Today 19th Oct 2018, The latest version - Magento 2.3 beta was made available to the public, with the golden master scheduled for general availability in late November. Announced back in May, The software is to come feature-packed instead of dedicating to performance enhancements like its 2.2 predecessors. With the beta now available, we’ll analyze the new changes that come with it comparing to the announced features.

Developer Experience Enhancements

GraphQL, Asynchronous REST, and Bulk Web APIs

Most of the upgrades announced back in May is present in this beta release. The new API for Magento front-end, GraphQL is here to support Magento’s new PWA. REST APIs calls are also upgraded, with asynchronous REST and Bulk Web APIs implemented for better performance and scalability. Various indexing changes are also seen, notably Dimension mode for Catalog Price, Category Product and Catalog Search by store view.

Technology Improvements

Magento 2.3 brings PHP 7.2, Declarative schema and Elastic Search availability for Magento Open Source as promised.

Content Management

The release updates its WYSIWIG with the newer TinyMCE 4 plugins. Dynamic blocks are also improved for Commerce users.

Modular development

Magento 2.3 brings modules that are available separately for merchants to choose from

Multi-Source Inventory (MSI)

  • Manage stock in multiple locations to reflect physical inventory
  • Real-time sourcing controls how locations are selected for delivery
  • Inventory reservations for highly performant checkout and accurate quantity available
  • API coverage for integration with 3rd party inventory systems
Source management
Stock management
Stock priority
Shipment priority

Sales & Advertising Channels - Amazon is included

This update aims to help merchants reach more customers by promoting products with online marketplaces & advertising platforms. Merchants will be able to sync their Magento store across channels to sell their products. Magento 2.3 also brings improved performance and data intelligence so merchants can easily review business performance across all of their channels.

Channel Availability

  • Amazon Marketplace integration now in EAP
  • Google Merchant Center and Ads integration in development
  • Magento plans to announce support for additional channels

Magento has been working extensively on the new Page builder and PWA Studio to bring merchants a more novice-friendly user interface. The company claims that PWA will bring higher performance and experience for consumers, leading to at least a 50% increase in performance better conversion, based on examples from Forbes, Weather Channel, Google, etc.

Magento is currently working on code reviewing, bug fixing, upgrade testing, and working with its partners for the publication of extension updates to prepare for the release. The company is also working on some technical considerations that we should know more about in the final release.

As for now, if you want to try, the only way to install Magento 2.3 beta is via composer. If you have any questions about Magento 2.3 and all things related, please email us at sales@magenest.com.