MIGRATING A HIGHLY COMPLEX HEADLESS SITE FROM M1 TO M2

INTEGRATING 40 HIGHLY COMPLEX MODULES WITH MAGENTO 2

Avery’s website consisted of 40 modules with over 5 years of customizations layered into their code. Several highly complex modules needed refactoring and customization to ensure they were compatible with M2.

The project’s complexity calls for a “divide and conquer” approach. Guidance built the high-complexity modules, while Avery’s team developed the modules with low to medium complexity. When it didn’t make sense to refactor a legacy module, Guidance built new modules to ensure compatibility. This approach required careful collaboration and close communication between Avery and Guidance during development and testing.

Guidance also conducted heavy testing for the UI, business logic, 3rd party system integrations and custom presentation layers to confirm all modules function properly with M2. The Guidance team’s ability to customize complex modules without interrupting the customer experience (CX) allows Avery’s business operations to continue running smoothly.

EASING THE TRANSITION BETWEEN M1 AND M2 WITH CUSTOMIZED ADMIN INTERFACES

Avery wanted to maintain consistency between their Magento 1 and Magento 2 backend UIs to make the shift between applications easier for their team. Guidance’s approach ensured the M2 UIs perform the same as with M1.

Several large, custom grid reports also needed migration and refactoring to remain performant in the new M2 framework. Guidance took a meticulous approach during this customization phase to preserve the formatting of these grid reports. These customized UI admin and grid reports allow Avery’s team to seamlessly transition to M2 without learning a new application or disrupting business operations.

OPTIMIZING BACKEND WORKFLOWS WITH A CUSTOM QUEUE

Avery’s headless site has dynamic functionality and high order volume, requiring a queue to maintain backend workflows. Magento 2 receives signals from external applications used to progress these various workflows. These signals must be able to pass from external systems to the M2 backend with efficiency and preserve a “first in, first out” (FIFO) list of “tasks.”

To give Avery’s headless site durability, Guidance developed a custom queue to store the list of “tasks.” If the M2 application quits unexpectedly, Avery’s site will still have its list of “tasks” in sequential order. Once M2 is running again, the queue starts with the first “task” in the line.

For example, a custom order relies on signals from the design software, where a user reviews and approves the artwork. M2 receives the signal and adds it to the queue. In the future, M2 processes that item and the order is moved along in its workflow.

The queue’s flexibility allows it to handle various tasks and support configurable functions: batch size, retries and locking. The queue also keeps a log of technical issues. This allows Avery’s administrators to debug communications errors between systems more easily.