Throwback SyliusCon 2024
A look back at SyliusCon 2024: Tools and insights to elevate your e-commerce projects
On November 13, 2024, Lyon hosted the third edition of SyliusCon.
From technical demonstrations and case studies to practical discussions on industry challenges, more than 25 speakers shared their expertise, addressing a wide range of participant expectations and providing updates on Sylius’ latest advancements and their potential impact on e-commerce projects.
As a Platinum Sponsor, with notable projects such as PSG Ticketing, FC Nantes, Gérard Drouot Productions, VTF Vacances, and the Museum of Natural History, our experts offer a detailed recap of the key takeaways from this exciting event.
Sylius 2.0: What’s new in this major update?
One of the most anticipated moments of the event was the announcement of Sylius 2.0: a significant update to the framework. This version brings more than a visual refresh or incremental improvements—it rethinks several key aspects of the platform. Here’s a breakdown of the most important changes for developers and decision-makers.
Enhanced modularity
Modularity is a central theme in Sylius 2.0. This means projects can be built as a collection of independent modules, allowing businesses to use only the features they truly need. For example:
- Don’t require complex promotions? Deactivate the module to simplify your project.
- Building a B2B store with specific requirements? Modularity allows you to activate only the relevant components and customize them without impacting the rest of the system.
For technical teams, this translates to a lighter, faster, and easier-to-maintain codebase. Future updates become less risky, as they can target specific modules without disrupting the entire system.
Simplified user interface
Managing an e-commerce platform can be overwhelming for end users. Sylius 2.0 addresses this with a revamped interface to:
- Improve navigation through a more intuitive menu organization.
- Simplify common tasks like adding products, tracking orders, or managing returns.
- Make the experience more user-friendly for non-technical teams, reducing training needs.
One standout example shared at the conference: A business reported a 30% time savings for its sales team in daily order management thanks to the redesigned interface.
Streamlined payment management
Sylius 2.0 also improves integrations with online payment systems, including:
- Expanded compatibility with popular solutions like Stripe, PayPal, and Mollie.
- Simplified configurations for managing multiple currencies and regions without custom development.
For businesses operating internationally, this means significant time savings, especially when adapting to new market requirements.
Technical presentations: Key tools for your projects
The technical sessions were particularly insightful. Here are a few highlights that stood out to us:
Create world-class Sylius plugins
This presentation provided an in-depth overview of the best practices to follow when developing a plugin for Sylius.
For example:
- Prioritize automatic configuration import during plugin installation to streamline the process.
- Use custom entities rather than extending those of Sylius to maintain flexibility and prevent conflicts.
- Ensure all types of tests are included to guarantee plugin reliability and performance.
(By Joachim Lovgaard)
Sylius payment overview & future
WordPress powers a significant portion of websites globally. After evaluating the existing limitations of integrating Payum, Sylius 2.0 introduced the concept of “Payment Requests.”
This new approach simplifies the integration of payment providers on both the backend and frontend, offering the ability to handle payments asynchronously for compatible payment methods.
(By Francis Hilaire)
Adapting price calculation to B2B needs
Unlike B2C, where prices are typically uniform across users and promotions are managed at the cart level, B2B pricing is characterized by highly specific pricing structures tailored to individual users or segments. These pricing rules are often complex and deeply tied to business logic.
With Sylius, three primary approaches can be considered for managing B2B pricing:
- Price calculation via the ERP using an API call: This method requires high availability but ensures pricing consistency across systems.
- Pre-calculation of prices for all use cases or users: While effective, this approach demands substantial storage and computational resources, particularly when adjustments are needed.
- Real-time price calculation: This involves replicating ERP pricing rules directly within Sylius, though it carries the risk of potential data misalignment.
The third approach was highlighted during a technical demonstration by the team at Webgriffe. This use case offered a compelling example of real-time pricing implementation within Sylius.
(By Luca Gallinari & Manuele Menozzi)
Crafting an open-source product discovery solution
The presentation introduced Gally, an open-source, turnkey solution for product discovery. Combining Elasticsearch, GraphQL, and Symfony, Gally offers a robust framework that even includes semantic search capabilities.
The solution redefines product search, making it more advanced and seamlessly integratable with any headless system.
(By Romain Ruaud)
Boost your Sylius apps and simplify deployment with FrankenPHP
Attendees were introduced FrankenPHP, a new all-in-one tool designed to streamline PHP server setup while adding new functionalities and boosting performance. A promising innovation for developers looking to enhance their Sylius projects.
(By Kévin Dunglas)
Prepping for Black Friday: Improve, scale, and stress-test your Sylius app
The discussion centered on strategies to prepare an e-commerce platform for handling traffic spikes, particularly during major events like Black Friday.
The presentation highlighted Blackfire, a performance monitoring tool, and outlined solutions for conducting load tests to ensure optimal performance under high demand.
(By Thomas Di Luccio)
Beyond one-size-fits-all: Unlocking user value with profiling and adaptable architecture
The talk explored how Freshful leverages Sylius to deliver personalized e-commerce solutions for the food industry. By utilizing user profiling and a modular architecture, Freshful enhances customer experiences and strengthens engagement.
(By Viorel Tudor)
Building a semantic search experience using PHP and Meilisearch
This session detailed the creation of a semantic search experience using PHP and Meilisearch. It showcased how the latest advancements in machine learning and search engine technologies were harnessed to improve search result accuracy and overall user experience.
(By Guillaume Loulier)
Key takeaways
The third edition of SyliusCon 2024 was a resounding success!
It provided a valuable overview for businesses and developers interested in a flexible, modular solution. Far from theoretical discussions, the presentations and case studies demonstrated how Sylius addresses real-world challenges, from simplifying technical project management to enhancing user experiences and optimizing business processes.
If you’re considering launching a new e-commerce project or migrating your current infrastructure, the innovations in Sylius 2.0 and the practical insights shared during this event are worth exploring.
Our experts are here to support you!
