How Magento Community Edition 1.9.2. Is Helping Developers
July saw the release of Magento Community Edition 1.9.2. This free and open source edition of Magento is designed to empower developers and give more people the chance to work with Magento at a deeper level, building upon the already rich functionality of the platform. We take a look at some of the most interesting elements of the update.
Zend1 Framework Support
With the 1.9.2 release, Magento has added support for the Zend 1 Framework and Redis integration. It has also made more than 100 quality-focused improvements. The Zend Framework is an industry-standard framework which has a great deal of developer and community support, so this is an important addition to the platform.
Because the Community Edition is offered for free, developers can work with it and easily modify it, deploying multiple configurations for testing. This enables them to work on creating and stabilising powerful extensions and customisations for their own end users.
Automated Functional Testing
Another significant 1.9.2. addition is the ability to automate functional testing. This will save site owners and developers a great deal of time when it comes to upgrades, plugin integration, and even theming, by allowing them to run a comprehensive battery of tests very quickly. While most integrations and customisations run relatively smoothly, there are of course times when things go wrong. This new testing feature will dramatically reduce the likelihood of errors making it through to a production environment.
Powerful Security Improvements
The last few months have seen some major security patches for all versions of Magento in order to improve the payment processing and account security of the solution. These patches, including SUPEE-5344, SUPEE-5994 and SUPEE-6285 will all be included in the community edition out-of-the-box. The current stable download also includes SUPEE-6482, which addresses two concerns regarding cross-site scripting, in addition to some potential API risks.
The community edition is offered free of charge and is aimed at small business owners as well as developers. This edition powers literally hundreds of thousands of websites and is flexible enough for the needs of the majority of store owners.
Ongoing Updates
Magento is committed to developing all versions of its software. Essential updates, such as those required to allow continuing integration with USPS systems for calculating shipping rates, are offered to all users. The Enterprise Edition adds further significant functionality for personalised promotions, up-selling and cross-selling.