Not so long ago, we talked about the fresh Magento 2.4.2 update. This is a great event. New Magento updates always provide new tools to grow your store, reach new heights and revenue peaks. However, we will not deny that updating your store to the new Magento version is always a tricky process. And it requires serious labor and investment. Many eCommerce entrepreneurs want to streamline this process to make it much easier and faster. That’s why Magento is introducing a new feature called the Upgrade Compatibility Tool. In this article, we will analyze what Upgrade Compatibility Tool is, how it works, and you will understand why you need this tool in the future. Without further ado, let’s go.
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What Is Upgrade Compatibility Tool?
Many entrepreneurs often postpone updating their stores because they are not ready for the accompanying costs and are not sure if the store add-ons will be compatible with the new platform update. But the longer you delay an update, the more vulnerable the store becomes to hacker attacks and the less advantage the store has over its competitors.
The Upgrade Compatibility Tool is designed to help merchants proactively identify incompatible add-ons, tweaks, and modifications before updating their stores. The sooner you will identify and fix such problems, the cheaper the subsequent upgrade process will be. Now, let’s take a closer look at this tool.
Upgrade Compatibility Tool in Technical Language
In more complex language, this tool is the Command-Line Interface or CLI. This interface can analyze the current Magento store settings in a specific case. And identify code blocks that need updates to be compatible with the upcoming Magento update.
At the moment, the Compatibility Tool is in alpha release, which means that many updates to this tool and the expansion of its functionality await us. But already in alpha, it can validate the Magento PHP API and GraphQL schema. Already such a set greatly simplifies the identification of weaknesses that require processing before updating the store to a new version of Magento.
However, we want to note that the use of this tool does not exempt in any way from the need to conduct regression testing.
Next, let’s talk about who has access to the Upgrade Compatibility Tool.
Who Can Use and Where to Get?
At the moment, the latest version of the tool is distributed as a Composer package available for download directly from the Magento Repository. The Upgrade Compatibility Tool will work with all stores upgrading from Magento 2.x to 2.3 and higher. The developers plan to release updated versions of the tool for each update of the Magento platform.
The only thing we want to note is that the tool is not available for the open-source versions of Magento and Magento 1. And the developers do not plan to make it available in the future.
Besides that, you can run Upgrade Compatibility Tool on any OS without having to run the tool where your Magento store is located. All that is necessary for a successful check is access and the source code of your store. Let’s say you run a tool on a separate server or system. All you need is to indicate the location of your Magento store.
How to Use an Upgrade Compatibility Tool?
In a nutshell, after the you download Upgrade Compatibility Tool from the repository, you need to run it on the current version of the Magento store. And the tool automatically checks the store code for any problems. Upon completion of the analysis, you will see a report on the problems found. An example of such a report looks like this.
static.magento.com
Now let’s discuss how to work with this tool step by step.
Upgrade Compatibility Tool Flow
In the picture below, you can see how the Upgrade Compatibility Tool works when checking the Magento 2.3.6 store before upgrading to Magento 2.4.2. For a clearer picture of the process, we will cover each step of the check from start to finish.
static.magento.com
- The programmer engaged in updating your store downloads the Upgrade Compatibility Tool from the repository and runs a check.
- For example, after checking, several modified sections of code in the inventory and catalog modules were revealed. These areas are assigned a specific difficulty rating.
- The developer passes this information to the account manager.
- This information is an important part of the Magento update schedule creation process and cost. This estimate shows to the client for final approval.
- After receiving the approval, the programmer starts working on the modules, correcting code blocks that are incompatible with the future Magento update.
- After rewriting the code, the programmer reruns the Upgrade Compatibility Tool to ensure no new problems appeared.
- The corrected code undergoes regression testing. And after successful testing, the corrected sections of the code are entered into the main array. Ad the store is launched!
Wrapping Up
As you can see, the Upgrade Compatibility Tool is a huge step towards simplifying upgrading stores to the new Magento versions. There are many more updates to this tool awaiting us. And in the future, we will see new functionality that will make updates even easier and faster. If you want to learn more about Magento updates or have any other Magento-related questions, we will gladly answer them. Drop us a line, and our representative will contact you to conduct a meeting.
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