Release notes

Catalyst 1.0 – Production-Ready. Developer-First.

Catalyst 1.0 is officially released, offering a production-ready, developer-focused platform with enhanced performance and a suite of new features. Read more about it in our Developer Community Resource Hub: Catalyst 1.0 is LIVE

• Visual Building with Makeswift: Integrate drag-and-drop page editing for diverse users.

• VIBES Design System: Introduce Soul VIBE, a native ecommerce UI framework with themeable components and an "Electric" default theme.

• Enhanced Theming: Utilize Tailwind CSS with HSL-based CSS variables for flexible and easily customizable themes.

• Performance with Partial Prerendering (PPR): Leverage Next.js for hybrid-rendered pages, optimizing speed while maintaining real-time data.

• New Core Features: Support wishlists, multi-language storefronts, and a robust functional test suite.

Design System & BigDesign Updates

• BigDesign Landing Page

  Consolidated and refreshed all information about BigDesign resources into a new landing page, improving navigation and preparing for future documentation updates.

B2B Documentation

• Content Refresh

  • Storefront Catalog

    Refreshed Storefront Catalog documentation, adding new examples, detailed field/parameter descriptions, and cross-references to other API systems.

  • Storefront Quotes

    Refreshed Storefront Quotes documentation, adding new examples, detailed field/parameter descriptions, and cross-references to other API systems.

  • Server-to-Server Channel

    Refreshed Server-to-Server Channels documentation, adding new examples, detailed field/parameter descriptions, and cross-references to other API systems.

  • Server-to-Server Orders

    Refreshed Server-to-Server Orders documentation, adding new examples, detailed field/parameter descriptions, and cross-references to other API systems.

• Catalyst with B2B Edition

  Updated documentation for creating a Catalyst channel with B2B Buyer Portal, running both apps locally, and customizing the buyer portal.

Checkout, Channel, Tax, and API Documentation

• Unified Billing Examples

  Clarified guidance in Unified Billing documentation regarding protections around checkout links.

• Checkouts API

  Added documentation for channel-specific checkout settings endpoints, previously undocumented.

• Tax Providers

  Added a new section with best practices for building resilient Tax Provider API integrations.

New References

• Storefront Scripts

  Fetching Storefront Scripts is now supported via the GraphQL API. We’ve added a guide page for the retrieval and usage of those scripts!

• Catalog Migration

  Created new opinionated docs about catalog migration and updated the menu to include it. This extends our getting started guide with best practices and a process overview.

Catalyst Documentation Updates

• Multi-Storefront Setup Guide

  This guide walks you through setting up a Catalyst application that utilizes multiple storefronts to customize the shopping experience based on a chosen locale including: language translations, products, and pricing features.

• New Wishlists Documentation

  This implementation enables customers to save products to one or more wishlists directly from the Product Detail Page (PDP), manage those wishlists under their account, and optionally share them publicly.

API Reference & Content Updates (Docs)

• Update authentication.yaml (#956)
  Fixed an error in the API path for S2S Authentication in B2B Edition APIs, correcting the server path.

• Fix URL paths in "Quote" (S2S) (#955)
  Fixed relative URL paths on the "Quote" overview page so that links now direct to the correct endpoint sections.

• Correct limits of total custom widget templates (#950, #949)
  Updated documentation to clarify widget template limits: now specifying 1000 per channel and 5000 across all channels.

• Content Refresh - SF Super Admin (#936)
  Restructured documentation for readability, included known error messages for GET requests, and added descriptive content for endpoints.

Customer Tax Properties

• We've added Customer Tax Properties and updated some functionality of tax properties generally. This update allows the inclusion of customer data, enhancing your ability to pull fully custom tax quotes directly from providers.

• We've also updated some guidance surrounding Tax providers

B2B Edition Docs

• As part of our ongoing documentation refresh, the following pages have been updated

  • Server-to-Server

    • Sales Staff

    • Quotes

  • Storefront Store Settings

  • Best Practices

  • Non-Catalyst Channel Setup

Other Updates

• Customer Metafields - Thanks to feedback provided by one of our community members, we've improved our documentation of Customer Metafields!

• Best Practices - We've added guidance surrounding the use of cursor pagination as a more efficient approach to data retrieval.

• Pricing Update - You can now use `customer_id` to run pricing requests, and `customer_group_id` is no longer a required field.

Admin GraphQL Updates

• New Guide: Translations Admin GraphQL API (Beta) - A new guide is now available to help merchants localize their Catalyst storefronts more efficiently. This API enables a consistent and seamless shopping experience across multiple languages.

  

• Limitation - Introduced a limit to the number of locales you can configure in the Locales Configuration settings.

Webhooks Update

• Expanded Webhook Tools - We added additional third-party webhook tools to the Tools list for greater flexibility and integration support.

Enhancement

• Channels API Update - We updated the Channels V3 schema to reflect the deprecation of the is_enabled field.

Data Events Update

• Using Data Events in the GraphQL Storefront API - A new article has been published to guide you through enabling native analytics for headless storefronts via the GraphQL Storefront API.

Storefront Update

• Choosing the right storefront for your business - Discover a new resource to help you evaluate and select the storefront solution that best fits your business needs.

Catalyst Update

• Building Catalyst-compatible apps - A new article is now available, outlining best practices and guidance for developing apps that are compatible with Catalyst.

Enhancements & Improvements

• Login with a JWT - We've clarified that you can authenticate a logged-in customer using either the Customer Login API or the loginWithCustomerLoginJWT mutation for secure access.

• Login mutation error handling - Added a possible error message that may be returned when requesting a customerAccessToken using login mutations from the browser, improving transparency for developers.

• B2B Edition for Stencil - We've significantly revised the article to reflect its focus on the legacy Stencil storefront. It now includes detailed descriptions of different storefront experiences and various customization examples.

• Webhook Events -

  • Added webhook platform limitations.

  • Cleaned up duplicate content by removing a redundant callback article.

  • Standardized table formatting across Events, Channel events, and Inventory and locations events sections for improved readability.

Guides: 

• Getting Started with Catalyst - Released an updated guide to help users quickly set up their Catalyst storefront.

• Choosing the Right Storefront - outlining key features and differences between Stencil, Catalyst, and BigCommerce-supported custom headless builds. 

• Building Catalyst-compatible apps - Guide update now available 

• Creating Custom Components - Added a Custom Components guide demonstrating how to build a custom product carousel component in Catalyst using VIBES, Makeswift, and Next.js primitives.

Features: 

• Versioning & Release Management - Introduced a versioning guide to clarify Catalyst’s structured release process.

• Environment Variables - Updated the list of environment variables you can use to include the BigCommerce Storefront Token, Makeswift Site API key, and more. 

• Customer authentication - Added a Customer Sessions overview and updated the Catalyst API client reference to include the customer access token, used to support customer authentication.

GraphQL Update

• url Field Deprecation - In the Get a cart example, we replaced the deprecated url field with path to return the relative path of a product. This update enables the creation of redirect links to the product page.

Enhancements & Fixes

• Themes - Updated Using npm and React to Customize Your Theme for compatibility with React 18.

• Orders - Corrected schema details for multiple fields in the V2 Orders API.

• Analytics - Corrected schema details for Settings Analytics endpoints.

• Catalog - Resolved schema inconsistencies for PUT/POST Products Complex Rules endpoints.

Developer Blog

• Full Page Caching and the Deprecation of Dynamic Attributes

• Next.js has released version 15.2.3 to address a security vulnerability. Due to this CVE in previous versions, we recommend that developers upgrade to the latest version based on the guidance in Next.js’s official blog post here.

• As Catalyst is based on Next.js, this CVE affects all versions of Catalyst. We have released new versions of Catalyst with the latest version of Next.js to address the issue, but you can also trivially upgrade Next.js in your own Catalyst application by following the directions in the blog post.

B2B Updates

• Company Account Hierarchies - Now enabled by default for all new B2B Edition stores.

• Create a Quote Form - Added price validation to storefront quote creation, preventing invalid prices from being passed from the storefront. Custom prices remain allowed via the server-to-server endpoint.

Pricing Update

• Cursor Pagination - Now available for the Price list, Price list records, and Price list assignments endpoints. This update enhances navigation performance and supports large customer datasets.

Checkout Update

• Installing an Open Source Checkout - Updated documentation to reference the new PCI DSS 4.0 development guide and improve clarity for developers.

Currencies Updates

• Update a Currency - Removed required request body fields from this endpoint.

• Currencies Endpoints - Corrected to accurately reflect current behavior.

Enhancements & Fixes

• Carts - Updated theme names in the Carts V3 gift certificate array.

• Themes -

  • Removed references to Blueprint in the Bluecheck and Rebilia apps, as these apps are deprecated.

  • Fixed config.json rendering issues.

• Channels - Added a best practice for managing channels and their DNS in the Creating Channels article.

GraphQL API Update

• New Article: Best Practices for Using GraphQL APIs - Introduced a new guide to help merchants optimize store stability and performance when working with GraphQL APIs.

Catalyst Update

• Language selection in CLI - The Catalyst CLI now supports language selection. See Configuring language settings using the CLI for setup instructions.

Currencies Update

• Terminology Change: “Active currency” - Replaced “display currency” with “active currency” for consistency across the platform and updated the description for clarity.

B2B Update

• Improved navigation - Updated navigation items and links related to B2B Edition authentication to enhance readability and usability.

Orders Update

• Order Taxes API Enhancements -

  • Corrected the default value for the details request parameters.

  • Added default values for offset-based pagination parameters in the Get all order taxes endpoint to improve consistency and ease of use.