The release candidate of Shopware 6.5 is available and invites you to test it. Download the pre-release and leave us your feedback to improve the product! Read more here ...
We are constantly striving to improve the product to make it easier for merchants and developers to use Shopware on a daily basis and to open up new possibilities quickly. This is also why we release a new version almost every month (more about the versioning strategy here).
This month we will release Shopware 6.4.20.0, and also the major release Shopware 6.5 is right around the corner. But first, we start with a release candidate (RC), allowing developers to test the pre-release version and give us feedback.
⚠️ Release candidates are not ready for productive use! To test the current Shopware 6.5 RC, set up a new installation or upgrade your existing testing environment.
Please give us feedback via the Community Slack Channel
We have set up an exclusive Slack Channel for your feedback and questions about the release candidate. Please note: If you need support for your shop, this channel is not the right place to go. (Learn where to get support instead in this video). It is also better to report bugs elsewhere: The Issue Tracker is perfect for this.
Prepare apps for the major release now!
The RC phase is also the right time for manufacturers to work on the compatibility of their plug-in system-based apps to ensure this until the final release of Shopware 6.5, which is expected to appear in April. Rector can help with this. With the tool, you can update and refactor the PHP code of your app. There is also a project for Shopware. You can find an overview of the rules on GitHub.
Are there still major changes after the RC?
In the case of a release candidate, breaking changes can still occur up to the release if they are carried out as part of bug fixes. After the release of the RC until the final version, no new features are added; only bugs are fixed. So with the RC, you already have an overview of the almost final version of Shopware 6.5.
These are the most important changes for developers
In the following we will show you everything you need to know about the upcoming changes. You prefer to watch videos instead of reading? Then jump directly to our video section.
Custom entities in Shopware CMS
Our content management system makes it easy for merchants to create, structure, and deliver all sorts of content to tell their stories to customers. To enrich the capabilities of individual content creation, we will offer app developers the possibility to use custom entities in our CMS.
With this implementation, developers can use the flag admin-aware in their custom entity's XML file, which will create a detail page into the content section in the administration panel automatically for such entities.
This will be the very first iteration of this feature. With it, developers can already try out the new flag for custom entities. More functionality will be added to this feature in future releases.
Combined rule conditions to make adding new rules more comfortable
Many admin components for rule conditions can be combined to use a single generic component instead, which handles fields based on a set configuration schema. With these changes, adding new rules becomes faster and easier.
Queue system changed
The new queue system is now completely based on the standards of Symfony Messenger. This allows changes to the queue memory/system from now on. Furthermore, multiple channels can be used to optimize the resources of the queue worker.
If you are using Cron Jobs, make sure to adapt them to the new commands.
Processing the standard queues in Shopware 6.5 is done via these commands:
bin/console messenger:consume asyncProcesses the messages that are put into queue
bin/console messenger:consume failedProcesses messages that have failed once before
Improved Shopware installer
With the official release of Shopware 6.5, the Shopware Community Edition will no longer be provided as zip files via the Shopware website. Downloading Shopware via the Website will instead provide you with a phar-file acting as an installer and updater. Among other things, this change removes the need for plugin-system based apps to include their dependencies and enables them to use composer to manage dependencies instead. Read all about the changes in this blog post.
Changed font family in the Shopware administration
The administration and all of its components are now using the font family “Inter“ for better readability. Inter is a free, open-source, sans-serif typeface designed by the Swedish designer and programmer Rasmus Andersson. More information can be found on GitHub.
Improved Shopware administration performance
The performance of the Shopware administration was significantly increased by introducing lazy loading and optimizing start-up calls as well as chunks.
New icons in Shopware administration panel
The icons of the Shopware administration panel have been replaced with the ones from the Meteor Icon Kit.
Bootstrap 5.2.2 Update
With Shopware 6.5, the Storefront will provide only Bootstrap version 5. Bootstrap v4 is no longer shipped with Shopware. The Bootstrap framework was also updated to the minor version of 5.2.2.
Internet Explorer 11 is no longer supported
As Bootstrap v5 no longer supports Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) and the market share of IE11 has decreased significantly, the support of IE11 was dropped. This also allows for the usage of more modern web technologies in the future.
Removed jQuery dependency
Bootstrap v5 does not ship with jQuery as a dependency anymore. Also, the native Javascript APIs and their browser support have improved a lot in recent years. As a result, Shopware no longer provides jQuery as a dependency.
Removing the custom off-canvas implementation
Bootstrap v5 now includes an off-canvas component. With Shopware 6.5, the storefront uses this Bootstrap v5 off-canvas instead of a custom implementation. The API to operate the storefront off canvas remains the same.
Light design update in the storefront
The storefront experienced a small design update. The primary colors, as well as border colors, have been updated to improve contrast and readability.
New storefront Figma library available
The platform independent storefront Figma library will be released alongside Shopware 6.5 and is already available. This includes our updated storefront design as well as “properties” used in Figma instead of variants of the administration.
Quantity selectors changed
We changed the quantity selectors for products. Instead of a dropdown, input fields with plus and minus buttons are now used to specify the quantity of a product to be put or changed in the cart.
Update to webpack 5
The module bundler webpack, which is used to build the JavaScript modules for production, was updated to the most recent major 5.75.0 in the storefront. This also allowed us to update outdated webpack loaders and plugins.
Remove unneeded dependencies
With the removal of Internet Explorer 11 support, a lot of unneeded dependencies like polyfills and picturefills could be removed.
Prior to Bootstrap v5, the storefront supported older browsers, for example Internet Explorer 11. As IE11 support was dropped, now unneeded polyfills were removed.
Updates of ESlint, Stylelint, Sass & Babel setup
Previously, the storefront’s JavaScript code for production was optimized to work with Internet Explorer 11 and other now outdated browsers. This has changed and Babel was updated to the more recent version 7.20.12 and does no longer consider IE11. This also reduces the bundle size of the production JavaScript. The .browserslist has also been updated to be aligned with Bootstrap v5.
Developer-Tooling like ESLint (now v8.31.0) and Stylelint (now v14.9.1) were also updated to a more recent version.
Consequent use of SameSite Cookie Strategy
We removed the CSRF protection in favor of the SameSite cookie strategy, which we already implemented in Shopware 6.
If you changed or added forms with CSRF protection, please remove all calls to the twig function sw_csrf and every hidden input field which holds the csrf token. You can no longer use the JavaScript properties window.csrf or window.storeApiProxyToken. The route to frontend.csrf.generateToken will no longer work.
You do not have to implement any additional request protection, as the SameSite cookie strategy is already in place.
Manifest schema for app programming upgraded
The manifest.xsd schema for app-system based apps was upgraded and is now at v2.0.0, introducing breaking changes.
Follow the instructions in the changelog and update your app’s manifest.xml file accordingly.
Remove prefixes in the manifest file
An app’s navigation entries in the administration were generated with the app name as prefix. This could lead to truncated navigation entries.
With Shopware 6.5, only the module label without the name of the app will be shown in the administration.
Make sure your module name is easily identifiable by the user. For more information, take a look at the changelog.
Breaking changes in the admin order module
The order module in the administration has received extensive changes to improve the user experience.
As a result, all plugin-system based apps that make changes to the order module in the administration need to be tested by their creators. There is a high probability these apps break with 6.5 and need to be adapted.
Watch our release videos to get deeper insights
Watch our release video. Rachel shows you the new functions of Shopware 6.5 RC and also gives you valuable tips and tricks.
The second video is more technical. It was recorded on the Backend User Group meetup that took place in January 2023 in Osnabrück, Germany. Our dear colleague Soner shows you the highlights of the upcoming Shopware 6.5 release from a developer perspective.
Update Shopware now
You can find more information in regard to the Shopware 6.5 Release Candidate in this Update Guide.
