Magento has officially announced that they will be ending all support and security patches for both Magento Open Source 1 and Magento Commerce 1 in June of 2020.
What does this mean to a business owner using Magento services?
Small business owners are on their own with anything their website may require if they don’t consider the announcement to migrate Magento 1 to Magento 2 before June ’20. Magento Official support will end, so there shall not be any expectation for more official patches and security updates.
If you still stay with Magento 1, there won’t be any new features or innovations that will risk your competitive edge & soon your software stack will be outdated. it’s always difficult to be in competition with outdated technology stack.
Why did you need to think about migrating to Magento 2?
Though Magento 1 helps in showcasing a robust online store, the advantages of Magento 2 over the forerunners are something that cannot be missed. Additionally, Magento 1 is a setting sun, and migrating to the latest is a must. Here are some key benefits of Magento 2:
- Faster Load Time
- Improved Admin Interface
- Streamlined Checkout Process
- Smooth & faster shopping Experience
- More Reliable Mobile Shopping Experience
- Improved Technical Architecture
- What is involved in Magento 2 Migration Processes
The Magento 2 migration is a complex process & will take a lot of time & attention from your side. One thing you should do before starting the process is, list out things you don’t care about & do not want to see in Magento 2. You can thank us later for this coming back to the migration process, you can think of it as the migration of 4 different entities as listed below
- Data Migration
- Store Theme Migration
- Installed 3rd Party Extensions Migration
- Customization & code Migration
1. Data migration
Data migration is a big part of the migration. It is the process of migrating critical data such as categories, products, customers, sales-related data, store configuration, etc. so the process requires 100% accuracy and reliability or the business can suffer a loss of important data.
Facts to consider during Data migration:
Magento provides a data migration tool called command-line interface (CLI) used for transferring data from Magento 1 to Magento 2 store. The tool tracks data transfer progress creates logs and runs data verification tests by verifying consistency between Magento 1 and Magento 2 database structures.
2. Theme Migration
In the Magento1 to Magento2 migration process, theme migration is one of the most elementary phases. Magento 2 follows new approaches and technologies for developing a theme and customization to enhance the shopping and store experience for merchants and users. It’s an advantage to use new ways of creating awesome Magento 2 themes or customize the current ones to make them compatible with the Magento 2 standards.
Facts to be considered during Theme migration.
It is not possible to migrate the Magento 1 theme to Magento 2 instead you have to develop a new one that has the same appearance or design a new website.
In case you are running with a ready-available M1 theme, you can check with your theme provider if they have already released a compatible release for Magento 2. You can also find many feature-rich Magento 2-based themes from the Magento 2 marketplace & can tweak them as per your business needs.
This is the glorified chance retailers can utilize to improve their website design.
3. Extension Migration
Extensions are crucial components that provide new features and extend the functionalities of your Magento store. We cannot imagine any production-ready store built without the use of any 3rd party Magento extensions. Hence, it is crucial to decide what should be done with these plugins after migration
Facts to be considered during extension migration
Just like Magento Theme, Magento 1 extensions will also not work on Magento 2 because of different code architecture. You must prepare a list of all used 3rd party extensions to check if their compatible Magento 2 version has been released by providers. If yes, you can integrate the same extension in Magento 2.
In case it’s not available, you can find a similar Magento 2 extension or migrate the m1 extension code into the Magento 2 codebase. We have certified developers to help in migrating the Magento 1 extension code into the Magento 2 codebase
4. Customization & code migration
It is necessary to migrate Magento 1 custom code to Magento 2 safely as there is a high chance that your store would be running on custom code. We recommend creating a good document explaining each customization so that it can help your Magento development partner while migrating your Magento 1 code into Magento 2.
You need experienced hands for this task to write upgrades safely & follow high coding standards.
Facts to consider during Customization & code migration:
Magento provides Code Migration Tool to help you port custom codes easily to Magento 2. You may have to work additionally on custom code to check successful integration with the Magento 2 store. This results due to the structural difference between the two platforms.
Wrap Up!
Once the migration is over, you need to test the Magento 2 store working to make sure that there aren’t any glitches or losses during migration. Project success depends on a good QA program else you may end up seeing glitches on the production site
M2 Migration is a complex & tedious process that will demand a lot of attention & expertise to execute the project successfully. Now that you have the whole idea of how this migration, you can better plan your Magento 1 migration project.
If you are looking for a qualified migration partner, Magento B2B Development Services welcomes you to discuss with our certified professional and we will help hassle-free migration. Please get in touch or send us an email at [email protected] to discuss the project.
