators?

New Javascript Library and PHP5.5

With Magento 2.0, the e-commerce solution distances itself from the prototype library and now relies entirely on jQuery. Additionally, frontend developers get a basic responsive template, which makes the implementation of online shops for mobile devices easier. The official support from PHP5.5 also promises high quality and stability, which should improve performance. There has been some critique for the continued use of Zend Framework 1, which some consider not to be promising for the future. On the other hand, backend developers can look forward to dependency injection. This does not only allow you to inject dependency, but to also manage it in a container. Because of this, Magento 1 extensions are largely incompatible with the 2.0 version, but PHP gains greater independence in software development. More development updates are with Magento directly.

It’s all open-source, isn’t it?

The blog Magneticians recently criticised the approach to open-source which stands behind Magento 2. Users can give simple input on the GitHub, but it is not worked through with enough transparency. In this way, users only find out about a problem once it has been fixed. Magenticians traced this lack of communication between developers and users back to Magento’s affiliation with eBay: developers can now only react with users. Interaction is not possible, which has a negative impact, especially in this era of social coding.

It’s simpler for shop operators

Not much has changed for shop operators, except improvements to usability. Happily, there are no nasty surprises or completely changed menus in the backend. As eBay daughter companies, Magento and PayPal are being brought even closer together, so the integration of PayPal into the shop should be extended without any serious problems. In addition to this, there are also improved analysis possibilities for the marketing department. The basic responsive template has already been mentioned which, above all, should bear fruits in e-commerce and simplify the development of mobile solutions.

Conclusion

At first glance, Magento 2 appears to have become more comprehensive and modern, but not more complex. There are several features for both front- and backend developers, such as the JavaScript library jQuery or the dependency injections. Shop operators, especially those whose online shop still hasn’t been implemented in responsive design, can look forward to easier implementation of mobile solutions. Some of the current critique is directed at the implementation of the open-source model: too little interaction between developers and users is creating frustration in the community.